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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To want the cashier in a shop to speak to me?

57 replies

Flowerplower · 02/03/2019 18:49

I live in England and have for a few years but didn't grow up here. So I don't know whether this is just "how it's done" here or not.

Sometimes in a shop I'll go to pay and the cashier will be speaking to her friend throughout the transaction - this is most frequent at cash desks where the cashiers stand next to each other. And the only thing she'll say to me is the amount I need to pay. Today for example I was in Wilkos and this happened and at the end I said "Ok thank you bye" and the cashier broke off her conversation and just stared at me as I picked up my bags and walked off....is that normal? Did I do something wrong or was she a bit rude or is this just how it's done?

I've also had other cashiers who were downright hostile or impatient but I know this is just them being not nice or just that they're unhappy - I guess it must not be a very fun job for most cashiers. Anyway it's not a big deal but AIBU to just want the cashier to say thanks and goodbye?

OP posts:
HomeMadeMadness · 02/03/2019 18:51

I think it's rude and usually the cashiers where I live won't do that. Likewise I wouldn't ever keep my headphones in while I was paying for my food as courtesy to the cashier.

ReaganSomerset · 02/03/2019 18:52

Well, they should, yes. But they're also probably paid minimum wage for a thankless task, so I doubt expect them to be too chipper.

HomeMadeMadness · 02/03/2019 18:52

I remember when I worked on a till (and it was a very cheap low budget shop mainly employing teenagers) we were specifically told we had to be engaging, acknowledge the person paying be receptive if they talk to us etc.

ReaganSomerset · 02/03/2019 18:53

Doubt = don't

topcat2014 · 02/03/2019 18:53

I enjoy interactions with shop staff in my daily life (eg paper every morning) and will always say good morning etc on arrival at the till.

Must admit to not having had great service in Wilkinsons, but most other settings are fine.

Ynbu · 02/03/2019 18:54

I've no qualms asking people to finish serving me before resuming their conversation. It stops them dead.

Exhaustedmummy1811 · 02/03/2019 18:57

What gets me is in the smaller shops I often come across the cashier being on their phone. Saying that I once got £20 electric for free as the cashier was1 so busy on his phone he forgot to add it to the bill lol

ReaganSomerset · 02/03/2019 18:59

m.youtube.com/watch?v=E9PSg0sQyfs

austenozzy · 02/03/2019 19:01

They have to deal with the general public, so I dare say they have to put up with more! But yes, they should of course make a bit of an effort to at least acknowledge you and be polite. I had a Sunday job in a supermarket when I was about 18 and there were right misery gut twats who would totally blank me, or speak to me as if I was something unpleasant they’d trodden in. So I have sympathy with both sides, tbh.

missmouse101 · 02/03/2019 19:05

Very rude. How about emailing customer services to point out how rude it came across to you as a customer?

SummerHouse · 02/03/2019 19:06

Can you come to my local Sainsbury's and answer them when they ask "how has your day been" so I don't have to answer "dragged two kids round shop for a fecking hour saying no on repeat"

AngelaHodgeson · 02/03/2019 19:08

I dare say they have to put up with more!

I recently had a cashier thank me for hanging up my phone as I got to the till. Apparently such basic manners is unusual from customers so no doubt they have a hard time. But, equally, a huge number of customers are actually polite and it's very unfair to be rude or obnoxious to the polite ones just because other customers are rude.

OMGithurts · 02/03/2019 19:10

I used to work in Woolworths for £3.20 an hour in the late 90s* and we were told in no uncertain terms that we were to pay attention to the customers, we got into big shit if we were caught chatting amongst ourselves.

*according to the bank of England inflation calculator this was equivalent to about £5.53, which felt like exploitation but is well above the NMW for under 18s.

Frouby · 02/03/2019 19:14

Its a pet hate of mine.

I have worked in many customer fscing customer service minimum wage jobs. It's irrelevant what I get paid, I am paid to give customer service not listen to chat about when Sandra is due her break or when Helen is due on her shift.

I always say 'sorry to interrupt but I need bags, shall I just take some?' Or 'sorry don't mean to be a pain but can you check the price on that?'.

