Make Your Walmart Cashier’s Life Better: Wear Some Underwear
In response to our call for information from store employees about how to get the best service, C. wrote in with this list of tips for customers. Most of them apply to other retail venues as well as many interpersonal interactions in general.
I work at a Walmart and there are several things that will not get you the best of service.
1. Talking on your cell phone while checking out. Doing it until you get to me is fine, but when you reach us, please be polite and tell the person on the other end of the phone to either hang on, or that you’ll call them back. We don’t demand a lot from our customers, but respect IS one thing we would all like.
One other thing regarding this–regular customers aren’t the only ones doing this. Some of the other associates have also been guilty of it–and have even complained about the customers doing the same thing! I have also had a regular customer who has one of those ear pieces where she would carry on a conversation with the person on the other end the entire time I was checking her out–and she didn’t even bother acknowledging me!
2. Please don’t bathe in perfume or other smelly stuff. For some of us, only a huge wind in the other direction will keep us from getting headaches from this–and it isn’t likely to happen inside a store. A little bit definitely goes a long way!
3.Please do not dress (or in this case, undress) like you are at home. That butt crack when you bend over is not exactly becoming. Neither is the large rip in your pants that shows you are not wearing underwear. Eeeww!
4. PLEASE save the electric carts for those who truly need them! We do not have an unlimited supply and there are people who really can’t move very far without one. If you can walk to the car–or across the store–without difficulty, you probably don’t need a cart. (One example: There is one customer who will come in through Lawn & Garden, walk from there–to the front of the store with no sign of a limp–and get an electric cart. When he is finished, he brings it back, plugs it in and walks back through the store to Lawn & Garden–with no limp!)
I am not exactly skinny, but I have seen some customers who NEED to walk through the store to get some kind of exercise. We even had one cart at another Walmart that I worked at where the axle was actually BENT because someone weighing 800 pounds was using it. They DO have weight limitations!
5. Even though it IS your option, I–and most of the other cashiers, I expect–will not bag your cookies with your can of Raid or rat poison. Don’t know about the other cashiers, but if I am requested to put food in with that stuff, I will place it on the check writing platform and let YOU do it. That way, if you get sick or die because of it, then the camera right above me will catch that so that I am not disciplined or fired because you got sick. I also will not bag food with dryer sheets. In just a short time, your food will taste just like dryer sheets!
6. Finally, please realize that we are human. We have emotions and like being treated like humans. Unless you have proof or a good suspicion, please don’t yell at us for nothing. It DOES bother us, even after working with customers for many years. Just be respectful and treat us like you want us to treat you. It’s common courtesy.
If we have done something wrong like ringing something up twice, believe us when we say we can’t correct it AFTER you have paid. You will have to go to the service desk. Be pleasant and understanding. It may be the end of the day and we may have had a rough day.
Do you have inside information gleaned from years of working in retail that you feel like consumers should know? Shoot us an e-mail at tips@consumerist.com
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