Ways to Annoy your Grocery Clerk #23 – Checkout Light

What I find annoying as a customer is when the light is on but I don’t know where the checker is. Should I load my groceries and then look around for the checker (who is probably talking to the person in customer service and will be back soon), or should I go stand in line at the other checkstand where the checker is busy ringing up another customer’s groceries?

You can’t tell them no? Seriously?! At some point don’t you have to do so?! That’s insane. Do these people not have jobs that they look forward to leaving at the end of their workday? OMG! I am amazed.

I promise never to get in a line that doesn’t have the light on from here on out! I totally have done that before but I swear if the cashier had told me that they were closed I would have gone to another line.
Thanks for your nice comment on my blog, I love your stories because oddly, grocery shopping is something I find fun to do! I go to my neighborhood store just about everyday because I am totally not a planner I never know what I’m going to be in the mood for, and we are always running out of something. It’s cool to hear the employee side of it.

Oh, this. Ugh. On one particularly memorable occasion, one of my bagger friends physically blocked my line with a garbage can so I could finally go home. Customers don’t seem to care that your light is off.

This must be annoying. When people do not have respect for you or your time, it usually is. I wonder what would happen if you brought a grim reaper costume from Halloween and placed that on the belt when the light is off…

You made me just realize that I always look for the light! LOL, I do!

I feel your pain… I’ve had people not only ignore my light, but also walk right by the little magnetic sign on the end of my register that says “Please Use Next Available Checkout”. Then again, I’ve also had people ask me “Are you open?” when I’m standing at the register with my light on… it’s even funnier when I’m the ONLY register open.

The store we shop at does still have these metal gate thingys they use as well as a little sign that says closed that they put on the belt after the last persons order. When they are closed they mean it!! lol

I truly feel your pain. I can’t believe all the thoughtless and clueless customers you have to bear with and smile at. That takes some strength. But, in the interest of fairness, add this to the ‘ways to annoy your customer file’

I run into situations where you see the checker happily checking away, and the light is off! How?

Normally I assume 1) the light is out. But if the light is out, I would think most stores should have a supply tucked away somewhere and it shouldn’t be too much trouble to change it
2) he is wrapping it up and this is the last customer. Sometimes if the light is off and the checker seems to be open, I’ll ask before unloading. “Are you open?” and they say yes, come on in, as if I was supposed to read minds?
3) He just doesn’t care, maybe he’s trying to avoid checking lol. Hey I can’t blame ya!!

The chains! Oh my gosh, the grocery we used when I was a kid had those chains. Fancy little trip down memory lane there.

I don’t think we had lights yet where I worked. We just had the little plastic sign to set on the end of the belt that said closed. Which people would move and put their stuff behind it and get in line. As if I couldn’t see them. I was lucky enough to have a lot of customers stick up for me and tell those people I was closed and hand their stuff back to them.

The worst is what I call a bait and switch. If I’m closing, and a person with one thing comes, I’ll be nice and take them, but what gets me is her husband coming down the aisle with a full cart, and company policy says if you say yes, you can’t go back and say no. It amazingly only happens at the end of shifts.

People do it all the time! I’ll be shopping then going to the checkout and I’ll notice another customer with there groceries or what not on the belt and say to them (because their wondering loudly to themselves where the hell the checker is) “Excuse me, but it says that it is closed” then their all like “What the hell you can’t even see that!” Then angrily stuff everything back in the cart while I’m like “Its flashing in red captial letters how the heck coud you not see that?!”

I work in customer service and since they never schedule enough checkers I end up having to get on the register to reduce the lines(they cant be longer that 3 for express and 2 for regular). When the checker looks like they have it under control I turn my light off. I constantly get the “Are you Open?” question. If my checker is deciding to be slow then I’ll tell people they can come to my line most the time turning my light back on :/

I encountered this when I first started my job. My shift was supposed to end at 6 PM. I turn my light off at 5:55 PM, when a woman shows up with 20 items on 5 WIC checks. As I begin to process the final check, it’s already after 6 PM, and an older man with an overflowing cart shows up. I tell him, “Sir, this lane is closed.” He doesn’t move or respond. Thinking he didn’t hear me, I repeat myself, “Sir, this lane is closed. There is no waiting on 6 or 8; either of those men can help you.” This time he looks at me, so I know he had to have heard me, and proceeds to unload his cart. Once a customer unloads his cart, it’s our store policy to not turn him away. I’m stuck. At the end of his order, while I’m processing his check, he hits on me! This man is easily 3 times my age. As I’m leaving at 6:15 PM, the checker on lane 6 explains that he does this all the time. He will never go to a lane with an open black or Hispanic checker, even if it means waiting in a line for a caucasian person. Horrible. Now I have to deal with him on a weekly basis!