Cashier Tales

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Never a cashier, but I do have a story of incredible racism from the shop floor.

Two customers, one an elderly man, the other an elderly woman. He goes to get some Ainsley Harriet soup. She waves at him and says:

'We don't want any of that nasty ****** soup.'

Not a word of a lie. I was actually rendered speechless. I had been standing less than a foot away from them and she wasn't exactly trying to be quiet.

 

[IndomitableSam]

The amount of times you get groped as a girl is amazing. Like it's OK because you're in retail. I've had people grab my hands, stroke them, hold them to their faces, say all sorts of things to me, etc. ... I kinda wish someone would try that on me now - I've learned that you can fight back as it is abuse, screw the job and consequences.

Wait, what? What the hell?
Your manager is okay with this?!

This was when I was younger - as a girl, you get a lot of what would be considered sexual abuse going on from customers, but you're taught to ignore it. Now I'm an adult, and I don't work retail anymore. I am a librarian, so I do get patrons, and I'd love to be able to tell them to get the fuck out of my library and threaten charges if someone did anything to me. It would be nice and cathartic.

Many retail managers don't care about their employees. This said with a caveat, as my sister runs a store and always tells her girls that they can refuse service to anyone and to call security even if they feel slightly uncomfortable.

I worked at a Winners when I was young (TJ Maxx, I think), and the abuse I got there from customers wasn't nearly as bad as the abuse from the managers, but unfortunately, kids are taught to accept poor treatment in their first jobs.

 

[Blunderboy]

The amount of times you get groped as a girl is amazing. Like it's OK because you're in retail. I've had people grab my hands, stroke them, hold them to their faces, say all sorts of things to me, etc. ... I kinda wish someone would try that on me now - I've learned that you can fight back as it is abuse, screw the job and consequences.

Wait, what? What the hell?
Your manager is okay with this?!

This was when I was younger - as a girl, you get a lot of what would be considered sexual abuse going on from customers, but you're taught to ignore it. Now I'm an adult, and I don't work retail anymore. I am a librarian, so I do get patrons, and I'd love to be able to tell them to get the fuck out of my library and threaten charges if someone did anything to me. It would be nice and cathartic.

Many retail managers don't care about their employees. This said with a caveat, as my sister runs a store and always tells her girls that they can refuse service to anyone and to call security even if they feel slightly uncomfortable.

I worked at a Winners when I was young (TJ Maxx, I think), and the abuse I got there from customers wasn't nearly as bad as the abuse from the managers, but unfortunately, kids are taught to accept poor treatment in their first jobs.

It's always a problem I guess. As you say, most people tend to do these things early on in their working lives when they lack the confidence to fight back. A good manager should always support their staff, at least infront of customers.
Also, you're a librarian? Awesome. I'd love that job. My Ex is one. I was super jealous.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I'm showing my age here, but back in the days when supermarkets accepted cheques, you'd be amazed by the number of people who carried chequebooks but not pens. Then they'd glare at you if you didn't have a pen.

The problem was you never had a damn pen because the previous cheque-paying customer stole the damn thing! :S

 

[Total LOLige]

I haven't worked in retail yet but I'll probably be working there eventually. So I don't have any stories about it. Actually I do, once my friend returned his milkshake at McDonald's because it 'had no flavour' it was embarrassing as hell.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Awh man reading all of these tales make me dread for my upcoming till training.

Yes I'm in retail as a Sales assistant but in saying so it has mostly been a pleasent experience (my duties at the moment is mostly stock related while helping with customer quries) since most of the customers are local people (mostly old people) and a few tourists.

I mean the only worse well awkward thing for me so far (which sound a minor inconvience compare to the comments above me) was some old lady wanting to buy a lamp which we got but then ask for a lightbulb to go for it so I used the lightbulb next to it to try to fit it on but can't.

She make a remake that I should of know how to do it given that I told her I had been employed for over two months (she asked) now but she is the first to ever asked me to do that in the first place!

Turn out none of the lightbulbs we got fit into the lamp socket and she didn't buy it in the end despite she repeatedly say she is gonna buy it (I guess that's her way of entitlement).

 

[tsb247]

Oh man... Let me think...

