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Original poster

Are you an entitled dickhead

224 replies

onedaytwodayyay · 05/11/2021 21:24

Lol excuse the title but here goes... I work in a super market And I truly love the chat with all our loveky customers but one thing that makes me wanna stab people in the eye with a steak knife is when people literally hand you a big stinking, smelly bag and expect you to pack! Why the hell do people do this? Bring your own bag and pack it yourself. I'm not talking about elderly, disabled or parents with young kids that need a hand, I'm talking people in their 20s / 30s that are incapable of doing this basic task! We even have bags beside the till and many, many times people will ask "can I take a bag" then literally hand it to me to pack it whilst they dick about having a laugh with their mates. My absolute favourite is when full families come in with teenagers and insist on watching you pack, or worse start telling you how they want it packed into specific categories 🤬 whilst discussing the plans for the day 🤬🤬🤬🤬

If you're one of these people! Wake up

OP posts:
Walnetcream · 06/11/2021 07:14

My MIL roped me into a charity bag pack a few years ago. It was hard work packing all day. The people with a few items were ok. They usually put a donation in. Often a donation and they packed themselves anyway. It was the people with large trolleys that watched me pack loads of shopping that did not donate. The people who made a big fuss about how I was packing bags didn't donate. All day people were rude to me and the checkout staff. I have not seen anyone charity bag packing in a few years but I always put in a good donation after that. I wont be doing it again and MIL was in full agreement.

SnowWhitesSM · 06/11/2021 07:26

Sorry fell asleep OP.

My bags aren't smelly. I'm not sure why I like my bags packed for me. It honestly is the reason why I go to Sainsburys instead of Tesco. I like the way they pack the bags, I chat to the staff, usually have to make a run for something I've forgotten. It feels nice having someone do something for me. I spend my life doing shit for others all day every day, it's nice someone doing something for me.

BrainPotter · 06/11/2021 07:29

In Australia the checkout assistant packs your shopping bags. It works beautifully and I’ve never seen manky bags being presented.
When I moved to the UK, at my first supermarket shop I stood at the bottom of the till and all my shopping was thrown at me at great pace squashing and smashing into each other. Bad system in the UK all round!

mrsbitaly · 06/11/2021 07:47

I remember when they first started doing this at big stores, I would cringe when they started packing and ask to do it myself. I wasn't sure if it was a customer service thing or to move customers along from slow packing lol

custardbear · 06/11/2021 07:57

Slightly off topic but I've been using scan and go for a few months, it's revolutionised my life!

Jmaho · 06/11/2021 08:14

God no! People actually do this?? I must be shopping in the wrong places as I always end up in the situation where the cashier starts scanning my shopping before I've even put it all on the belt then its just a nightmare when I get down there trying to frantically get it all nagged. And they're asking me to pay when I've still got it all piled up!

BradleyCooperwillbemine · 06/11/2021 08:22

God I'm really shocked at this thread. Where I live, its quite normal for the checkout assistants to ask if you need any help with packing. I almost always do it myself. I do sometimes ask if they can start the packing if I am still in the process of putting stuff on the conveyer and then I take over.

WhoWants2Know · 06/11/2021 08:36

I did not know that people do this!

Allsorts1 · 06/11/2021 08:39

In the past, supermarkets would pack your bag for you, and some still do. So people might just be confused about whether your store does?

Allsorts1 · 06/11/2021 08:42

Totally missing the point of the thread but thinking about job security - as a check out person you’re better off working somewhere that offers services like bag packing for customers. Anywhere with a pack your own bag system is only a few steps away from being fully automated and doing the scan and go thing. Only places that charge a premium for human service won’t automate.

Mybalconyiscracking · 06/11/2021 08:48

I always refuse to someone packing for me because they’re generally sitting down and the necessary stretching and arm waving looks like a hideous strain on their poor backs and shoulders.

RedCarsGoFaster · 06/11/2021 09:02

Ugh, I hate people fiddling with things I've bought or am buying.

Many years ago as a 15yo, I worked with for Littlewoods. We went through about 2wks of training - yes really - ready for the opening of a brand new store. One of the things I've always remembered was psychology based.

They taught that once someone has decided to to buy an item, popped it into their basket or over their arm etc, they've decided they own it even before they pay for it. So if you (at the till) stuff that item into a bag roughly, if you were to throw it around, scrunch it up etc, the customer will be appalled. And it's very true.

Lots of us get our heckles up when clothes are badly folded, items roughly handled etc and this is why!

On packing, I've only once asked for help and to the car, in Asda. It didn't go down well even though she asked if I needed help! I was feeding 30 people, and I'd badly hurt my back so asked if they could please pack and if anyone could help me lift it into my car. Well, everything was slapped into a bag and thrown at the trolley like I'd offended her, and someone did help me the car but sulked the whole time! It was so weird I'd never accept again.

HolaAmigoz · 06/11/2021 09:03

My first ever part-time job was weekends working at the newly opened Anne Summers. I shit you not, I actually had a lady come in to return a dildo. It had most definitely been used 🤮. Not relevant at all to your op but in terms of grossness, it has to be up there!!! Don’t even get me started on the types of things we’d find in the changing rooms 🤢. God knows why they ever thought it was a good idea having changing rooms in there!

