Retail - just Arrrgh - Tales from the checkouts

Tales from the Checkouts - Real Customers in a Real Store

Following my departure from the world of the Call Centre, I have a nice little - er 'stress free' job in retail.

It does have it's own stresses but nothing like the Call Centre.

Last night I was doing a 6 - midnight shift. I took over a till to a queue of 12 people - the store was busy, run up to Christmas and all that.

The first customer's bill came to £2.89. Most of the customers in the store I work at are students and so we have lots of customers with very small amounts of food.

'That's £2.89'. I said smiling.

The customer, looked at me confused, dug deep in his pockets, and presented me with a double handful of coins all in 1p, 2p and 5ps which he deposited on the counter. This was going to be a long night. The 12 people in the queue all stared at me.

I started counting. I totalled £1.94.

'Not enough' I said.

'Eh?'

'Not enough - only £1.94 - not enough. The amount is £2.89'.

The guy clearly didn't speak English.

'Nah', he grunted pushing a tub of coleslaw back at me. I gathered he wanted to use the 'I'm not intelligent enough to estimate my bill beforehand even though it's under £3 so I will just have things taken off' method.

I hate that - they always want a fridge item put back and for your information it usually is too busy to get it back in the fridge in time so 9 times out of 10 it goes in the bin.

I took the coleslaw off.

'Ok that's now £2.32'

He fished in his pocket and came up with another few coppers and a £2 coin.

Just sometimes I wonder what makes them flock to my till.

Then next customer wanted cashback £10 but she wanted it all in £1 coins.

If I had had enough she could have had it but my til only had 11 £1 coins in it and I was told as the manager with the keys to the safe was not in I would have to make those 11 £1 coins last all night. I told her sorry I couldn't give her coins and told her why.

'So if I took £10 and bought something small - say for 30p, then you'd HAVE to give me coins wouldn't you?' she said, unhelpfully.

I told her indeed I would but that I'd only be giving her 4 and it would be in 50p's and if she wanted to do that she'd have to queue again and by this time the queue was at about 20. If you want change go to a bank - and good luck finding one open at 6pm!

Give and take people.