I concur with the whole "wipe the card on your shirt sleeve.." advice. Doing that works 99% of the time for me. Also swiping up instead of down. I've never heard of using paper or plastic to help read a card. I'm confused by that somewhat. Are you saying I should wrap the card in plastic or paper and then swipe it? I would think the paper would cover the black strip and make it impossible to read. 

Anonymous wrote:

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I, too, am confused by the whole "use paper or plastic to get a customers card to read" scenario... Like, wrap their card with paper or plastic and then slide it through? Won't the paper cover the black strip? 

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 We use this method at my store sometimes, as well as the up vs down, and by golly, it works. Don't ask anyone how, as we don't even know. But the reader accepts it

Awesome please let me know some tricks I have no over ride card Sometime I think it's such a selfish thing of management sneak way of making their ring tender a breeze thanks 

ring tender has nothing to do with how fast you check out products, ring tender is from hitting total to the end of the transaction.   

Gonna post a summary of what I think I know about ring tender, even if this thread hasn't been active for a little bit. Hopefully this'll  be super redundant and help clear up any misconceptions about ring tender. Considering you've come all the way to the second page of a stickied Kroger Forum post, you more than deserve my possibly inaccurate knowledge. -Let's also not discuss my credibility (whopping 4 months as a cashier)-

Any numbers I reference will be based off of this sheet from another post in 2013

Ring Tender Basics hooray

 Everything you do during a transaction has been dedicated a specific time by Kroger (scanning, voiding, weighing items, age verification, eft, checks, tendering, etc.). These values are then added and the time you took is divided by the total giving you your ring tender %

(Actual Time/Company Specified Times)

This is divided into 2 parts: Ring Time and Tender Time (Is it ring time?), which transitions by pressing Total. If you'd like to improve your Items Per Minute, press total whenever you aren't scanning. If you'd like to improve your tender time, don't hit total until the customer is closer to being able to pay. The latter doesn't make much sense because they need to know their total to pay, but yeah. Your ring tender should be the same either way?

• As far as I know eft, securing the terminal (nosale signon), total, and check check enter do not pause the ring tender timer. Many even claim that securing your terminal punishes it.

Tender Time

Starting with this because it's extremely dependent on the customer and you'll likely have little control over it. To overgeneralize, my "advice" is to stall them as long as possible before scanning. Maybe they'll be ready then.

• Ask for their Kroger Card early in the transaction (beginning if they don't have many items- gives you an excuse to wait) so you won't have to wait for them to find it when you're done scanning. Bonus points if you can time it a little before you're done scanning. That way they can put their card away but still have their wallet out to pay money and stuff.

*Scanning their Kroger Card early takes out all the sales as you're ringing them up instead of piling them at the end. Saves a few seconds. Sometimes. woot

• Mention that if they're using a card to pay they can swipe it at any time. Maybe after you give them their kroger card back or something. I dunno, I didn't have the balls to try it.
• If they pay with a check, mention that they can just sign it. Personal checks are worth almost 58 seconds, meaning you'll gain a ton of time if you manage to pull [both of these] off.

Ring Time

Scaaaan Faster. Wait until the belts partway full. Ask for their Kroger Card early (don't scan until you're ready to start). You can put their alternate ID in while they unload (again, wait to press enter until ready).

• Scanning with the gun gives an amazing 0.4 seconds. I rarely used the scan gun. 0.4 s is easily the amount of time it'll take you to move the item across the scanner. Perhaps move items before the order and scan away.

 *Adversely, scanning with the monitor thing gives 1.5 seconds

• Scan the 1 gallon refill multiple times instead of the 5 gallon? 
• Keying in codes gives a generous 5.55 seconds, so punch in water and whatever other easy barcodes you can (If possible before you start the order so you gain the full time. reoccurring theme). If you memorize the code, it should take roughly 2 seconds or less.

