Secrets about your grocery store clerk:

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It makes me not have a car full of rolling sodas, dog food cans, and produce. Generally speaking, when there's an open end, things can get out of the bag. And funnily enough, they do.



I doubt most people care what you think. I certainly wouldn't. 50 cents off is more valuable than not raising your indifference to hate.



Does anyone care?



Interestingly enough, with one minute still left, it's still open. They could just keep shopping around until the store closed completely and then check out.

Of course, it'd probably be a good idea to remember that without customers, there wouldn't be a store. And without a store, you wouldn't have a job.



Change weighs down purses very easily. Unless you plan to start giving me only cash in return, you're going to get some change when I've got too much. Plus, if we don't give you change, you eventually run out, and then I have to stand there. Incredible though it may sound, I have better things to do than wait for you to finish your wrestling match with a roll of pennies.



If you notice it. There actually is a point to that one; sometimes, the cashiers don't notice when they ring up something twice or ring up the wrong thing or whatever.



I don't think many customers bother to like you either, so don't worry about it.

Actually, I don't mind most cashiers. But here's a tip for you: as the customers, it's our money that's keeping your job intact. That doesn't make everything we do right, but half the stuff you pointed out wasn't wrong either.

I worked in retail, I can understand what you mean. I had to deal with LOTS of incompetant, arrogant, ignorant, psychotic and bigoted sh*thead customers myself.
There were however customers who restored my faith in humanity, not all of them were stupid. They were, sadly, in the minority though

What about those reusable bags made of canvas, cloth, or heavy plastic? They want you to buy them at a dollar or two each bring them with you and take them with you full of groceries. And they can take the abuse of heavy loads of groceries, at least for a while. The heavy plastic Giant Food grocery bags were the best, actually, the cloth bags tear sticthes eventually.

I don't mind the cloth bags. In fact, I admire people who use them. What I *do* mind are the following scenarios with cloth bags:

Customer has many more groceries than will fit in one or two cloth bags, but insists that I must fit all of the groceries in the bags, including the milk! Sometimes the bags are so heavy I can barely lift them, as heavy as the biggest cases of beer, and they still want me to put more groceries in, even if it means cramming several cantaloupes on top of the eggs and tomatoes and bread. If they really want to use cloth only, at any expense, they should either bring more bags or buy less food at a time. I don't appreciate a snotty attitude when I am faced with an impossible task.

Bags that are stiff, smelly, and stained with dried blood (from meat) or old sour milk. Yuck. The bags are cloth, please throw them in the washing machine every month or two.

People who have a huge cartload of groceries and a line behind them, and want the food bagged in cloth, but they don't give you the bags until half the cart is unloaded. Bagging in cloth takes more time, we really need the bags as soon as you start to unload. The people behind get antsy and irritable at me because I am now backlogged with groceries.

And lastly, the worst...the person who waits until you've bagged a cartload of food to tell you that they wanted it in cloth, paper, or double paper, or paper in plastic.

I work as a cashier in a grocery store, and some of those I can relate to. I do care about being nice to the customers, and usually they are also very nice.

Though some of the stuff customers do, irritates me.
If they have WIC Vouchers (these are government food checks for poor folks with kids under 5, they are for milk, eggs, etc) and they also buy a whole bunch of junk food along with the milk and eggs. Why not just use the junk food money for these items? Why is the government giving them money for milk and eggs even though it looks like they could afford them if they didn't buy the junk?

Argueing over the price of somethng, even though I didn't set the price. I can't help them there, its not my department. If they don't like it, they must speak to the manager.

Giving me a bad attitude does not make me want to do things for them. It only makes me want to get rid of them and avoid helping them in the future. But if they are nice to me I will try and help them with their shopping difficulty as much as I am able.

This is not an exhaustive list, but these are some of them

First of all just about everyone eats junk food - so don't criticize the wiccer's for it, unless you are going to criticize the nonwiccers. Also wic food is to provide supplemental healthy food to family. Look around at the prices of the junk food. Then look at the prices of the healthy food. Is it any surprise that poor people choose to buy junk? If you have 5 mouths to feed but only $2.50 are you going to buy 3 apples or 8 ho-hos. i'd go with the ho ho's - at least then everyone gets to eat and you have some "food" left over for tomorrow which you have no money for.

*Also don't forget that the people in the Wic program are known for not being able to make nutritious choices. Not because they don't want to, but because they don't have the knowledge to. That's why nutrition counseling is a requirement of getting those vouchers.

Second a lot of people have doctors orders to eat junk food. I'm not allowed to eat fruit but I'm expected to gorge myself on sour cream, whipped cream, butter, and add mayonaisse and extra cheese to my hamburger patty. These foods are the most healthful foods for me to eat. There are a few fruits I'm techincally allowed in very small quantities but I'm severely allergic to them so they are also ruled out.

I can safely drink a glass of pepsi - in fact one of my recommended foods is a glass on caffeine-free soda mixed with whip cream. I am in danger if I eat a pear, and that danger will take at least a day to pass.


