I'm a part time cashier at a big food emporium.

[no_hypocrisy]

Lately, I've had two revelations:

1. I understand now why I'm exhausted at the end of my shift, sometimes eight hours. Obviously it's the standing, but it's also this: to be effective as "customer service," I need to be a variation of a cashier that adapts to whatever customer I'm working with. They're all different. Some want to talk. Some don't. Some are cheerful. Some are looking for me to mess up so they can complain. I need to read each customer as I check them out. Let's say I've processed 60 customers that day. I've been 60 different cashiers. That takes a toll.

2. On top of #1, my performance is being observed and judged by the people who are companions or parents or whatever of the customer as well as waiting customers. I have an audience, not just the customer I'm working with. If I'm warm and cheerful, they see that. If I'm detached and merely processing the order, they see that too. And they judge the store by my demeanor with other customers before their turn.

To all DU cashiers, NEVER SAY "I'm just a cashier."

It is NOT an "easy job".

[Walleye]

1. You do difficult and important work, and I admire cashiers who can deal with it

I always try to make the cashier’s job easier, If I canThank you for your hard work

[True Blue American]

13. Same here!

Once you have been on the other side you know how a Cashier feels. I have even called people out for being rude to customers. You do it be defending the cashier. Shuts them down every time.

Cashiers should be paid twice what they get. When people have the guts to ask why I still wear a mask my answer is,” To protect the workers who have to stay here all day!”

[Sherman A1]

2. Worked Retail Grocery for 43 years.

Never as a Checker, but did shifts as Manager on Duty which included dealing with problems on the front end, so I got called when things had already fallen apart in the exchange between the Checker and Customer. Sometimes it was the Checker at fault, but generally it was the customer who was in the wrong and I had the job of trying to sort out the current mess. I have great respect for the Checkers who showed up to do the job along with the Office Cashiers who handled all the other crap like utility bill payments, Western Unions, Returns and check cashing along with helping on the check outs when necessary.

Worked with a great Office Cashier through the years and we had a system on check cashing and product returns. Since she did the job every day, I relied on her judgment to approve or deny the check, she would call me to the intercom if it was good and I would just say okay, if she thought the check to be bad she would call me to the office and I would deny the check and catch the flak so she didn’t have to take the crap from an angry customer.

[mgardener]

3. No it is not an easy job.

Thank you.

[Native]

4. My first job out of high school - it was rough...

It was at a large, independent grocery store in rural Virginia. Everyone wanted to chat. I was a cheerleader, therapist, best friend, the daughter they never had, you name it. And at nights I did the midnight shift a few times a week at the suicide hotline. It was emotionally exhausting. At times my line at the checkout ran the full length of the aisle, no exaggeration, and I was one of the fastest cashiers. Of course, this was back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. My point being, even if everyone is nice to you, you are still expected to meet their emotional needs, and it is exhausting.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Oh. You are Local Retail TV Psychologist

I just don't know why you didn't ID yourself up front. Stop hiding!

[Joinfortmill]

6. I hear you

[multigraincracker]

7. I just hate self check out.

I’d stand in a long line to avoid it.

[Dem_in_Nebr.]

8. This tells me that , , ,

you're doing your job the right way. Accept my thanks!

[Donkees]

9. If customers feel that you are not giving enough, that would be like allowing them to be the cashier

[ificandream]

10. My son and my wife (now retired) have been supermarket cashiers ...

They tell me the same thing. I tried to be a cashier but the produce codes screwed me. Oh well. Hang in there. (And one thing they both love about that job is the UFCW.)

[no_hypocrisy]

12. Our store requires monthly "produce tests"

where drawings of fruits, vegetables, herbs are put up and we have to identify their names and produce codes.

I'm seriously right-brained, meaning that if I see a banana, I have a challenge remembering 4011. BUT, I know the PATTERN of the code if I see the banana.

I got the supervisors to allow me to put on the other side of the answer sheet the pin pad numbers () and when I'm stuck, I watch my fingers and write down the numbers.

I usually ace the test with this help.

[True Blue American]

15. LOL

[Farmer-Rick]

18. I hope the pictures are very, very accurate

Anyone who tells you all vegetables are easy to identify are absolutely wrong.

I know when I started out growing vegetables for sales, I would get the vegetables mixed up. I even sold crates of fancy light cabbage, thinking it was lettuce. No wonder that customer never came back.

And trying to identify those fancy mixed greens from radish and baby turnips can be difficult. And it's not always the farmer's fault. I once bought pounds of radish seeds but they all came up as salad turnips. I sold them as that so at least my customers weren't disappointed.

And customers can get bees in their bonnets and the wrong idea of how things ripen. I once sold a fancy melon to a woman who brought it back 3 days later. She said she had it sitting out for 3 days and it still wasn't ripe. I asked how she knew it wasn't ripe, because it was still whole. And she said it still felt hard. I gave her her money back and she huffed off. She must have thought the skin would get soft like a peach when it was ripe because when I cut it open that afternoon, it was the best tasting melon I had grown all season.

