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Rude clerk aside, I have trouble understanding why it has to be such a big deal for the clerk. Here where I live it appears that all the clerks do it. When I reach the register I place the basket of stuff on the conveyor ~ I do not remove the items. The clerks then set the baskets to the side somewhere. But if seeing a basket placed on the floor is the worst thing that a clerk has to deal with on any day then that person has no right to be rude.
Last edited by Bluesmama; 06-05-2011 at 11:24 AM..
Rude clerk aside, I have trouble understanding why it has to be such a big deal for the clerk. Here where I live it appears that all the clerks do it. When I reach the register I place the basket of stuff on the conveyor ~ I do not remove the items. The clerks then set the baskets to the side somewhere. But if seeing a basket placed on the floor is the worst thing that a clerk has to deal with on any day then that person has no right to be rude.
Having just returned from the grocery store and refrained from commenting for once I can only assume that things are difficult for everyone and sometimes that spills over to work.
A woman with a child was waiting beside me at the deli counter. After a few minutes she walked off. The employee who was assisting me commented that she 'must be mad'. I started to say maybe she was just busy and with a child decided to take care of other things on her list and perhaps come back--I have done the same on occasion. Not really 'mad' --sometimes tired.
Who knows?
I do know that having worked in retail if the employees spend a lot of time talking about things like that they are creating problems for themselves.
So glad I didn't say anything--creating another problem.
I have the opposite problem than rude clerks. I get the overly friendly clerks and baggers that constantly want to engage me.
As far as the rude clerk, I would want to know if I was the manager. Even if it was just once, it was once too many. If I didn't know about this particular clerk and they did this to one customer, then why not a dozen customers. And I don't buy into the fact that cashiers don't make enough or are on minimum wage etc. to not have a positive attitude at their workplace because there is too much going on in their lives to seperate it from work. Or they are just having a bad day. It's called being an adult and taking responsibility. There is an employment contract and training. I'll just bet that this being rude part is probably not in the workers handbook.
As their manager, I wouldn't fire them I would re-train them. I'd give them more positive feedback and positive direction, not negative criticism. And I would take into consideration what is happening in their lives if that was the case and use this as an opportunity to challenge them into learning how to work through such things.
Leaving your grocery basket on the floor isn't illegal, nor necessarily unsanitary. You should see all the food stuff, especially the vegetable boxes on the floor in the back storage room of the stores. The trucks that deliver vegetables are not always the cleanest either. This is why it is recomended to wash your vegies before your prepare them for eating.
The dirtiest part of the shopping experience in the grocery store is the kiddie seat on the cart and the handle of those carts.
Here in Florida health code states that all boxes in any food establisment including restaurants must be stored at least 4 inches off the floor.
This includes Paper products such as cups, napkins and TP, it covers all boxes.
I never gave it much thought about the baskets and wont fret over it now but it does make sence to store them above the floor.
I do think at our local store they are stored on a rack by the front door.
But as stated above, my local store does ask me to put my basket under the register counter on the floor after I empty it!
The problem is that bosses refuse to acknowledge that their employees are HUMAN BEINGS.
I believe it's impossible for us to just mentally/emotionally cut ourselves in half the minute we punch the time clock. Being human just DOESNT work that way.
But if you insist on people shutting off their humanity when they go to work. Then that should include the customers who go into businesses and dump all over the powerless employees as well.
You can feel as depressed and angry as you want on the job. Expecting people not to have feelings is expecting them not to be human. But humans also have control over how they act on their feelings. Expecting human beings not to lash out on others is a reasonable expectation. You don't have to be happy go-lucky on a bad day, but that doesn't give you the excuse to be outwardly rude either.
There is a way to be responsible about your feelings. And I agree, it applies to customers as well as employees, but customers aren't being paid to reflect the image of a company so it is a bit different.
Having just returned from the grocery store and refrained from commenting for once I can only assume that things are difficult for everyone and sometimes that spills over to work.
A woman with a child was waiting beside me at the deli counter. After a few minutes she walked off. The employee who was assisting me commented that she 'must be mad'. I started to say maybe she was just busy and with a child decided to take care of other things on her list and perhaps come back--I have done the same on occasion. Not really 'mad' --sometimes tired.
Who knows?
I do know that having worked in retail if the employees spend a lot of time talking about things like that they are creating problems for themselves.
