I'm a CC and I always try to do my best, but I feel like my coworkers (cashiers) sometimes get annoyed by me. What is a fast bagger to you? Usually I bag just in time when the customer finishes paying or like 30 secs after (which is like forever with everyone starting at you to finish) And I try to get customers items (meats with no barcode) weighed as fast as I can, running back to the meat department and waiting for them to finish with another customer. Price checks are tricky too bc customers will yell at me saying how the item should've been placed above the right tag (which is usually the tag right next to it, they just can't read) or there is just no code. and I'm almost always the only one bouncing when there's 7 lanes open and like 3 CCs. i admit tho, sometimes i bounce bc some lady with fifty kids in the wretched car carts comes down with 1000 reusable bags stuffed in one, bu sometimes other cashiers actually need me to help bag and I do feel bad for leaving. There are times when I'm struggling to scan the 50 sodas under carts and it takes time.
Honestly, nothing really annoys me about courtesy clerks. I used to be a cashier at another grocery chain across the country where we bagged our own stuff. And since I don't give a **** about how fast I scan, I really don't care if I have a bagger or not.
Then again, I've been on Uscan for the past few months now, being an actual cashier is a bit foreign to me now. The only thing that does annoy me is the laziness. But that's not just the clerks, it's the cashiers as well.
There's this interesting phenomenon at our store that's been going on where perishables aren't being taken back like they should when customers don't want them. I used to get yelled at for not handing them to the baggers. Which infuriated me because when I did, the baggers would tell me to **** off. I don't get yelled at anymore, but the perishables still pile up and only a very few CC's actually take them back. Lol, I literally watch them, and the FES, AND the store managers walk by the perishables and they do absolutely nothing about it. I think it's the "somebody else will do it" syndrome in effect.
And I try to get customers items (meats with no barcode) weighed as fast as I can, running back to the meat department and waiting for them to finish with another customer. Price checks are tricky too bc customers will yell at me saying how the item should've been placed above the right tag (which is usually the tag right next to it, they just can't read) or there is just no code.
Price checks... HA! The first week I was a cashier at Kroger, there was a package of chicken legs with no sticker, so I ran back to the meat department to find the meat guy there to put a sticker on it. And boy did he take his sweet ass time as he gave me a fowl look, like as if I smeared feces over his mouth. I never did that again.
At our store, customer complains about a price? Price Override... Make It Right! And I just give it to them for whatever price they saw (as long as the difference is within $5, is what my FES told me). Item doesn't scan? I take an educated guess at what the price might be and charge it to the appropriate department (thank gawd for those btw). I've learned to work smarter, not harder, as they say.
Your store must be nice, because I have never seen a CC being asked to do a price check at our store.
as long as they put in an honest effort and at least look busy, i don't have a problem with them. the only thing that irks me is when they do go backs and get lazy. i know where every last thing in the grocery department is, so just ask me! i don't bite! it's way more convenient for me to tell you where something is than for me to have to run halfway down the aisle because you put green beans where the soup is.
but seriously, people are too impatient with courtesy clerks. it's one of the biggest pain in the arse jobs in the store and they give you almost no money for it. they're most likely young or inexperienced, so give them the benefit of the doubt. they throw you into the workplace with zero training (aside from that crappy computer training....if you even want to call that training) so it's up to us experienced workers to give them pointers.
30 seconds after the order is an acceptable amount of time, and in fact, I always help the baggers after the order anyway, so it doesn't even take 20 seconds, typically. Do the cashiers you bag for not help you?
Unaccpetably slow is when I'm forced to stop the belts at the BEGINNING of a 400 dollar order because sh## is already piling up and crushing each other because my bagger is literally moving like a snail or like their hands are made out of lead.
There's 2 Courtesy Clerks at my store that are just that slow. To be fair, one of them is a 15-year-old girl were just hired, and it is her first job.
The teen Courtesy Clerks at my store on their phones constantly, and/or hitting on each other when we have customers is also irritating, especially after being told by me AND the ACSM to stop it.
Of course this mainly went on because our previous CSM was a jellyfish. We get our new CSM today and have been told that he is more strict and means business so hopefully this is going to stop.
Courtesy Clerks (again, almost exclusively the teens) repeatedly bagging inappropriately, even after being told not to doit that way, and getting pouty or Bert-staring you when you tell them how it's done. I don't do this with customers around as to not embarrass them, unless I have to undo it immediately for the customer.
I don't know why everyone here has such a problem with fabric bags. If anything, I feel like the customer is making it easier for us (and me when I am the bagger)
I WISH a Courtesy Clerk would tell ME to f##k off, they would rue the day.