I've had kids trying to trick me into selling them smokes, people that think coupons = money (even when expired), people yelling at me over copyright law in the photolab, and I have even chased cross-dressing shoplifters.

Retail... Not as boring as you may think; twice as aggravating as any other job out there.

 

[Terminate421]

Im no cashier but on my first time at crowd control at a concert I was diverting people to a bus. We have two lines for buses and my line kept on getting all the buses. People on the other side were getting a little impatient. Soon enough, one women in her 40's breaks out of the other line walks up to me, looks up at me (I am 6'6") and says what I will never forget for the rest of my life:

"I have been standing in this line for almost 30 minutes now and you need to get a bus to us, those people in your line were behind us, if the next bus doesn't come to our line, I WILL KILL YOU"

I never said a word, I stood there amongst the crowd looking straight down at her to let her no without words "Come at me bro".

 

[Launcelot111]

My favorite was when some cow came up for something that costs $20.99 and paid with $21. I forgot to give her her penny in change, and sure it's her money, but due to my place's wonderfully roundabout register policy, I had to page my manager and wait for him to track me down and open the register. The woman made a nice little scene then stomped out for a smoke while ordering her 70-something mother to wait for the penny. The manager finally just gave her a penny out of his pocket, and the mother was like "I'm sorry my daughter is such a cow."

 

[Blondefool]

Gather round children, I've got a story to tell. Ahem, having worked in a Glasgow Tesco for over a year, I have a couple of stories:

I could talk about the drunk guy who spoke fluent French,grabbed me and kissed me, then told me he was actually Scottish

Or perhaps I could tell you about the two different shoplifters I rugby tackled in a day, one of whom had a friend that threatened to 'glass you (me), ya dick'

Or I could talk about the next day, when I went to tackle another shoplifter but got stopped. Lucky this happened, as later that day the Police came in and told us he had pulled a gun on a taxi driver

"Smell that? You smell that? Till roll, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.
I love the smell of till roll in the morning. You know, one time we had a long shift, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' customer. The smell, you know that plastic paper smell, the whole hill. Smelled like capitalism"

 

[Angry Camel]

Haven't got any stories, but check out notalwaysright.com. They got some great stories on there.

 

[Palademon]

Haven't got any stories, but check out notalwaysright.com. They got some great stories on there.

Exactly what I came here to say.
It's like fmylife.com without the weird mix of depression and arousal that comes from stumbling across the intimacy entries.

 

[tsb247]

Retail... Not as boring as you may think; twice as aggravating as any other job out there.

you clearly haven't worked as a waiter....

I swore I would never get into food service.

My wife worked as a waitress before she graduated from college. I've heard many a terrible tale.

 

[geK0]

I was working at a grocery store, and this woman is making a $50 purchase on credit. A notice comes up on my screen telling me the credit card has been denied, she gets angry and tells me to try again, so I do... it's still denied. I tell her that her card is being denied, and that she has probably gone over her credit limit and politely ask if she has another method of payment

and here is the following exchange of dialogue

her:"That's impossible!"

me:"what?"

her:"This is a new credit card, and I used it FIVE TIMES TODAY without having that problem."

me:"You will have to speak with your credit card company about that, do you have another method of payment?"

her:"I shouldn't have to do that!"

me:"but your credit is being denied"

her:"You're useless! I want to see your manager!"

*I call the manager*

The manager tells her the exact same thing I had been telling her, and she finally gives up and decides to pay with her bank card.

her:"This is such a hassle! I'm never shopping here again!"

me:"Thank you for shopping at No Frills, have a great day ^_^"

 

[Galaktia]

I have worked as both a barman and a waitor, and despite never working as a cashier I do have a couple of interesting stories, or at least a couple of stories I can add to this.

Working as a waiter, as a young 6ft tall man with over 10 years martial arts experience and a big build of confidence and relaxed friendlyness. One of our waitresses comes into the kitchen looking a bit upset, and takes advantage of the informal rule we have that customers who make the girls uncomfertable get passed off to the guys for service instead. ((restraunt couldn't really afford loosing the custom))
Anyway this waitress comes in and askes me to take over table 13, because the guy on the table just patted her thigh as she walked passed.
Out I wander to table thirteen with their drinks order, and there is a 60 year old woman, with her early teens son/grandson, who promptly proceeds to pat my thigh when I am putting the drinks down. I give him a little look and smile, and go one with my day, making sure I serve from the opposite side of the table from then on. *shrugs* didn't bother me much, my confidence and comfert levels were too high to be bothered by a 14 year old with wandering hands.



