It's an ACRONYM, not sure what it stands for, it must be secretive. Anyway the gold standard of Key Retailing is a cashier 95% efficiency rating. The scores are unfair and are biased towards cashiers that work at night (if you havent noticed old people rarely come out at night, and yes them fiddling with their change does slow you down). Because of this they have recently told cashiers to rush customers by prompting for payment as soon as they're done unloading. This does not make older customers write checks faster, or count change faster, if anything it slows them down because their hands are shaking. And younger customers are more concerned with reading magazines or ignoring you or screaming at their kids, or picking out gum and they resent you for asking them what their payment method is. Most of the time they expect me to psychically know they are using a credit card, swipe it while im busy reading some folded over barcode, then they put it in their purse, and of course it doesnt work because they neglected to read the pinpad's prompt to press credit FIRST.
During the day, especially if your store is short on help and you have no bagger, you may have to stop frequently during an order to bag the stuff yourself. THIS slows you down as well. So Kroger Co. decided to order stores that had low ELM stores to remove the cashiers' bag racks, but that has made thing worse. Corporate has no interest in making things easy for us, obviously, and definately has shown in all its policies that it distrusts us as employees, and also the customers. With policies such as having to walk out to the end of the register and usher in customers, it just reinforces the fact that Kroger thinks the customer is too stupid to know a line is open by seeing a cashier in their cubicle, and also that the cashier is too stupid to go out and get customers when they line up in another line.

As for obtaining that 95% goal, i do have some tips that ive acquired along the way:

1. Unloading customers cart's for them when they will allow you to is a good idea. It ensures that the belt is full, and this will allow you to ring faster. Besides its just as easy as ringing, so youre not really going out of your way.
2. Put the register into Terminal Secure mode as often as possible. Say you get that dreaded customer who has ran off in the middle of the order to pick up a jar of pickles, put it in terminal secure mode, it stops the clock.
3. Not sure if its the same for everyones register, but pressing EFT will stop the clock too. Just be careful that they havent already swiped a card through.
4. Dump the coins in the drawer, instead of sorting them if you can get away with it. You can try to sort them later, as opening the drawer without an order doesnt count against your time.

your right those are good tips . another thing elms is doing is writing the schedules.  it tells how many cashiers, baggers, etc &

 

I don't agree with what you said about ELMS being biased towards night cashiers (unless by night you mean like graveyard or something), at least in my store. The people who get the good scores work during the day. In my store, the people who are consistently at the top, including one person who scores 100 every time, work during the day. We get busy around 3 or 4 and stay solidly busy until at least 8, if not later. Plus, after that time, when there are fewer customers, there are fewer registers, the baggers are off doing other things (like emptying the trash, cleaning, gobacks, etc.) and the customers don't feel rushed to hurry things up, so they take their time with their payment.
As for your comments about elms sucking, well that's right on. I am a damn good cashier, with many more years of experience than my meager wages would indicate (I only accepted because Kroger is my side job to earn extra money and supposedly they offered me the max that the union would allow them), and my elms scores have been pretty abyssmal so far (I am new to Kroger). But you know what? I've already had customers call and compliment the managers on my performance, and my customers always walk away happy. I treat the customer like a friend, greet them warmly, smile and engage them in conversation instead of having a surly face while I scan. And, I am fast. Of course, according to whatever twisted calculation they use to determine efficiency, I don't meet the goal. Screw it, I say. I am going to keep doing business the way that keeps my customers happy, and if that doesn't jive with elms, I don't really care. I have, however, implemented your tips this week, so we'll see how that pans out when they post our latest scores.

Anonymous wrote:

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night cashier will be good for u with that attitude.

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I am not sure exactly what you mean by that...could you please clarify?

your doing a good job it sounds like but your questioning every thing. all the pressure will be off at night no elms talk to the customers 60 cents more an hour. think about it

At my kroger the people during the day get the best efficiency rating. They are the ones with seniority and have been there for a million years and they always get 40 hours a week and always have a bagger

 HELL YES I HATE ELMS AND KROGER FOR DOING THIS BIG PILE OF BULL****!!!!!  I WORK IN THE PHARMACY AND AM O WAIT WAS FULL TIME UNTIL ELMS CAME ALONG NOW I DO GOOD TO GET 10 HRS A WEEK AND I DRIVE 40 MILES A DAY TO AND FROM SO I JUST USE MY MONEY ON GAS.  IF ANYONE KNOWS WHO THE HELL THE DUMBASS THAT CAME UP WITH THIS PLEASE PLEASE LET ME KNOW!