I am also under doctors orders to not to eat corn, carrots, peas or rice.

Bacon, hot dogs, sausage, peanut butter, cocoa, sugar-free jello, and pudding are on my safe-foods list

Those 5 packs of gum you saw me buying last month weren't a "treat." The medicine I was on was causing a dry mouth so severe I couldn't swallow or talk and chewing gum was what was advised to help with that

I get bad looks and comments just because I purchase what the doctor tells me I have to eat with my food stamps. If you don't like the fact you see me purchasing whip cream, cream cheese, and mayonnaisse and no fruit, I'm not the person you should be angry at or giving nasty comments/looks to in the grocery store. You should be angry at god. After all he is the one that made so eating any fruit puts me in danger of injury and death, and eating items like cream cheese a necessity if I'm going to be able to have the energy to get out of bed, let alone chew my food that day. As well as making it so I can't work even though I really want to.

You'd be surprised at how many people have told me they know I'm just being lazy and trying to use the government. I've been called a ridiculously over-educated leach just trying to steal their tax dollars. And all because rather than pursuing my dreams, I'm out getting brain scans, xrays, and $300/month medicine. They seriously think I chose to wrack up $17,000+ in medical bills and am lying about symptoms severe enough to warrant brain surgery just so I could get out of work 2 weeks earlier and be lazy. Had I not "chosen" to do this, I'd have a trip to europe halfway paid for, would have had the whole summer off to goof around (I'd intentionally saved enough money to do just this), and would be applying to the most elite doctoral schools in the country right now. My "choice" has zapped my thousands dollars of savings, I owe friends $1,500 that I borrowed to pay for necessities, I can't even afford to send in $5 to keep my medical bills from being sent to a credit collection agency, and my college debt is greatly mounting as the interest keeps adding to the amount and I can't make any payments at all on it. And I've no choice but to move in with people I never intended to see or speak to again in my life, and who just thinking about spending time brings up horrible memories

But nope, just ask the average person on the street, they'll tell you I'm a lazy, over-educated good for nothing food stamp leacher who is just trying to avoid ever having to working. Doesn't at all matter my last EEG showed so much seizure activity my neurologist was shocked I was able to carry on a conversation and I'm still having seizures on a daily basis, that I needed to celebrate milestones like staying awake for 8 hours straight rather than engaging in one thing I had made plans for this summer. Nor does the fact that I went from working 3 jobs and going to school full time to not having the energy to chew my food when i did nothing but sleep for week play a factor. I'm faking everything and am healthy enough that I could be working a hard, phsyically demanding job if only I weren't so lazy. After all its impossible for anyone who has earned a master's degree to experience any health problem that prevents them from being a fully functional member of society.

Oh yes, and I'm applying for medic alert charity because I just want to get jewelry without having to pay for it and not because I can reasonably expect to have a seizure every time I go out and am on medicine that even comes with a warning you need to wear a medic alert bracelet while taking it.

I was told of all this by the majority of members on another forum, who had an even better knowledge of how much extra, unneccessary and volunteer work and how much more severe and long lasting my symptoms were than I've ever mentioned anywhere on here.

It isn't that I mind people buying junk food on food stamps, it's that junk food is ALL that they feed their kids. By junk food, I mean 90% soda, candy, chips, doughnuts, sticky gooey stuff, and maybe 10% pizza or lunchables or ramen noodles.

That still isn't as bad as the folks who put the milk or bread or meat back when they run out of money, instead of buying less or no beer or cigarettes.

If that was all the money you had for the month there is a good chance that is all you'd buy too, especially if you did not grow up an environment where you were educated about nutrition and fulfilling foods. I have absolutely no income and no hope of getting one any time soon - yet I'm only eligible for $30/month in food stamps. If I follow my diet, my grocery bill is around $90.

Alot of people on food stamps don't have eliectricity, and even those that do don't always have refridgerators, ovens and microwaves. So it just isn't sensible to buy things that need to be refridgerated or cooked. You'll even find quite a few who eat their ramen noodles "crunchy" because thats their only option

Of course there are canned goods, but not everyone has a method of opening them - you can't buy can openers with your food stamps, and alot of eldery and disabled people aren't strong enough to pull the top off the pull open cans

Last edited by Triangular_Trees on 01 Sep 2008, 9:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Triangular Trees, I'm on food stamps. I have a whole passel of kids (6) to feed and not nearly enough money or food stamps to feed them with. I do understand trying to stretch money. We eat a LOT of pasta, rice (I buy the rice in bulk), beans, oatmeal, cheap whole wheat bread and sale items. I also grow a lot of veggies in our small yard instead of lawn. I understand that not everyone can grow a garden, but it's amazing what just a couple of summer squash and tomato plants can do. Even when I was homeless, I gardened in other people's yard in exchange for some of the produce. I definitely know what it's like to be dirt poor.

These people are buying a hundred dollars worth of soda, chips, cookies, and snack food, and typically a carton of cigarrettes and a few cases of beer. They aren't dirt poor. What is more, they don't usually buy the sale items or use the coupons or buy the store brands of junk food.