A guy threatened to punch my face in if I didn't give him another drink, this was mitigated by the face he was laying on the baroom floor in a pool of his own vomit.



Working as a waitor i had a single customer who returned their food to the kitchen because "It wasn't up to the right standards" 5 times in a row, at which point the chef threw the whole lot in the microwave, nuked it for a minute on high and sent it back to him, which the direction to myself that "If he sends it back again feel free to tip it over his head and tell him to piss off."



Got a burnt up hand because a woman's 8 year old tried to snatch a boiling hot bowl of lasange from a plate I was carrying, and being the nice guy I was I interviened and ended up burning my palm painfully. Mother was nice though she left me a twenty as a tip.



Guy wanted to buy a bottle of house sauce from us and when I explained we didn't sell the house sauce, he said he wanted a discount on his meal then. I explained that the company didn't give discounts for such an issue, and which point he spat on my leg and told me I could fuck off. *shrugs*



As a barman a guy tried to drag me bodily over the bar when I refused to accept american dollars (((in the uk))) as payment for his drinks. He was shouting and screaming as the security escorted him out.



I've had a woman grope my ass, she was in a group of similarly aged women, it was actually about 11am, and she just decides to grope my ass. PLace was quiet, and as you've likely noticed from my stories, my physical insecurity, and personal barriers are quiet low. So I smiled and told her and her friends that, that sort of service cost extra and wasn't avaliable till after my shift. And wandered off to go about my job leaving a group of giggling 20s women behind me.

 

[NightHawk21]

I worked morning stock in a costco a year ago (so 3 or 4am shifts till 10am), and on top of that being a big strong guy I was always given either hardlines to stock (tiles, toilets, batteries, powertools and the liks), or bulk (so like slides after slides of gigantic water bottle packages). As you can imagine when 10am rolled around I was pretty tired, but nevertheless I would often stay the extra couple hours cause I was poor and needed the money. When I stayed I got put on either cash (to unload everything and bag it), or in the parking lot to gather buggies from the little drop off areas. The entire time I worked there the weather was dry, and everyday was high 30s to low 40s (Celsius), and I still preferred that to working on cash with the customers.

There was this one time that a family (mom, dad, and 2 girls, one about 12 and another around 3 or 4) were coming through cash. As I was getting the items from the other side of cashier, I noticed the little 3 year old kept looking at and reaching for a book with fairies or something on it (one of those children's books with really thick pages and mostly pictures). When that item goes through I hand it to the child (who was holding it before it was put on the belt to be wrung through), and the mom literally stopped and scolded me that I gave the book to her child (who again was holding it while they were waiting, and the mom was flipping the stupid pages while she was holding it).

Story 2 (and unfortunately something that is all too common):
I don't know if you guys have shopped at costco before, but it isn't that unlikely that you'll come out with well in excess of a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff and a full buggy or even 2 or 3. Being that my job was to unpack buggies so the cashier could wring them through, and then pack them back up, the worst were the customers, that were super anal about what went where. There were some customers that said that certain items such as cheese (which is vacuum packed) couldn't be placed on the same belt as meat (which is plastic sealed, and sometimes wrapped in a plastic bag). There were some that wouldn't let the vegetables (in a plastic bag) touch the conveyer belt cause it was dirty. Being a biology student (and one that specializes in microbes and the like), it took almost all my effort to restrain the lecture I wanted to give each of these people why the bacteria from the meat will not magically portal their way out of 2 plastic bags and tunnel their way through the cheese packaging to get on the cheese.

 

[RabbidKuriboh]

the most recent one i have from work was about 2 weeks ago where a woman was upset that the toys we had in the happy meals were so crappy, she does this by saying "oi you never gave me a toy in the happy meal!" i then pointed to it in the box and she said "you're serious thats it?" is said "yeah, and?" she then storms off to the side where she turns around, makes eye contact and flips me off for 3 solid seconds

even though i lost my shit laughing she still was a massive ***** and kind of an idiot expecting quality toys from mcdonalds, well non american ones at least