I don't know why everyone here has such a problem with fabric bags. If anything, I feel like the customer is making it easier for us (and me when I am the bagger)
Usually as soon as a CC sees they have those bags, they run off to another lane, "Oh hell no" is what I heard one mumble at one time. Especially if it's a teenage CC. I bag them, no problem. I mean it might take a bit longer, but it's no sweat off my back. I still get paid either way, ya know, lol.
Unaccpetably slow is when I'm forced to stop the belts at the BEGINNING of a 400 dollar order because sh## is already piling up and crushing each other because my bagger is literally moving like a snail or like their hands are made out of lead.
Well, I've never had a CC move that incredibly slow. But usually, if it is a large order and the stuff has already piled up, I stop and help bag, because, again, I'm not too worried about my ring tender. The smart CCs know to get a second cart. And then after the order is done and paid for, I also help bag whatever is left.
The teen Courtesy Clerks at my store on their phones constantly, and/or hitting on each other when we have customers is also irritating, especially after being told by me AND the ACSM to stop it.
Had that problem with our teen CCs and cashiers. Even saw the CSM have to tell them to stop texting, like a teacher telling them to behave in class.
They will bring frozen, meat and produce items and put them in the dairy department damage box and could care less.
Oh God. As a dairy guy at my store, this irks me so much. Especially if somebody leaves ice cream in the cooler, then it melts, leading to a mess. Or anything frozen for that matter. It could still be fine, but the temp in the dairy cooler isn't cold enough to keep it frozen, making it no good. I once caught a CC dumping rotisserie chickens from the deli (and other BS) in the cooler. I corrected her, only for her to put everything (including the chickens) in receiving. I even left a very detailed note on the cooler door letting everyone know where everything goes in the store and to stop putting random crap in the dairy cooler, and even then, they still don't listen
Another thing that grinds my gears is when somebody brings an entire shopping cart full of groceries into the cooler due to a suspended order, then claims that "the customer is coming back." Then the cart just sits in the cooler for about 3 days or when I've had enough and take it to the front and make them deal with it. I understand if the customer may have forgotten their form of payment or if their card got declined, so I don't mind it being there for an hour. But after an hour passes, I want it gone and everything taken back. There could be frozen product in the cart. I don't want all of that to go to waste because somebody didn't have the common sense to at least put the frozen items in the walk in freezer
Most of our CCs don't do much work at all. They screw around in the break room or in the cart corral. I don't know how they keep their jobs. We only have one or two good ones.
No real beef with the CCs myself. Although as per usual at my store, people don't really like to listen or hear what you are saying, so it's no different with the CCs there either. As I had one of the younger CCs bring back a salad somebody made up from the salad bar and since it had no PLU #'s or a bar code was asking me what to do with it. Translation: Is this your's so I can drop it off and go? *insert wrong answer buzzer sound here* As it was not deli's and was from produce.
To which I guess he didn't like that answer and was looking at me all confused as the salad bar is across the way from us. So I had to go get a dude from produce that told him what I had just said. And the guy was still all confused about what to do with it. And even the produce guy was like "I don't know dude, maybe throw it away...???" As you obviously can't put it back out there to re-sell it. And the CC finally is like yea okay I guess and went on his way.
But yea, goes to show how little listen goes on around this joint.
No real beef with the CCs myself. Although as per usual at my store, people don't really like to listen or hear what you are saying, so it's no different with the CCs there either. As I had one of the younger CCs bring back a salad somebody made up from the salad bar and since it had no PLU #'s or a bar code was asking me what to do with it. Translation: Is this your's so I can drop it off and go? *insert wrong answer buzzer sound here* As it was not deli's and was from produce.
To which I guess he didn't like that answer and was looking at me all confused as the salad bar is across the way from us. So I had to go get a dude from produce that told him what I had just said. And the guy was still all confused about what to do with it. And even the produce guy was like "I don't know dude, maybe throw it away...???" As you obviously can't put it back out there to re-sell it. And the CC finally is like yea okay I guess and went on his way.
But yea, goes to show how little listen goes on around this joint.
I'll say this, I was a CC for 2.5 years. I started doing mainly go back about 7 months in due to starting grad school. No one told me where to put the damaged stuff, most of the CCs there before me didn't know either and at that time the damaged stuff just got put aside (mostly it was damaged from when managers would find the meat in the chips or something but heaven forbid they drop it off as they wonder the store) until morning for morning crew to work. My main issue was our dairy guy fussing when anyone, myself included, would mess up and make an honest mistake and put something damaged from the cheese bar into his dairy damage, or vice versa sometimes, though the one cheese bar lady was nice about it.