OhMyfanwy · 06/11/2021 09:09

I like to pack my own too. Unless I unload my trolley by weight the cashier has no idea in which order to pack it, so eggs could go under a tin of beans

OhMyfanwy · 06/11/2021 09:11

Grimacing at the thought of a changing room at Anne Summers, why would you? >Bleugh

thekaratekid · 06/11/2021 09:13

I had a weekend job in waitrose whilst in sixth form. We were told we had to ask every single customer if they wanted us to pack their bag. 9/10 if someone said yes they were elderly, infirm etc.

Another annoying thing about working at waitrose was that if someone asked where a product was, you had to lead them to the product. Even if it was on the other side of the store. You weren't allowed to provide helpful directions to aisle 4...no no. You had to lead the customer to the product, pick it up for them and then ask "is there anything else I can help you with?" Some people took the absolute piss and treated us as their personal shoppers, leading them round the store to all the bits they wanted. The supervisors were always watching and there was the constant threat of the "mystery shopper" who would dob you in for failing to hand her a jar of pickled walnuts. Hmm

DiamondBright · 06/11/2021 09:16

I pay Scouts, Brownies etc. NOT to pack my bags, I prefer to do it myself so it's easier to unpack and my eggs don't get crushed. So definitely would ask the cashier to do it.

The exception is Tesco express where they hold their hand out for your bag, the check outs are awkward so I comply with a smile and a thank you.

BoredZelda · 06/11/2021 09:17

I guess after a 7 hr shift of standing on my feet all day with a 15 min break it just gets tiring.

Is this at a major supermarket? Because that is against the law.

Are the checkouts in the uk like big proper belts and everything? You can't be doing your whole shop on a tiny self serve?

Asda has self scan with conveyor belts. At other major supermarkets they have a handheld console you can scan your shopping as you shop.

ChipButtyCurrySauce · 06/11/2021 09:30

I work in a similar shop to you OP. Due to the set up of the till people will shove their manky bags at me on the one side where there shopping is waiting to be scanned. I will gingerly (because they are usually stinking!) pick them up and shove them (politely!) back on the other side where I'm about to place the scanned stuff. If they don't even have the manners to ask me to pack in the first place I'm not doing it. It's not my job.

We have one woman who has particular bags for certain items and gets extremely fussy about what goes in which bag but insists we pack for her. I stopped doing it as she was holding the queue up asking me to remove items that I'd placed in the wrong bag! 🙄

I'll offer to help if I can see they need and it and regularly take bags of shopping out to their car if needs be. But no time for obviously capable people who take the piss.

Tsubasa1 · 06/11/2021 09:34

Wow! I've never seen this before!

Original poster
onedaytwodayyay · 06/11/2021 10:05

@ChipButtyCurrySauce

I work in a similar shop to you OP. Due to the set up of the till people will shove their manky bags at me on the one side where there shopping is waiting to be scanned. I will gingerly (because they are usually stinking!) pick them up and shove them (politely!) back on the other side where I'm about to place the scanned stuff. If they don't even have the manners to ask me to pack in the first place I'm not doing it. It's not my job.

We have one woman who has particular bags for certain items and gets extremely fussy about what goes in which bag but insists we pack for her. I stopped doing it as she was holding the queue up asking me to remove items that I'd placed in the wrong bag! 🙄

I'll offer to help if I can see they need and it and regularly take bags of shopping out to their car if needs be. But no time for obviously capable people who take the piss.

Oh gosh.... imagine if we were co workers in same shop with knowing lol 😆
We have some really weird people with annoying habits like buying 9 items and wanting to pay separately for them all 🙄 no consideration for people behind

OP posts:
WestendVBroadway · 06/11/2021 10:09

I was customer services (checkouts) section manager in Sainsbury's 25 years ago. We actually employed packers, we would always ask customers if they needed help packing their goods. The ones who asked for packers were usually elderly or I firm, we also had a few customers with two trolley loads, so it benefitted them to have someone pack while they were still unloading their other goods. The other group of people who wanted a packer were generally entitled folk who just CBA. Having had to pack many a customer's bag myself I am proud to say that I am adept at sorting and packing my shopping; Halo and get pissed off with my hubby who just chucks in all frozen, fresh meat , tins and fruit into the same bag.

WestendVBroadway · 06/11/2021 10:10

^^ Infirm, not I firm!

boobot1 · 06/11/2021 10:37

@SickAndTiredAgain

I don’t know why I used the example of my local Sainsbury’s in my comment above when I used to work on the checkouts at a Sainsbury’s. We were never told to pack, unless the customer requested it.
My local sainsbury always offer, even when im on my own with only a few items. I thought it was standard. It does slow the tills down though when people accept.
WishingWell5 · 06/11/2021 10:41

Going to a supermarket with your teenage children and getting the checkout assistant to pack all your items is number 1 in the 'The Guide To Raising Self Entitled Brats Handbook'. The smarmy looks I remember being given when I had this job...