It's rude. And mostly happens in my local Tesco's.

gt84 · 02/03/2019 19:24

I totally agree with this and I work in retail!
We are told customer comes first before any conversations and not to chat at the till. If customer comes over whilst we are talking, then we are to stop and give the customer our full attention etc. It’s just common sense really when it comes to giving good service but I witness daily some my colleagues who don’t get this or will try to talk to me whilst I’m serving and I just have to say to them “hold on a minute”
Also find it rude when a customer comes over to pay whilst on their phone. I have to speak to them, I have to ask if they want the hangers/gift receipt/5p bag so it’s very awkward to ask all these questions when they are on the phone

SpiritedLondon · 02/03/2019 19:25

I’ve had to stand by the till in Mothercare and listen to the two staff members discussing the sickie they were going to pull the following Saturday before I got served. (I was buying a car seat so not a cheap purchase either). I also can’t stand it when they don’t speak even to tell you the total. Apparently you’re supposed to check the til yourself for the quantity- if I’m feeling bloody minded I stand there looking at them in a PA way until they relent and speak to me. It’s not on... and it’s not the “done thing” either ( I’ve worked in shops too.... it’s no excuse).

FiveLittlePigs · 02/03/2019 19:40

If the cashier is having a conversation with a colleague and it’s not helping them with a transaction, I smile vacantly at them and say, ”sorry, you'll have to repeat that, I'm very hard of hearing” while pointing at my ear and then just wait with a smile on my face. Stops idle chit-chat stone dead. I don't want then to make mistakes because they're not posting attention to what they're doing. Ok I'm probably written off by them as a daft old bat but it works for me.

It's not a lie, either. I do struggle with my hearing.

FiveLittlePigs · 02/03/2019 19:41

Posting = paying

Grammarly app likes to rewrite my words Hmm

Greyhound22 · 02/03/2019 19:51

I hate it too I was only having a conversation with DH about it the other day. Lidl is the worst by us. Don't acknowledge you half the time.

I think 'well they're not paid well' is a complete pile of crap as well. You agree to take a job knowing what the wage is and it's just basic manners not to be bawling to the next cashier about your night out when you're serving a customer. I worked in retail for many years and wouldn't dream of doing it.

Overtheborder · 02/03/2019 20:19

I've had sort of the opposite this week.

Not in England.

I stood behind a man at the Easons pay desk yesterday. The cashier asked him how his day was (whilst scanning paper) the man launched into a speil about his trapped nerve and the cashier sympathized, said he had the same for so many weeks and went on to recommend a physio and asked who the consultant was...

By this stage there was a growing queue behind me. I wasn't in a hurry but the woman behind me loudly asked another cashier who was stacking the shelves to come and open his till seeing as the other guy was too busy gossiping.

It made me smile.

Then in m&s I bought a bag of chocolate eggs for a friend's children and a bunch of tulips for her. The cashier (male again) told me to microwave the eggs for 20 secs and they'd be delicious and to pop a 2p piece in the bottom of the tulip vase to stop drooping....

Babdoc · 02/03/2019 20:26

I expect it varies from shop to shop. I always have a nice chat with the women on the tills in my Tesco. I’ve been going there for years, so I now know several of them well enough to ask about their families, and I offer to pray for any that are going through bereavement etc.
Maybe you just need to smile and say hello to them first, or start a wee chat about your shopping or the weather, to get them started?
Some of them say customers ignore them or speak to them like dirt - it must be hard to stay polite and professional in those circumstances.
They’ve been lovely to me in return- the customer service lady gave me a hug when I was in tears over my cat dying.

CocoDeMoll · 02/03/2019 20:31

OMG I hate it so much! I’ve been all my life in people facing, mostly minimum wage jobs and I always manage to be polite.

There’s only one guy that does this at our local shop but seeing as my dh and his sister go in and annoy the fuck out of him when they’re v stoned I think I’m tarnished by reputation!

AlbusSeverusMalfoy · 02/03/2019 20:34

I was in a shop and the sales assistant at the til continued to talk to her friend as she scaned my items. She didnt say a word to me. She then said the amount due then carried on talking to her friend. I ignored her, she said the amount again very curtly, i said as loud as anything that i hadnt realised she was talking to me as she spent the whole time talking to someone else. She was very embarassed.

LuvSmallDogs · 02/03/2019 20:38

I’ve been a cashier before, and usually did standard “hiya, alright” “nice/bad weather” “thanks bye” with 90% of customers along with telling kids “I like your dress/toy/plaits”.

10% of the time I was larking about making male customers buy pink lighters because they were “macho enough to pull it off” or playfully asking elderly people for ID for their wine (one gave me his ID showing he’d been born in 1912 or something in the late 00s)! I had a few customers who were real ranters, and I would deliberately set them off by mentioning something I’d seen in the local news “Oh don’t get me started...!” and off they’d go.

Meandwinealone · 02/03/2019 20:40

I’m happy that they’re talking to each other. It means they’re happy
So what’s wrong with that