Working at a grocery store allows me to serve people in a few different ways. One of these ways involves monitoring the Self Scan registers and assisting people with any problems that come up with the automated system. In short, I’m serving people who are choosing to serve themselves.
Boring is the world I would use to describe a Self Scan shift. It’s a lot of standing, trying not to play games on your phone, and counting how many minutes you have left (which is always only about one less than the last time you checked).
So this week I did something I’ve never done before. I counted the mannerisms of my customers. Now, I didn’t count the total number of people who walked through the check-out lanes, so I don’t have a percentage to give you. What I do have is a small piece of receipt tape I pulled from the printer, filled with a series of tally marks that poll the following:
Total number of times a customer thanked me for fixing a problem/ helping them bag their order: 47
It looks like a small amount considering I had a six-hour shift, but still. There is something very satisfying about hearing someone say “Thank you,” isn’t there? Maybe it’s the feeling of a job well done or maybe it’s just the knowledge that there are still polite people in the world. Either way—I’ll take it.
Total number of times a customer told me to have a good night: 14
I don’t personally assist every customer, but sometimes they tell me to enjoy my day anyway. I think is more manners than anything else, but it could also be because I look half-asleep, singing along to the horrible store soundtrack in my head.
Total number of customers that were unnecessarily rude to me: 3
I’m sorry that you chose to ring up your $200 order at Self Scan. I’m sorry that half of your coupons aren’t being accepted by the machine because you purchased the wrong items. I’m sorry for attempting to bag your order to speed the process up—I didn’t realize you had a system. Yes, I’ll be sure to personally tell the head of the company just how awful your shopping experience was.
Total number of times the ’12 items or less’ sign was completely ignored by customers: 7
I could make an exception for 13 items. Maybe 16 if you’re cute and in my age range. But if it’s the middle of a Sunday afternoon, you can’t see the bottom of your shopping cart, and you shamelessly slide up to the express line and start scanning, know that I’m exchanging sad, knowing looks with the irritated customers behind you. Because you have just broken the cardinal rule of grocery shopping. And we’re all judging.
The Service Culture 