Of course, a lot of people on food stamps do shop responsibly, but I really hate to see children of any family income level grow up on nothing at all but sugar and fat.

Because of my health all fruits are off limits, so are quite a few common vegetables (ie carrots, peas, and potatos.) A diet that pretty much solely consists of fat is the reason i am able to get up in the morning. Were I to eat the typical "healthy" diet, i'd be lucky if I could stay awake for one hour straight ever day

There are roughly 3 million people in the same boat as me in America (more if you count people with similar dietary restrictions for a different reason).

Its always best to not jump to conclusions, because whats healthy for one person is deadly poison for another

*Where do you expect the foodstampers to get all these coupons you want them to use. For the most part I know of three ways to get coupons - newspapers, weekly circulars, and whats already included in a product. If you need government assistance you should not be buying a newspaper- there is no valid reason to waste your money on news you can get for free through other sources. The coupons in our weekly circular are almost always for fastfood restuarants - occasionally they are for something like "buy 5 get 1 free at rite aid." And then theres the coupons included in the package but someone can only use one of those if they have already bought the product in the past

Hi again. At the store where I work, they send out a coupon book free to all addresses each month, with coupons (good only in our store of course) and then they send out a weekly sale paper with coupons, too. Additionally, a stack of these papers is available free on several tables throughout the store. There isn't an access issue there, unless the people can't read (which happens), but even then, I would think they could look at the pictures... We also, twice a year, have case good sales, where you can order food that will keep by the case and get really good savings on it. That's how I buy our rice and canned veggies, but almost any store will allow you to buy a case of something at a discount if you ask. Sometimes you have to order it and then wait a few days for it to arrive.

I do understand your predicament, and it sounds really unpleasant (I think I woudl just die if I couldn't eat fruit!! !). I'm not pointing a finger at you at all.

But seriously, when an entire family only ever eats fried foods (which they can't buy on food stamps but frequently pay cash for anyway), grease, sugar, cheap starches, and cases and cases of soda...I really suspect that it isn't due to income level or a dietary condition. In a case like that, we're seeing lifestyle.

I'm sure some cashiers have gotten mad at me in the past for buying tofu, organic milk (caused less of a reaction for me than standard milk), whole wheat pasta (I try to buy it mainly when it's on sale) and similar items. I've even heard soem of my cowrokers say that they feel angry when people on food stamps buy steaks (on sale or not). Personally, I'm happy that the kids are getting fed real food....and hamburger is risky, so.

My new pet peeve as a cashier: creepy male customers who seem to think that all female cashiers are fair game for hitting on or making crude remarks to.

Also annoying in fast food:

Customers who grab other peoples food because they are "in a hurry".

This thread is awesome, good job OP, i mean, sh*t bad job!

I wasn't implicating you, Triangle Trees, I am just mad at the irresponsible people. I can't pretend to understand what you are going through, as it sounds like it can be an ordeal. From what you have mentioned, it sounds like you eat all of that kind of stuff to induce a form of ketosis, which I have heard tends to help reduce seizures. But I might have gotten my assumption wrong.

I am not a stranger to needing SSI (in fact I get it now, plus Medicare) and I make just a bit more then minimum wage. If I move out, there is a possibility I will probably have to get food stamps.

What I get aggrivated over, is not when people on WIC buy junk food, it is when they buy milk and eggs, and they have $200-300 of junk food for the rest. They have a few fruits and vegetables, but the rest of it is junk. It is when they have better clothes then I do, and spend more on useless crap, then they do on real food.

And this I have actually seen only once, and that was the case I was refering to, not the other WIC people. It was such an astonishing thing, that I remember it so much. I have never had another WIC user do it.

Last edited by Metalwolf on 02 Sep 2008, 5:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

mendori must work in cleveland.. being negative in a job generally gets you fired.. dont spread the negativity to others, they dont like to be around angry people.. and what WE dont like is rude cashiers who cant tell us hello goodbye or what the total is.. if you hate your job, get another one. Dont take it out on the people around you.

[quote="ADoyle"]I also work for a grocery store, but my main job is a bookkeeper. That task only takes 4 hours out of my shift, so that leaves the rest of the time to help as a cashier. When it's my turn to do the books, I have to be there before the store opens so the registers have money.

I actually care about the customers, if I didn't, I wouldn't have applied to work there. From my previous retail experience, I developed a thick skin when customers are upset. Most customers are pretty friendly from my experience.[/quot

THANK you doyle!! ! in cleveland, it is the grocery clerks and clerks in general that have an attitude ..9for the past 10 yrs) good thing you work in customer service! to quote a sarcastic 'roseanne' show line..w ell, we live in repeating tv lines, right?
when people ticked me off so badi wouldnt work in cust . service.

AND GROCERY CLERKS OF AMERICA: YEAH YOUR ANGER AND DISGUST IS OBVIOUS, WE GET IT. GET IN ANOTHER LINE OF WORK LISTEN TO MY SHOW AT BLOGTALKRADIO.COM/WENDY-W.