In my experience there are 2 types of checkout staff
Some are personable, process your goods efficiently with a smile without holding you up unnecessarily, and make you feel the urge to shop there again
Others have zero people skills and make you feel like they're doing you a favour as opposed to doing the job they are paid to do, and make you think twice about shopping there again in future
I was in morrisons last week and was stuck at till for nearly 10 minutes, the woman in front of me was a mate of the woman on the till and they just kept chatting and chatting, id have moved to another till but there were very few tills open. The woman on the till apologized for the delay my reply ...... maybe next time you chat outside of work as it was quite rude to keep the queue waiting just so you could arrange a visit to the pub....... she was not happy but tough luck eh !!!
my oh my , many years ago when I was young (about 35ish) I had a pair of black shoes and a pair of navy shoes in the same style .....oh yes many times I went out with one black and one navy ! Too busy to look properly and just had a boys look !
I think at the very least training should centre on what is appropriate - there is a world of difference between 'What a gorgeous scarf' or' I love that shade of nail polish' and 'Did you come on a motor bike, we sell hairbrushes in aisle 3'.
I had a girl who served me in Tesco ask me for ID for a bottle of wine, she made a comment about how much thinner I was in my ID photo :(
It used to amuse me with another lad who used to serve me quite often who'd comment "nothing for your cat today?" if I wasn't buying anything cat related, I was obviously defined as a crazy cat lady :)
read the novella "Zuleika Dobson" - the killingly beautiful heroine wears one pink pearl earring, one grey pearl earring. I have worn matching but very differently sized hoop earrings, and nobody has ever noticed.