This Is What People Find Super Annoying About Supermarket Employees, #2
The checkout line, the impossible-to-find products and the whole business with the divider bars: there’s plenty to get annoyed about at the supermarket. After our article about annoying situations in the supermarket, additions came pouring in, because there’s much more that’s irritating than we initially thought. ‘That hysterical shouting that a checkout is opening, for goodness’ sake!’
Maybe our world has become smaller because the ski holiday isn’t happening, restaurants are closed and choir rehearsals have been cancelled; perhaps this is a longer-simmering discontent. But the can of worms that opens when irritations in the supermarket are discussed is unprecedented. The divider bar! The slow packers! And the cashiers’ yapping! Look at it this way: if these are the biggest problems in your life, things are actually going pretty well.
It takes days
Sometimes things go too quickly at the checkout, and sometimes far too slowly. Johan is absolutely wild with irritation. ‘Cashiers who wait until the belt is full and only then start scanning. That’s really annoying. I don’t have all day.’
Shuffle those groceries around
Your groceries are scanned at lightning speed and then swept into a pile, with your bottle of cola ending up on the bag of crisps and the milk jerrycan landing on the bag of arugula—that’s a common complaint. Judith experienced it again recently. ‘The cashier was shuffling the scanned groceries around. I said something about it, but she didn’t pay any attention. She just carried on. So I shuffled the groceries back, went to the store manager and left without my groceries. Obviously without paying either.’
Pack up and get out
Mirjam has little patience for people who calmly pack their groceries. ‘In this bag, oh no, actually in the other one—or, oh dear, that needs to come out again because this has to go underneath… Do that at the packing table or by the car, please!’ Emotions, emotions. Eline wants to teach Mirjam to look at it differently. ‘You could turn it around by asking for a bag and helping to pack? That way you’re both helped at the same time.’
Second thoughts about Belgium
Packing those groceries—and the fact that they move past too quickly on the checkout belt to put them properly into your bags—is something our southern neighbours don’t have to worry about at all. Charles explains: ‘Long live the Colruyt system in Belgium: the cashier transfers all your purchases into another cart, you pay and drive the cart to your car. No purchases piling up on a conveyor belt; all the customer has to do is pay.’
Foghorn
Irritation number one, according to Suus: ‘The hysterical shouting by employees that a checkout is opening, followed by it taking another 10 minutes before the checkout actually opens!’
Discussing the entire weekend
But Suus isn’t finished yet. ‘Oh, and while we’re complaining… the shelf stackers who discuss all their weekend plans in the aisle or look at their phones.’ Many commenters don’t agree: come on, having a nice chat with a colleague for a moment should be allowed, right? Suus is uncompromising: ‘If you can’t stand having to keep your mouth shut while you’re working, you’d be better off working at a call centre.’ There, feeling better, Suus?
Good afternoon!
Hennie always starts her shopping trip cheerfully, but she never keeps it up until the end. She cheerfully says good afternoon, and then? ‘The most annoying thing is getting no “good day” in return, having them talk past you to a colleague or another customer, and then looking very strange when the customer (me) barely responds or doesn’t respond at all. (…) Apparently my friendly good day isn’t appreciated.’
Two-way traffic
But cashiers want to be greeted too, says Angella. ‘I say: good afternoon. And then it’s x please? And the receipt, please. Have a nice day.’ And they still don’t look at you. Or you get one word out of them, very curtly: ‘card.’
National Checkout Day
It’s time for a holiday, or a day of remembrance, or something halfway between the two, Sonja believes. ‘For years I’ve said I wanted a “cashier’s day”—one day a year when we cashiers could treat customers the way we’re treated all year. That day will probably never come, unfortunately…’
Your turn
The divider bar hadn’t appeared earlier in the endless list of complaints and irritations. Until now! Anita gets things started: ‘Is there anyone else who gets absolutely annoyed by people who don’t put a divider bar behind their groceries to indicate that they’re finished? And especially when they look angry because my groceries appear on their receipt. As if it’s my job to indicate when the person before me has finished putting their groceries on the belt.’
Passive-aggressive
Sharon recognises this: ‘Then I deliberately don’t do it either. They stare stupidly at you: no, those groceries aren’t mine! No, exactly: put a divider bar between them.’ Nancy: ‘Recognisable. I usually put a divider bar between them with a bit of “noise”.’
When nature calls
Recognisable: a busy store, and then a checkout—the one where you’re standing in line—suddenly closes. What’s going on? Margo used to be an assistant store manager, and explains. ‘Bear in mind that the cashier may already be waiting for someone to relieve them and may need to go to the toilet. Because no, not every store employee is a cashier, and when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go.’
If it’s not there…
You’re looking for something, you ask about it and the answer is… Sandra’s biggest annoyance: ‘They say: “Yes, further over there, and if it’s not among those products, we don’t have it!” Walking along with the customer is no longer an option in many stores, which is a real shame.’
Read also:
- More supermarket annoyances: ‘Ugh, a half-eaten banana on the conveyor belt’
- 9 times you’re seriously ripped off at the supermarket
- 11 supermarket things that are genuinely hilarious
