Saturday, June 28, 2008

"It's Hard to Find Good Help"

Today I went with my boys to a local grocery store to pick up a few things. This particular grocery store doesn't accept credit cards, but does accept ATM cards. I use my ATM card for almost every purchase I make, so that works well for me. When I tried to pay for my groceries, for some reason the transaction wouldn't go through. We tried several times, and finally she told me it was their system that was down, and asked if I had my checkbook. I don't carry my check book, but I did have some cash with me. However it wasn't enough to pay for the entire purchase, and I didn't really want to put anything back. My boys had already bagged up the food for me. This store has two separate lines at each register, so she started ringing up the next customer's purchases while I sent my son down the street to the ATM to get some cash for me.

While I was standing waiting, I was shocked that the checker didn't mention to ANY of the customers in line behind me that the ATM cards weren't working! The lady behind me loaded an entire cart worth of groceries on to the conveyor, but it wasn't until she whipped out her ATM card that the clerk told her it wouldn't work. The lady had already started bagging her items, so she unbagged them and left in a huff, leaving all of the groceries on the one conveyor belt. The other belt was open, so the checker began ringing up the next customer, once again not mentioning to him that the ATM cards weren't working. He unloaded all of his purchases on to the conveyor, and once again, it wasn't until he pulled out his ATM card, and she had already run up every item, that she told him it wouldn't work! He asked if she could hold the items while he went to the ATM machine to get cash. The cashier turned to the next person and began to ring up items. By this time I was really getting upset that she wasn't telling anyone, and every other register in the store was having the same problem, but there were no announcements made. I finally walked over and told the next two customers in line that they couldn't pay by ATM. The cashier never said a word to anyone! On days like this I always think of what my husband always says: "It's hard to find good help."

2 comments:

Nene said...

Maybe the cashier was just thinking it was quite a funny joke. Morbid sense of humor though, if so.

Max Coutinho said...

D,

Absolutely: good help is hard to find!

That cashier was lucky nobody rebuked her! Her incompetence is ennerving *nodding*...not to mention her lack of consideration...

Shocking...