Long ago when I worked in supermarkets, our 12 item line was a hard limit; the scanner stopped working at 12. If you had more than that, it was your hard luck item 13 simply wouldn’t scan.
Many times this caused problems, mainly for the customer.
Customer: Hey it is only 2 more items.
Operator: But I can’t scan it, the scanner stops at 12.
Customer: But it is only two more items!!
Operator: I understand that, but the scanner won’t take them.
Customer: FINE, just start a new transaction!
Operator: If you will please go to the back of the line then.
Customer: WHAT, but I’m here now!!!
Supervisor: What seems to be the problem here?
Operator: More than 12 items.
Customer: I ONLY HAVE 2 EXTRA ITEMS!!!
Supervisor: I understand, if you could please go to the back of the line to get the extra two items, we will be happy to help you.
Customer: WHAT THE FUCK, IT IS JUST TWO EXTRA ITEMS!!!
Supervisor: If you want, them in one transaction we can cancel this one and move you to a full sized checkout.
Customer: …ENRAGED RANTING…
Supervisor: If you are going to be abusive to me or my staff, I’ll have to ask you to leave.
Word of that type of thing gets around, for the number of people through the supermarket, the total number of incidents was very low. But they happened at least once a week.
It’s nice when you have a boss that has your back. I worked at RadioShack back in the day, and the manager of the store I stayed at the longest was like that. Of course we didn’t have the whole x items or less, but we were in a busy college area, only on-street parking, so we’d get people running in and wanting to be served immediately regardless of how busy we were because they were double parked. The boss empowered us to tell them to fuck off, politely of course. “Come back when you have more time, we’ll be happy to help”. Also, we were next to a parking lot, it wasn’t ours, though we did have a couple of spots that were clearly marked employee parking only. Few things gave the boss more pleasure than calling a tow truck… Literally rubbing his hands with glee on multiple occasions.
Long ago when I worked in supermarkets, our 12 item line was a hard limit; the scanner stopped working at 12. If you had more than that, it was your hard luck item 13 simply wouldn’t scan.
Many times this caused problems, mainly for the customer.
Customer: Hey it is only 2 more items.
Operator: But I can’t scan it, the scanner stops at 12.
Customer: But it is only two more items!!
Operator: I understand that, but the scanner won’t take them.
Customer: FINE, just start a new transaction!
Operator: If you will please go to the back of the line then.
Customer: WHAT, but I’m here now!!!
Supervisor: What seems to be the problem here?
Operator: More than 12 items.
Customer: I ONLY HAVE 2 EXTRA ITEMS!!!
Supervisor: I understand, if you could please go to the back of the line to get the extra two items, we will be happy to help you.
Customer: WHAT THE FUCK, IT IS JUST TWO EXTRA ITEMS!!!
Supervisor: If you want, them in one transaction we can cancel this one and move you to a full sized checkout.
Customer: …ENRAGED RANTING…
Supervisor: If you are going to be abusive to me or my staff, I’ll have to ask you to leave.
Word of that type of thing gets around, for the number of people through the supermarket, the total number of incidents was very low. But they happened at least once a week.
It’s nice when you have a boss that has your back. I worked at RadioShack back in the day, and the manager of the store I stayed at the longest was like that. Of course we didn’t have the whole x items or less, but we were in a busy college area, only on-street parking, so we’d get people running in and wanting to be served immediately regardless of how busy we were because they were double parked. The boss empowered us to tell them to fuck off, politely of course. “Come back when you have more time, we’ll be happy to help”. Also, we were next to a parking lot, it wasn’t ours, though we did have a couple of spots that were clearly marked employee parking only. Few things gave the boss more pleasure than calling a tow truck… Literally rubbing his hands with glee on multiple occasions.