I have been a working cashier in a large grocery store for nearly eight years and have seen my fair share of bad customers, as well as good ones. The good folks that visit my store to shop are the blessing of any retail store and make our days pleasant and uneventful. It is the bad customers, the ones who refuse to leave their attitudes and unpleasantness at the door and spread their own personal miseries like a plague over the average work day.

Some of the grievances I will list, however, are entirely personal and no amount of great customers coming through my check-out line could possibly make a dent on my hostilities and impatience. I tend to have little time to deal with the various sarcasms and in-your-face confrontations that many customers think they have a right to bring to the table and even though the old mantra, "the customer is always right" is the motto of our store, I heartily disagree with it on a regular basis.

My #1 pet peeve on the job is that simple question. "Are you open?" On the job, I am always in uniform with a name tag firmly attached at my collar. As a cashier, I can be located standing at a check-out lane with a cash register somewhere right in front of me. On duty, the light above my register, which has a number on it designating what station I have been assigned to, will be turned on. The closed sign, normally located on the conveyor belt on any register not currently in use, will be nowhere in sight. Having all this in place, I will be standing there, awaiting the next order when someone will approach me and ask the dreaded question. "Are you open?" Now, why would I be standing in front of that cash register, in uniform, with my lane light on, staring at passing customers, during open hours, if I was not open and ready to check the next customer? I am quite sure that should I answer "no" to that question, the customer in question would retort with a sacastic remark about me standing there, looking like I am "open" and with that in mind, why ask the question in the first place?

Customer Rudeness

Opening and ending greetings- When a customer approaches my lane I will offer a "hello" or "good morning" greeting as they begin to unload their purchases onto the conveyor belt. The same goes for the conclusion of the transaction, when I offer a "thank you, have a nice day". Usually these greetings are received with a response in kind. Not always. Bad customers will respond with a stare or just ignore the greetings completely. Others will be too involved on their cell phones to pay much notice to me. These customers will then be ignored by me throughout the remainder of our business (or until they decide to get off of the phone). There really is nothing more rude than a customer on a cell phone because it tells me that this person does not consider me important enough to to interact with even though I am dealing with their business in a pleasant and effective manner.

Placing money, especially coins, on the conveyor belt (or other small items)- The belts in our store, where items are placed to be checked out, is automatic and cannot be turned off. Movement only stops when a complete belt cycle runs through or an item reaches the point where a laser scans it and ceases the belt from moving further forward. Money, coins and flat items will not stop the belt movement and these items will usually end up under the register where they can not be accessed without taking the side panels off and searching in the dust, vegetable particles and scraps beneath, an arduous task, to be sure. After ringing an order, I will patiently wait while my customer locates their money and once they do, I will receive it and finish the order. Often times, I will already have my hand extended to receive the payment only to have the customer in front of me place it on the belt between us where it glides surely toward the bottomless pit below the belt. Out of respect for the working cashier, I can only ask any potential customer reading this to please be courteous and place your payment in the hand of your cashier. I guarantee that any change I may owe you back will be offered in the same manner that it was received, whether it was in my hand or somewhere on the belt.

Chit-Chat- Pleasantries exchanged between a customer and myself are great for business and, I feel, makes a customer feel welcomed into the store and hopefully, leaves them with a good feeling enough that they will want to return. However, I am not a therapist, mechanic, doctor or a bartender and I do not care to hear about petty minor complaints, medical ailments, car malfunctions or relationship problems. It is not my job to care or listen. I will afford you the same consideration that I gave the guy ahead of you and, to keep the line moving, it wasn't that much consideration. I assure you the person behind you does not want to wait while we have an extended conversation regarding your gallbladder surgery or recent car accident. They want to see the line's continued movement just as it was before you stepped up to chat.

Sarcastic humor and rude comments- Your spouse, family and friends might see your sarcastic humor as amusing. I don't know you and consider your sarcasm as rude and insulting. Don't let the first comment you make to me after approaching my check-out line be " Well, I guess you need something to do" or "I guess I need to put you to work". These comments may have been funny the first few times I heard them but they get old really fast and by now, I am sick to death of hearing them. A simple "Good morning" will do just fine.

Asking "How are you?"- This question is one of the most common greetings known to man and it would be hard to go anywhere without hearing it at least once during the typical business day. I have to wonder, why do we ask it? Obviously, anyone with a little tact will answer "Fine" or Good, and you?" which leads to the simple reply, "Fine". Of course, "fine" is not always the truth. Between friends, it is totally acceptable to ask this question as it is a part of bonding and communication. Asking a complete stranger how they are doing is just asking for trouble and I refuse to ask or answer this question anymore simply because it often leads to an extended monologue regarding personal well-being and I don't really wish to deal with one's personal issues; I have too many of my own. How I am is no-one's business but mine. If you know me, you probably know how I am doing and if you don't know me, you don't need to. Let's discuss the weather, last night's game or lasagna ingredients instead.