[dhol82]

27. I still can't tell the difference between Bibb or Boston lettuce

They look alike to me.

[Farmer-Rick]

28. I know

Even when you plant it and grow it, you sometimes get things confused.

[True Blue American]

14. Most have bar codes now!:)

In self check out they even have pictures!

[2naSalit]

11. That's the truth!!

I had to convince myself that I was acting out a series of improve skits in order to live with it. It's also a challenge when you have to entertain them, like being a docent in a museum or a park ranger.

The public have become a bunch of whiny, negative and petulant assholes who expect everything for nothing and never leave a tip in the recent past. The pandemic has caused many to change how they interact, some for the better, others not.

[Farmer-Rick]

16. Thanks for telling it like it is.

You didn't even mention the constant risk of COVID to you and your family.

You, like bartenders, probably get to hear all sorts of hard luck stories too. It is not uncommon for folks to use whatever staff is around as emotional sounding boards. The filthy rich are particularly bad at this...because they are unlikable people and have few real relationships...thinking waiters, bartenders, chauffeurs, maids and sex workers really are so in awe of them and want to know all about them.

Cashier and waiters are the most common jobs in the US. We are a nation of sales clerks and waiters. That's what the American filthy rich oligarchy has turn the US into. Those are the jobs the filthy rich could Not ship out of the county....yet. But if the filthy rich left them behind, you can bet they are soul sucking, difficult, poorly paying jobs.

[blueinredohio]

17. Most ( not all) of the time I thank them for what they do.

[FailureToCommunicate]

19. You are a one person show. And your "act" morphs with each customer (critic). Are you...

also under video by the store? That, I imagine, would add another layer of critics to your "performance".

Our local grocery store (Stop & Shop) has always been good at hiring people with various disabilities. I always interact with them the same as I would anyone, but I sometime see a customer ahead of me look disdainful, or annoyed (that the checkout might take a few moments longer) and clearly that person doesn't have any appreciation of the challenges of the job or that cashiers' circumstances.

There is no reason to not just try to be nice to people, especially those who work to serve you, however briefly.

Remember during the early days of the pandemic, when, like teachers, and medical workers, grocery workers were lauded for sticking to their work so we could have food?

[no_hypocrisy]

21. High fidelity cameras focused on the cash drawer.

Not so much microphones and video on interactions. Sometimes I wish they did. Three months ago, I had a customer outright lie about what I said. And I got a "write-up" about it.

[spooky3]

20. You are a treasure to have dealt with so much over the past two years, yet you still

Want to provide a human touch and kindness. Thank you.

Researchers call what you are describing a type of “emotional labor” and note that it is undervalued and stressful.

[niyad]

24. "Emotional labor". Excellent description.

[niyad]

22. You, like all other front line workers, servers, etc., do some of the hardest jobs

around, i.e., dealing with the public. You are all my s/heroes, especially in these fraught times. I thank you.

[justgamma]

23. I never worked as a cashier, but

there were days, I'd come home and thought if I had to smile at one more person I'd scream.

[llashram]

25. In these days and time

not easy at all. I give you respect and applause. Customer service requires special adaptation skills. I was in this 'field' myself for 30 years+ Hangtight

[TrogL]

26. That's why I do self check out.

I'm a difficult customer with hearing issues. It's easier to do it myself and if I get in trouble there's somebody there to help.

[Tink41]

29. As an Aspie

This once part-time job was a perfect fit for me. Tasks that had a definite beginning and end. Exact rules, and procedures. Reading people? Not my forte, so I presented the same to everyone. I excelled at this job and usually had the longest fastest moving line.
Customers would hop to my register as they always got thru faster. I memorized where all the UPC codes were located, knew all the keyed in codes, sometimes I'd scan so fast cause at that point it was a game to me, I'd get yelled at for tossing someones eggs around! OOPS! I'd reel myself back in and profusely apologize. Mainly these people were happy to be out quickly.
When I shop now some 30 yrs later I tend to feel the cashiers see it as they are there for a few hours and in no rush to get us out.
Boggles the mind!!! The horrible part to me is there are some of us that are wired for jobs like this, and no one sees the value in it.

[Skittles]

31. pretty cool

there are definitely some jobs where folk on the spectrum excel - I know a few in my field (IT)

[Skittles]

30. I admire you folk

because I know I could not do the work you do, I don't have the skills for it....lack of patience being # 1

same with waitstaff

you all deserve MUCH more pay

[Texaswitchy]

32. Retail hell.

My first job in high school.

I am always nice to retail workers.

[a kennedy]

33. Thank you for your service.......♥️ ♥️ ♥️