To want to shout at check out assistants who...

[addictedtofrazzles]

seem to want to check out your shopping trolley as fast as they possibly can (like there is an unspoken race with their colleagues) and leave the conveyer belt on so that all your food just keeps piling up.

It really gets my goat!

I can't believe that a checkout person in Aldi puts up with being asked to pack a bag. If they do then it's very unfair to ask them and unfair on the other people in the queue. If you want help packing bags go to a more expensive supermarket. If you want the cheap deals at Aldi then use the service as you are supposed to and pack your bag away from the checkout.

They have targets to reach. Give them a break.

Isn't it a bit feeble to expect someone else to pack your bag? Unless you're disabled or a frail elderly person of course.

Does it not occur to anybody to talk to the checkout person and ask them to go easy? I can't keep up with Aldi style speed scanning but hopefully I'm not so slow in packing that I'd cause someone to miss their target. They are human beings - if you think it's beneath you to talk to them then it's your own problem IMO.

Ilovemyhens - the checkout staff are prob told to chitchat with customers. They will be cast from the hallowed towers of the checkout if they fail their monthy appraisal cos they scanned too slow and failed to ask how your day is going.
In supermarkets in shittier necks of the wood I am never asked if i'd brought my own bags - a sackable offence in more affluent areas.

I saw a fab checkout in France. There was a hole in the till near the checkout person which was lined with a carrier bag. So the till person put everything down this chute/hole. When the bag was full they pressed a button and the bag disappeared under the checkout and came out a special hole at the end of the checkout. I want those in Tesco!

Of course it is possible to ask them to slow down but surely the assistant needs to have a modicum of common sense to see that the customer is sinking beneath the piles of groceries and turn the conveyor off? I don't pack slowly, but I am forever bewildered that I need to ask rather than the assistant being helpful and reading the situation.

In Aldi you aren't supposed to pack your bags at the checkout. Unless you have a few bits you can chuck in quickly, put your shopping back in the trolley and pack at the counter beyond the checkout.
Honestly, it's gone downhill in Aldi since these Waitrose people started shopping there.
Or go to Australia, every supermarket I've been to there the assistant has packed all my bags and people in the queue are used to it and very tolerant.

I love shopping in Aldi. Huge long queue, but very speedy checkout assistant practically throws the stuff in your trolley, pay, on to the next one, quick as anything.

I take my trolley back to the car where I pack the stuff into the bags I keep in the boot.

I'm in and out in no time & no small talk

Ooh yes, bags packed here in Australia feels like a luxury! They even separate the food stuffs like I would and have special coloured bags to differentiate chemicals ie washing liquid or deodorant. Bliss.

Apart from the conversation that always seems to run:

them "And how are you today?"

me "fine thanks"

them "whereabouts are you from"

me "The Gap"

them "you sound English. Are you English? I've got family/friends people --who ran to the other side of the world to --escape me there"

and continue until they have told me their life history.

And I only went in for bread and chocolate milk [buying for dc - honest]

Come to Switzerland then.

I could write a novel in the time it takes them to scan my items.

Not to mention the guy on the cold meat counter doing origami bag folding when packing my ham.

No problems with the speedy check out - just turn the conveyor OFF when you see the back log!!!!

How do you all know about this secret of no packing at the tills at Lidl? Or is there a great big sign that I haven't noticed because I'm trying to pack shopping at the speed of lightning?

I have wondered why the checkout girls in there always give me funny looks.

I love the fact that they always pack your stuff here in Oz too - and sensibly, all cold stuff together etc. Last time I was back in the UK and went to Sainsburys, although I drooled over the choice and prices, once I had been through the checkout (rude girl, no help packing etc.) I decided on balance that good old Woolies wins hands down! (And yes, it took me ages to get used to the idea of buying food at Woolworths ).

You could.. you know... pack faster? I tend to put things on the conveyor in a way that makes sense, ie all the meat in one pile, all the cleaning stuff in one pile, all the fruit & vegetables in one pile, all the frozen stuff in one pile, etc. Then all I have to do is get my bags ready (you do take your own bags, right?) and once the checkout assistant starts scanning, I can just sling the stuff into the relevant bag, quick enough to keep up - and when I get home, unpacking is a piece of piss. :)

If they are going too fast for me, I tell them that I won't be paying until all my shopping is packed and loaded into my trolley, so there is no point hurrying, all said with a smile but they know exactly what I mean!

I know it's daft but they can't turn the conveyer belt off unless you ask, I know they have targets but surely someone, somewhere in Sainsbury's realises they are more likely to lose custom if everything is done in such a rush with food gtting ruined!

Bairy - "I tell them that I won't be paying until all my shopping is packed and loaded into my trolley, so there is no point hurrying, all said with a smile but they know exactly what I mean!"

If I worked on a till and I had to serve you, I think I'd probably find that each and every item in your trolley had a defective barcode on it and therefore would need to have the code keyed in, individually. I might have trouble with that though, and make loads of mistakes! And then it would all take AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGES! Because I hate passive aggressive people who can't just say what they want :)

my annoyances - them demanding to know how many bags I've used when I'm still packing. I always say "as soon as I'm done packing, I'll let you know." the other one is the checkout person not speaking at all - have had a couple that had no greeting, looked like they were playing a stellar game of "anywhere but here"... as in they would like to be anywhere but here... didn't even voice the total or thank you or anything. At that point I ASK them something - just to see if they're actually able to talk. . I will admit that I stopped at the customer service on a couple occasions and told them that they might want to make sure that person was alright as they didn't speak to me at all and perhaps they were ill or something as it was very offputting. (is that a word? too lazy to look it up LOL) How hard it is to be civil and say hello to a customer. good grief....

Well, in fairness customers can be a pita too. I remember one man split something on his hand and then wiped it off ON MY TUNIC!!! You know what - I am not REALLY just an extension of the great checkout machine, you know!

It's exciting to know that customers get as irritated by minimum wage staff as minimum wage staff get by customers

steps, I've BEEN that minimum wage staff. I know customers can be annoying, but that's part of the job. You just have to get past it and be polite. Some days it can be a real struggle, but all jobs have their moments, don't they...

YANBU. I ALWAYS ask them to slow down so that I can pack things in the anally retentive normal way, but they stop for about a nanosecond and then continue to chuck the eggs down the belt followed swiftly by the fabric softener and anvils. FFS.

'Please can you stop for a minute to let me catch up'
'yes, of course'
'thank you'
'.....'
Launching of groceries resumes
'hang on a sec.. let me just pack these'
'....'
Pringles and Carex launched into the WRONG BAGS
OMG, a lettuce? That was carefully placed to be on top of the 'bottom-of-the-fridge-bag' WHY is is near the frozen berries?

Triggles; "all jobs have their moments, don't they..."

Yes: for me, a customer who can't bring themselves to just smile at me and say "Would you mind slowing down? I'm struggling to keep up!" and instead has to make a passive aggressive comment is "one of those moments."
I don't - I genuinely don't - see why I have to be polite to someone who behaves imperiously towards me. I just don't.