 *If you're super adamant about raising your ring tender you can memorize the soda codes. I'd also punch in the 42859 99c produce things too. That code might not be right

 **If you're super adamant and also a major tryhard, go practice using a number pad on your keyboard until you can punch in full codes quickly and without looking. That way if you can't get all of the wonderful sale tags to scan, you can just put the barcode in, assuming it's legible. This'll give you a much better time ratio of something like 7.5s/5.55s (2 seconds to attempt monitor scan and 5.5 seconds to put in the code) compared to a scan guns 2.5s/0.4s (2 seconds scan, 0.5 gun). 

Other because apparently I'm incapable of organizing my posts

• Always put something in Age Verification. Gotta get that nice 7.87s You can ask for their birthdate or type in something random. <- Please let me know if that is in fact a terrible idea
• Wic is your best friend. until you find actual friends. Then it'll just help with ring tender.
• Manager Overrides are worth 71s if you're bad and need help a lot. or if you steal an override key. 

uhhhh... I think that's it?

Correct me if stuff's wrong. It'd be neat if other people had even more wonderful and betterfuller tips

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Produce

This unique beast gets its own section! How special. Kroger would like you to scan produce because you could screw up while putting in numbers because you weren't paying attention and maybe a $5 organic greenbean just sold for 10c. It makes sense, but they could at least compromise on the vegetables and fruits that don't even have organic counterparts.

• Scanning Produce is definitely faster and easier and a lot more enjoyable. 
• The 2013 Common Tasks sheet I linked doesn't even have a category for produce scans. Meaning it's worth the full 5.55 seconds? xDoubt, but still. It could've been updated with the shift to scanning produce
• Try scanning produce. At least the easy ones. If your ring tender jumps in front of a bus and vegetates, I dunno. I was told Kroger wants a 60% scan rate, but 30% can't be that bad

Reasons Your Ring Tender Might be Subpar

• You're slow
• Every customer in the entire store is slow. Or they all gravitate towards you. How lucky
• If you're under 21 and have to wait for the 1 person in the store to come help you (if they don't have a lot of items you can try asking them to go to self checkout or another lane)
• If you consistently work during a slow time. During busy times customers clog the lines and have time to start putting their items on the belt, get their card out, etc. Plus they might be pressured to not go get another item when you're almost done scanning.
  
• Maybe you work later shifts until closing. Maybe during that time you get stuck on an aisle without a bagger (because someone has to get carts and someone has to spend 2 hours cleaning the entire store). Maybe that could have an impact on your ring tender.
• Perhaps keep a record of what happens each day along with a nosale 96. Could be helpful if you jump randomly and you want to decipher why

-- Edited by ChubbyPenguin on Wednesday 27th of September 2017 10:34:35 PM

It's easy:

Grab one item with each hand and scan. Or be fast and grab then pass, then send down. Be fast.

Pause your time by locking your numbers for any time you are not processing a command. This will greatly increase your checking numbers. Pause for the customer paying or grabbing payment. Pause for any wait above 10 seconds. Pause for any reason you are not processing a command.  This will greatly increase your checker numbers.

Unload the bottom of the half basket onto the checker shelf (if you have one) this will cut down on time between items and will save your back. If the customer starts to unload the whole basket ask them to stop.  This is unnecessary and adds to clutter and product loss.

Memorize your produce codes.  If you have to look it up pause your time by locking your till. The more codes you know and the faster your ten key is the higher your tender time will be. If you're having trouble use them as your phone pass code and add a couple zeros or ones to fill the gap.

If you have to do customer service transactions pause your numbers for any wait time.  Figure out the issue/transaction then process it.  Rather than having this time skunk your tender time. 

I know they don't like this because it's exposing the till and placing it for higher theft risk. For till audits: open the drawer and pull the till out and place it on top of the check stand. Then secure your numbers.  This keeps your tender time from doping low.  Same idea if your store keeps the till bag under the till.

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