annoying things......

[thelewisgang]

I work on the checkouts in a local supermarket & I can't be alone in some of the things that really annoy me whilst doing my job.  One of my real pet hates is customers who decide to put their bank notes or loyalty card inside their mouth and then hand it to you-yuk.  Another is children being allowed to sit in the trolley, I mean, where the shopping goes.  A few weeks ago I was serving a customer who had a child in with the shopping & the child had obviously soiled its nappy (need I say more!) The thing is, that trolley was going to be wheeled out & left for some other customer to use. Not nice.  Anything else to add by others?

[Karen2005]

I worked on the checkout at a supermarket over the busy Christmas period.  One day a woman had a huge trolley-full of food.  I came across a particular item which was in some kind of promotion, but couldn�t get the correct price to come up on the till.  I called a supervisor, but she said a special code needed to be punched into the till and had to call someone else.  As you can imagine all of this took some time and the queue was building up.  Eventually we managed to put the correct price for this item in and I carried on scanning.  I couldn�t believe it when a few minutes later I came across another one of these items and I had to go through the entire process of calling a supervisor again.  Why didn�t the customer tell us that she had another one of those on the conveyor belt�..  aaarrggghhh!!!

[clarabel82]

I'm a shop assistant - pet hates

1- why bring a basket full of stuff to the till, only to tell us you don't want any of it?
2- the loyalty card thing, but  t least now I've learned to always validate peoples receipts even if they say they haven't got a card, they inevitably say after the transaction "oh but my wife/sister/mother/god-daughter has".
3- people on their mobiles while I'm trying to serve them or worse do a refund for them, and they look annoyed at ME for talking to them, or stopping and waiting till they have finished.
4- People who are so rude or nasty they have reduced many of us to tears. That Curiosty is how it affects our lives. many customers don't realise that we are also people with feelings too, we are not robots and should not be treated as such.

[emmalee]

My gripe: When you hold out for hand for the payment and the customer puts the cash down on the counter.  Having got wise to this I take great delight in putting thier change and receipt down on the counter whilst they hold their hand out for it, the look on their face is worth it every time! 

[thelewisgang]

Oh how I must agree with emmalee about people who ignorantly put their money down on the counter instead of in the outstretched hand of the checkout operator.  I don't know how many times this has happened to me & like you said, I have put their change down too.  Pure ignorance, isn't it.  The comments by clarabel82 I must also agree with wholeheartedly.  A customer using a mobile phone and chatting away or texting - so annoying.  The rudeness of people is sadly increasing all the time and I know some can say that the checkout operators are far from friendly in some outlets, I for one & my work colleagues, try very hard to be pleasant and it doesn't cost much for the customer to be likewise.  I know we all have our problems & might not want to have a chat etc but I have, many years ago, been in tears due to a customer getting cross about a delay at the checkout - something I could do nothing about at the time.  Its nice to see all your replies!

[brutalgoose]

Why does everyone feel the need to 'get their own back', doing things to make someones life tougher is a bit sad. I work in customer service and I always try to imagine that I don't know what that person is dealing with that day. People do get distracted, and stressed and might be having a bad day- this is not an excuse, but you just don't know. I'd like to think that as a customer I always try to imagine the same for the assistants. It can't be the most fun job having to deal with generally permanently grumpy customers who think you are lower than the muck on your shoe. The best way to deal with this kind of thing is just to always be super nice, at least once you have walked away the person might think twice and realise what an idiot they were being.

Any you never know people might start to enjoy being nice!

[TEAK36]

Whenever I do my weekly shop at Tesco's, the cashiers nearly always ask if I need help with my pack, to which I always say 'no thank you'.For some bizarre reason this seems to P them off because no matter how fast I pack, they just increase the speed of the scanning until you end up with a pile of goods waiting to be packed.I am sure this is done deliberately.Another thing that really annoys me is when the cashier completely ingnores you and spends the whole time chatting to the cashier on the next till about what they are going to do on Saturday night.I know there are lots of rude customers,but there are also lots of polite ones too, and I would like to think I am one of the good ones.

[Piper-AK]

totally agree with TEAK36, lol.  This isn't a gripe, but the staff at Aldi amaze me.  They shove the stuff down the belt quicker than the speed of light while at the same time keying in (not scanning) the amounts.  I was sure that they were just making up the prices until I went in with a calculator one day and the checkout girl was spot on!  It was a big shop too.  don't know if they still do it that way in Aldi or scan it now - not been in for a while. 

[Oleanda]

I work in a shop in an airport, and the vast majority of my customers are going on holiday, but you'd never think so to see how grumpy some of them are. They wait till their flight is called before coming in the shop, then seem to think its our fault when they have to queue at the checkout.

[Alltorque]

One of my favourites is giving the retail assistant/checkout person a �10 or �20 note etc and having them hold it up to the light to check if it's real. These same people look really offended when I do the same to any notes they give me in change.

[davver]

Use your local shops! I live two minutes from a big JS. However, thirty seconds nearer are a butcher's, a baker's, a newsagent's and a mini-mart, all of them cheaper and better quality, and with friendlier service. Also, not only are they closer to me, but they are closer to each other than the bread/meat/papers are to each other in the huge supermarket! There used to be a grocer's too, but that mysteriously shut down a few years ago shortly after the supermarket was built.
Supermarkets may seem convenient because they have easy parking, but for the hassle involved they are just not worth it, if you really think about it. And don't even get me started on their relationship with their suppliers!

[kazza12345]

i agree - when im feeling poorly i can only get to the things at the front of sainsburys as everything else is too far away.  Then im condemmed to eat the things they keep in the first two aisles (usually ready made lasagne or shepherds pie -yuk)

[owlswick]

First time on here so apologies if this pops up in the wrong place but...

- the answer to the question about the Terry Pratchett Toby Jug is that its normally worth between �30 and �40 on eBay. Bernard Pearson the sculptor who produced it has a website at discworldemporium.com and on the forum there you'll find a loyal bunch of his and Terry's fans there who would be pleased to make you an offer if you didn't fancy eBay.

Three years ago it would have made about �150-200 but the general feeling now is that Terry - and Discworld - are not as popular as they once were. Clarecraft - the firm started by Bernard Pearson who made the character merchandising for the Discworld books - ceased trading in 2005, another victim of the slump in popularity.

Hope that helps