Counting Items and Price checks- Store policy requires us to count multiiple items and ring them up accordingly; also, price checks on items that do not scan at the register or scan the wrong price must be done by a store associate. A customer offering up the "correct" price of an item is not accepted as fact nor is the stated number of items given by the customer accepted as the correct amount. I won't go so far as to say the customer is lying when they say they have 15 2-liters of Coke still in the cart and my count turns out to be closer to 18, but it has happened and since I don't know each customer individually, I have no reason to take them at their word. Keep in mind it's nothing personal, our associates are simply required to verify this information ourselves.

Customer littering- Throughout my day on the job, I frequently come across the disgarded waste of previous shoppers. In the produce department, I will find opened bags of grapes spilling out all over the floor, cabbage leafs and corn husks dropped to the floor in front of the displays. From the deli department, one will find little plastic cups scattered throughout the aisles from the samples handed over to customers who ate the contents and left the empty cups wherever they desire. I have found banana peels, potato chip bags, empty water bottles, packaging from health products with the product removed, chicken bones, half-eaten apples, as well as used tissue, sale flyers, old receipts from other stores, shopping lists, and other waste items. I often wonder about the condition of these shoppers' homes if they so carelessly trash our establishment. Do they do this at home as well? Would they allow us to visit their place of employment and drop trash wherever we feel the need to?

Credit card usage- On the back of many credit cards you will find a statement which basically states "This card NOT valid unless signed" or something to that effect. Many banks strongly suggest that card holders sign their cards when they receive them. Personally, I suggest that the user write on the back of them "SEE PHOTO ID" if they don't feel the need to sign them and NEVER just leave the signature box blank. Reason being- Say I was a bad person and you, with your new unsigned credit card in your wallet, accidently drop your wallet or God-Forbid, I pick your pocket. Suddenly I have possession of this unsigned card and being the bad person I am, sign YOUR name to the back of the unsigned card in MY handwriting and, before you can cancel the thing, I have gone out and charged several hundred dollars to your credit card because I had the fortune of signing a credit slip with your name that matched the signature on the back of the card. Had you signed it yourself OR written SEE PHOTO ID on it, the chances are better that the cashier at the counter would have checked the back of the card and noticed that the signatures don't match or asked for the photo ID, which wouldn't have matched, the police would have been called and you would have been saved a lot of grief and credit problems in the future.

My store requires signature verification on all credit card purchases, for your protection as well as ours, and further, we require an ID for all unslgned cards. Still there are customers who object to handing over an ID when requested. Instead, they will argue, especially if they have the credit cards that have a photo of themselves printed right on the face of the card, and refuse to provide an ID. Sure, it looks like the customer standing in front of me but how do I know that this customer don't have a twin or another similar looking sibling out there who might have snatched the card unbeknowst to this customer? In these instances, I WILL call a manager and the customer can explain to him why they can't or won't offer their ID.

The signature on the back of the card is for vendor use to verify that the customer using the card is indeed, the person who is making the current purchase. The customer making the purchase MUST make every effort to duplicate the signature on the back of the card as closely as possible so there is no question that they are the actual card-holder. When a customer scribbles a fierce line across the bottom of a credit slip and I am holding their credit card with a neat signature across the back, it is rude and you can bet I will ask for an ID in hopes that somewhere I can find something that verifies you are who you say you are.

End of the day- On a typical 7-3 shift, I have been on my feet for 8 hours and I am more than ready to go home and sit down for awhile. At approximately 10 minutes 'til 3, I will shut off my lane light, place my closed sign near the end of my conveyor belt and prepare to leave for the day by cleaning all the belts and emptying my trash. I will then have about 5 minutes to count all the cash, checks, credit slips, food stamp vouchers, gift certificates and coupons I have collected during the day and turn them in so I can leave. Usually there will be a relief cashier coming in behind me to occupy the register I am leaving but sometimes I do not. Customers in the store, especially during a busy period, will stand and watch my every move, disregarding the closed sign, becoming angry that I have the audacity to leave when they want to be waited on. I promise that I have no authority, nor inclination to work overtime. I cannot help that they must stand in another line for what must seem like eternity, at times. I know. I am a shopper too and I have been there. I can only offer any shopper out there my condolences in these instances and ask that you understand that it is time for me to go. Please don't ask me to re-open. I would not go to where you work and demand that you work overtime to accommodate me. The managers in our store are very good at scheduling during peak hours but sometimes circumstances out of our control prevent us from meeting the needs of our customers at the exact moment they require it. For that, I apologize in advance.

Our store associates strive to provide our customers with a clean environment, well-stocked and neat aisles with a multitude of items and a friendly atmosphere. We will greet you with a smile and welcome you into our establishment again and again. We ask in return that you treat our store as you would our home, as this is what it is for most of us. Be courteous and respectful. Throwing trash on our floors and leaving unwanted items scattered throughout our place of business makes it that much harder to offer you a pleasant shopping experience. Treat our business as you would want us to treat yours and our staff as you would want us to treat you and the customer/employee relationship will prove to be a positive one which is to the benefit to all of us.