So glad I didn't say anything--creating another problem.
Even if she was mad, that was a better way of dealing with it than blaming the cashier or causing a scene, IMO.
Sometimes I walk away when I feel like I don't have it in me to be nice to the person. I walk around the store a bit longer and process my feelings so that I don't end up dumping them on the cashier.
Problem is these people ARENT professionals. They are minimum wage slow death workers. When I worked in customer service I always maintained that if you wanted me to act "professional" then you needed to pay me like one.
Why do you punish the customers for what is the company's choice? The company decides on your salary, not the customers.
And if you are polite to the customers, you just might get a raise, and in the long run, the company may become more successful and be able to afford to pay their employees more.
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Another problem is what determines non-professional behaviour, as everyone has their own ideas. An awful lot of customers think it's "unprofessional" to not smile like a loon for 8 hours straight. They consider an unsmiling cashier as rude. Other customers also flat out don't like being told "no" for any reason.
I think there are some universals we can all adhere to, though.
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Quite frankly, I've seen way more rude customers then rude employees. People are human. We can't always leave our personal stuff at home. That is such an antiquated ideal I wish we could do away with in this country.
We don't have to leave our personal stuff at home. We just don't have to let it out on people, or we can be responsible about how we communicate it.
I was working in customer service (for minimum wage, by the way) while I was being physically abused at home, and sometimes I showed up to work after a really bad fight. I didn't realize it was so visible as I was blind myself and couldn't feel it yet from the adrenaline.
However, my boss wasn't blind and asked me about it because it started being pretty obvious I wasn't just "bumping into stuff," so I eventually told him. But I didn't use that as an excuse to be rude to customers. After all, it wasn't the customer who hit me. Why would I let it out on the customer? I did have my feelings, but I was responsible about how I expressed them.
That's an example of not being forced to leave your stuff at home, but at the same time not giving yourself an excuse to be rude to the whole world.
I should let my daughter read these responses...she works as a front end cashier, at a local grocery store, and she has gotten reported a few times...particularly for her facial expressions. They say "she always looks as if she doesn't want to be there...."....I tell her, welp, that's customer service, for ya! You can't win! No matter how hard you try! Been there, done it. Customer service is not the field for me.
I disagree with the way most have shifted the burden of cordial customer service onto the customer, as if clerks are somehow entitled to be brazenly rude without provocation. I believe so much attention is given to the proverbial "customer from hell" antagonizing the poor, lowly clerk that little thought is given to the clerks who can be just as nasty to undeserving customers. Paying customers should expect at least a half-hearted effort at making them feel welcome. If you refuse to acknowledge their presence or treat them as if they are an impediment to your productivity, then it reflects badly on the company image and would more than likely cause them to go out of their way to avoid receiving service at that location.
Sure there are those customers who give clerks a hard time seemingly just because they can, but oftentimes clerks have the habit of releasing the undiffused tension accumulated from one bad experience onto an unsuspecting and undeserving patron, and that is just as wrong and should be reported.
have you ever smelled and seen poopy diapers on a baby sitting in the shopping cart and being pushed around the store while mom shops? Guess who cleans out that seating area of the cart?
Probably no one. In my five years working at Arby's, I never once cleaned a toilet. Cleaning a toilet when asked meant running a mop around the pedestal to get off the inevitable, er, um, yellow stain. This mop more often than not also mopped the floor where you sat, and if I was feeling lazy, had low morale, or was being rushed to get done (I liked to milk the clock and was great at it), it may have cleaned off the seat on which you sat as well. We also typically had exemplary health department ratings. I don't know how.
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Originally Posted by Bandon
Problem is these people ARENT professionals. They are minimum wage slow death workers. When I worked in customer service I always maintained that if you wanted me to act "professional" then you needed to pay me like one..
I wanted to say this but you beat me to it. How much does everyone want out of someone making maybe $8 an hour? (How much do these sorts of jobs pay anyways? I haven't had a job like this in ten years.) At that hourly rate the boss is lucky the employee isn't stealing everything not bolted down. If the cashier is not very nice, I'm just rude back, or at least not as kind. Big deal, life goes on. Maybe I didn't want to talk about the weather anyways.
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have you ever smelled and seen poopy diapers on a baby sitting in the shopping cart and being pushed around the store while mom shops? Guess who cleans out that seating area of the cart? 