I will say that the other employees may assume that you are like other lazy CCs if that is the culture in your store. I know I got annoyed with my coworkers because there were some mornings where I knew that the night before had been on the slow side, I'd been there shopping usually after my other job, and the go-backs would be stacked high, the lot would be a wreck, and no one had done trash the night before so it was up to me and 1 other person to fix all of this before customers started arriving in serious amounts. And if my coworker was one of our special needs guys, most of them couldn't do things as quickly as others, but they would try. It just plain sucked. I laughed because when I left I was the most senior CC and the guy just below me begged me to come back because it was on him to pick up the slack and he had been one of the ones showing the new folks bad habbits. I laughed and finished my shopping.
I know for me as a Utility Clerk, I hate when my coworkers are lazy. I've trained several UCs and am 4th in seniority in my store and I've been here less than 2 years. That is saying something when I am the one who my management and supervisors look to to get **** done, and am their first call in if something goes wrong. Me and a few others on Utility will actually bust our asses to get **** done. My store Director is fine with letting me stay over sometimes a few hours extra, because they know I do the job and will get it done and that I will make sure all tasks are completed or at least worked to the best of my ability. My Store Director wanted me to go FT too, but other issues prevent it currently.
When I am on nights, I have a task list I check off to make sure that when I am one of the "closing" UCs (our store closes after midnight, but we as Utility leave after 10pm by contract) if I leave by 9 or 8:30 that all of the major stuff is done (and because I am over 18, get all 18+ tasks completed: all store trash, paper n plastic filled (cant use a boxcutter if under 18), liquor set up, and cart round up with bagging n cleaning in between.) When I open, I do the same thing. Usually it takes a long time for someone to be picked for Opening UC shifts as we start at 7 and that normally doesn't happen til you have high seniority / good work ethic, but I did it after a few months and was the opener for quite a while on weekends til I switched to afternoons n nights.
A few of our UCs have been yelled at already for buddying up on the lot n hauling carts slow as molasses, very few carts sometimes, n walking together, FES and Management have been talking to them as well. I bust ass and hump lot when necessary as I enjoy carts honestly, it's a little time away from the FE an I can just do my thing hauling 8-9 cart trains in every time, n going right back out for more. Me n a few other UCs run circles around the lazy ones. I am there to do a job, so I will get as much done as possible within the time I have while also doing what I need to do to ensure I do my part in making a customers experience at our store great.
"The key to a great close, is a great open. The key to a great open, is a great close."
-- Edited by UC151 on Thursday 21st of September 2017 12:15:31 AM
Courtesy clerks are pretty much free to run off and play or take a protest break whenever they want. "I was helping a customer" or "I was on carry out."
The previous generation of courtesy clerks all knew this, so they spent as little time on the front end as possible. It was really bad.
In this generation of courtesy clerks, only two have figured this out. One is a bit slow and only does it to avoid his least favorite manager. The other one is actually retarded, but does this constructively. He goes out of his way to specifically bag for elderly/crippled/fatties and will even literally shove other courtesy clerks away just so he can take those orders. That way, he can demand to do carryout and then go play for 10 or 20 minutes after. Check behind the building for loose carts, text messages, and Angry Birds. You know how it goes. Or even in the freezer. Why not? I wonder which carrier he uses. I like him less, but am more impressed with him. He gets to pretend to provide excellent customer service and gets a lot of recognition for it while doing significantly less work than everyone else.
One courtesy clerk I recall only took the job since his parents forced him too. They came from money, so he was better than you. Even though he was bagging groceries. He'd brag about going on a cruise, and then have to go push carts. That was pretty funny.
Another courtesy clerk is retarded. Working here, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Some of our best courtesy clerks have been retarded, and even get promoted to grocery or night crew. But it is, this time. She's probably in her late 40's, except somehow with a husband and a somewhat retarded child. The husband claims to be a veteran and carries a pistol. She bags about 4-6x slower than everyone else. She will place a single item in a bag, think about it, and then place a wrong item in the bag with it. Then she'll think about it. Then maybe another item. Bleach, meat, veggies, nice. Then, she will take the bag and place it in the customer's cart. And then think about it. And then tie it. Once. Or twice. Then she just zones out for a bit before starting the next bag. About every half dozen customers, she zones out so long she has to dash out the door to bring customers a bag. It's amazing that she doesn't just get lost out in the parking lot and die.
Thankfully, she spends an impressive amount of time hiding behind Register 1 pretending to tie her shoes or manage her snacks. It actually works. I don't know if that says more about her, about management, or management's opinion of her. At any rate, I don't mind since it's actually faster just to bag by myself.
