To get really p**d off at overly chatty & annoying checkout assistants?

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Don't know about anyone else, but when I go food shopping I want to get my stuff through he checkout as quickly as possible & I don't want to be held up by the assistant asking inane question such as "so, any plans for the weekend"? "yeah, none of your damn business!" I wouldn't mind so much if it didn't mean them slowin down how quickly they scan the items. Anyone else get really annoyed by this??! Grrr!!!

I have met some fantastic people this way .......my ds has a unusual illness and the cashier at our tesco knows a lot about it and she always asks how he is ,another cashier is a retired legal clerk and keeps checking on ds1 who is studying law - I think its lovely......it doesnt cost to be nice and you can meet some v interesting people this way.

Tis used to do my head in when I first came to Australia, and I longed for surly anonymity of London.

I'm used to the chat now, though. Quite like it.

Having worked in shops, bars and restaurants in my yoof and having sometimes experienced some fairly cold and unfriendly customers myself I always focus on the fact that the shop assistant or barperson etc. is a person.

With feelings and sensibilities.

OK - sometimes I'm in a hurry BUT they are often having a boring day, facing hours of sitting there scanning stuff and often having to deal with very rude folk who treat them as less than people.

All I need from the checkout bod - they are not a "bod".

and its not like they're going to check up on you! if you have a weekend of drinking alone and masterbating furiously planned and they ask you if you're having a party , you don't have to give them any personal details if you don't wish (though many do! ), you can still chat back vaguely, or make something up if it amuses you more

Checkout Bod. How charming.

It's annoying if you're in the queue whilst they're having a conversation with someone about growing your own veg on allotments. Quite nice if they are polite and chatty whilst you're the one being served.

I'm not very interested in sharing the details of my life with complete strangers. Well, not when sober anyway. But I've never thought it hurt to smile pleasantly and be non-committal when checkout staff are clearly under instructions to try and engage with customers. I tend to think "rather them than me", pack my shopping and fuck off quietly back to the car.

They're not a 'bod', they're a person!

I'll talk happily to anyone who talks to me. I especially love it when the nice checkout person has a good bitch about their shop manager/shift rota/customer services/the person before me in the queue.

Lots of simmering snobbery about people's thoughts on being a checkout operator. It's not pretty.

I'm with you Katie, I talk to anyone.

Yes bod is awful.

It wouldn't occur to me to instigate chit-chat with a checkout person, so I can never understand why they would want to attempt it with me.

They [me] attempt it with you because its our job and we are told too.

You are probably one of the charming customers we laugh at when your gone....

You never know what may happen in life, one day it might be your turn as a checkout bod.

Hey, my best friend works in the ASDA deli, she gives mean create-your-own pizza. She does it to get out of the house as is full time carer.

I like it. Why not be friendly? I've never really noticed anyone chatting when it's busy and they've stopped beeping the shop. That might annoy me a bit.

Some people choose to be a ''bod''........ I for one do it to fit in with my family. I can be there to see the kids to school and be there when they come home [except on days my oh is there].

I work with several people that have done the degrees had the high flying jobs and were fed up with it ruining there family/free time. So they got a simple go in do your hours go home job, and have a giggle at the customers at the same time.

I sometimes go round to see her when she is working, then write down something really over the top praiseworthy, e.g. "KSBF on the pizza section has created the most eye-pleasing, scrumptious, nutritional pizza I have ever seen and served me with grace and charm" in the customer compliment book.

They call her on the tannoy to tell her. 5 mins after her shift ends, she's on the phone "Again!????"

Of course they do, iamme43 - all this 'Oh poor people on the nasty checkouts' need to save their pity for something proper, like.

RobinSparkles - it isn't about being miserable, I am actually very polite. But some days I just want to be in and out of the shop.

I would much rather have someone pleasant on a checkout than some of the miserable creatures who serve you. I always think how awful it must be for the friendly staff when some customers stand there chatting on their mobiles while they are serving them. Must make them feel sub-human - just like an automated checkout. I quite often see this happening - even to the extent that the customer just wallops in their debit card, completes the transaction and leaves, without even saying thank you. I wish being polite would come back into fashion, even if it does make me sound like an old gimmer.

Some of the attitudes towards shop staff here are awful. I was at work last night (supermarket checkout) and before I'd even opened my mouth to say hello, ask if she needed bags etc, lovely woman spat 'just shut up & scan my shopping' at me!
Is that an acceptable way to speak to someone? Fwiw, I managed to keep on chatting away for her whole shopping. Her face was like thunder
Best bit, she can't complain about someone being too nice. I read and get the cues if people don't fancy a bit of chat, but that woman fucked me right off.
If you don't fancy a chat, at least be a little bit respectful, we're real people too, probably doing the job to make ends meet, so take your preconceptions and throw them away!

"Just shut up and scan my shopping" - that's just downright horrible IsSamNormans

Sounds like you handled it perfectly though!