Tales from a not so average grocery store

Dealing with nice people is the best part about working with people. Dealing with rude people is the worst part of the job because you have to know how to calmly deal with them. The manager said the saying “fight rudeness with honey” like if you’re sweet to them it’ll be fine but if you are rude back things will only be worse.

Dealing with people who only speak Spanish and not good English is sometimes hard I only know a few words of Spanish, some interactions are difficult.

Let’s talk about people (well, men) who don’t see any ring on your finger and will proceed to hit on you or just be really flirty friendly or is it just friendly? Not sure. I’m bad at telling. Maybe with some people they wouldn’t even notice if you didn’t have for ex: an engagement ring on.

Just something you have to smile and fake hahha because I hate talking to guys it’s always older men like ones closer to 40..

There’s this one guy that comes in to grab a few additional groceries but I feel like he also doesn’t mind that he gets to wave to me/talk to me. Once he said don’t be shy, here’s my card, there’s my Facebook; feel free to follow me. We could meet up in Starbucks and chat… in New York I had so many acquaintances. But I never really had any friends. (Besides 1 in middle school) I’m an introvert and the only person I see is my boyfriend and I like it that way. Also I’m 28 (as of recently) and this guys probably close to 40..

In every job the worst part is always dealing with people sometimes…. I rlly hate dealing with people especially when they’re rude.

There’s a lady they say has 3 kids but went mentally insane after her 4th. She’s always rambling always having a “panic attack”… she talks to everyone but I don’t like when she comes up to talk to me like I just try to say at least words as possible and always agree with her. But now Shes just magically disappeared. And I hope I don’t run into her again.

The amount of people that are distracted and actually forget to pay at this store are… something else. They’re mega head in the clouds. I see them about to walk out and I calmly remind them. I think our store is just more chaotic energy to it and thas why they get like this. I doubt this happens at big chain stores… I think it’s something to do with the fact that grove is more expensive and some people subconsciously just want their food and not to pay..or are they actually just that distracted?

It’s really annoying when people plunk down a few items that they got (when walking around with no basket), then proceed to run around the store and get more stuff. I know it’s mildy slow…In that case, if it’s slow, I can leave your stuff. If there’s going to be people though, I have to let them go first because they are ready to checkout…

I noticed that people who organize their stuff on the belt by fruits, veggies, bread meat, etc are super cool and I love my fellow organized people. Also it helps me bag more efficiently, since we scan then bag items.

People that are distracted or just don’t know about using the divider to separate their items from the other person.. are annoying especially when they don’t let me know..if you don’t do that you might as well let me know . If you don’t tell me and then I accidentally start scanning the next persons items and you’re like no that’s not mine that’s hers! *points* well don’t get shocked because there’s a lot of people and sometimes we don’t notice what each person puts down on the belt.

Self checkout only makes things harder it is so buggy makes us run back and forth to scan the barcode on our phones lock screen every 5-10 mins bcuz it says “help needed” it’s so sensitive if you even lean on the scale or place a phone on the right side it will say that message. Another annoying thing about the system is shortly after I started working there they made it so after u tap or insert card it says do you want to confirm “x” amount: YES OR NO. They they have to tap yes. And it shows it above their order and the text is the same size so people don’t even see it. We have to watch self checkout at the same time as we are at the cashier doing everything which is annoying and I’m still kind of bad at times. I did get used to it after many months.(Lot of multi tasking involved which sucks I heard that is bad for your brain.)These people, some old some new, some distracted.. by kids or life or on the phone.. will tap then start walking away.. sometimes don’t catch them in time and need to hit yes on screen. It times out in 60 sec from when it asks the question. Usually I make it in times few times not.

The computer system is really v very dumb sometimes or is it the cards that just have issues? Sometimes people are visiting and it doesn’t want to detect their card. then you have to nicely explain that it doesn’t recognize their card and they have to use another one.

Anyway I’m sure there’s much more I could add but some of this came to me in one shift so I had an urge to post it to the world.

Sincerely,

Not your average cashier