Doesn't make an ounce of sense to me, but......

 what do I know?

Let me explain.  If you go to a drive through restaurant or coffee shop, you generally see a timer on the wall.  The employee's are expected to get each order out and the customer through the drive through within a certain time.  I am sure many of you are familiar with this?

I went to the grocery store on Saturday morning, which is unusual for me, as I tend to avoid stores on the weekend.  Anyhow, this is a Zehrs store, which are overseen by Loblaws, which is one of the major grocery retailers here in Canada.

Fast forward to checking out, and there was a guy in front of me, who was taking advantage of some deals, exclusively posted on the store's Facebook page.  I sighed when I saw this as none of the cashiers have any idea how to put these deals in the system.  And this cashier true to form had no idea, anyhow, I told the cashier to call over the superviser, as there were two of them standing talking a little down the way.  They ignored her, so I called the supervisor over.  She had no choice but to walk on over now, and I guess she sucked on a lemon on the way over by the expression on her face...LOL  Anyhow got everything sorted out with that and the poor guy went on his merry way, and the supervisor went and sucked on some more lemons!!

Then it was my turn and I was chatting away with the cashier and she started telling me about how the till times each transaction now.  They are expected to get people's orders through in a certain time.  They are made to sign some paperwork about this.  Another cashier came over to talk to me as well about it, as I was in disbelief about this.  I even asked, "What just like a drive through?"  They said yes.  What is you have coupons?  What if you have a huge order?  What if an item is priced wrong?  What like the guy in front of me who had the Facebook pricing and no one knows how to ring in those items?

My "surrogate daughter," worked for Loblaws, so I was telling her this story and she said honestly she's not surprised.  She was saying that none of the higher end Loblaws brick and mortar stores any making any money.  The online ordering and delivery's are making money.  They are building more "lower prices," grocery stores, like No Frills, Independent, etc, as folk are shopping there more.  They are trying to reduce costs when ever they can.

Now I can almost guarantee if this chain of stores is doing this, the rest will follow suit.  It must be so demoralizing for the staff who are not that well paid to now have to make sure they keep to a strict timetable when putting people's orders through.

Thoughts?

I was not happy......

Let me explain.

On Sunday morning I went to do my grocery shopping early to miss the crowds.  It was 9 am when I got to the check out.  In front of me were two guys each had a grocery cart full of bottled water; so there was nothing on the belt where you put your groceries.

I started to unpack my groceries, but quickly filled the end up, so I asked the cashier if she could please make the belt move so I could unpack the rest of the groceries.  Not unreasonable, right?

Her response was something along these lines:

"I was going to do it after I finished serving this man (the man in front of me)."  Remember he wasn't using the belt as he had cases of bottled water.

She said it in such a way that both the man in front of me and myself looked at one another and raised our eyebrows.

I wondered what on earth I had done/said as she was really snarky.  So I said, "I am sorry I didn't mean to offend you."

She then turned around and said she had a bad back and had been on "duty" 42 hours (?)

Now I should have left well enough alone, but I said, "I know how it feels as I have a bad back myself, you should go home then?"

Well that set her off again.  By this time the other guy had gone and it was just me.  I was so uncomfortable and was in two minds about unpacking anymore of my groceries on the belt, as it was only at this point she moved the belt up so I could put more of my groceries on it.

Then just to add to it all not only did I have coupons I was price matching.  I am one of these shoppers where I am organized.  I always put everything I am price matching along with the competitors flyer on the belt first.  Quite often I will circle what I am price matching and highlight the date etc; I hadn't this time.  It makes the cashiers job easier and I get out of the store faster.

So the first things up are the price matching items, all from one store and all on the same page of the flyer.  There was a sigh of course from her, and she proceeded to put through the tea, tin foil and cling film.  I had a coupon for the cling film/wrap that I handed over, and again with a sign she processed it.  There were two tubs of yogurt I was price matching  from the same flyer, but she decided that no she would process them later as she wanted to put something that wasn't cold in the bag with the other items?  

At this point I just shut up and let her get on with it, other than giving the other coupons.  She tried to make small talk, but I was so past this whole shopping trip I wanted to get the heck out.  However I didn't want to let her get away with how she had made me feel, as I was shaking.

So I paid for my groceries and walked over to another employee and asked her who was the supervisor in a quiet voice.  She told me she would get her for me, but unbeknownst to me, there was the unhappy cashier right behind me.

She said," are you complaining about me?"

I said yes and she then went on and on, she did say sorry, but believe me she did not mean it.  By then the supervisor walked up, and the cashier intercepted her and told her I was complaining about her, and went onto her about me.

I turned around at this point and said,

"Listen sweetie if your back is that bad you should go home."  As that was what she was griping about.

I talked to the supervisor and told her what had gone on, and the gist of it was she had, had complaints about this woman before???  She would talk to her.  My parting words to her was:

"She needs to go home if she is in that much pain."

I would not be a cashier if you paid me a million dollars.  In this country they are on their feet for the whole shift, they are not allowed to sit down, like they do in Britain.  They deal with some horrible people and are paid probably minimum wage.  That being said, if you have a problem whether it be physical, mental or what ever  don't take it out on the customers.  

I am not sure if the store opened at 7 or 8 am.  If she was already in a lot of pain by 9 am imagine what she was going to be like by the end of the shift.  She said her back pain made her grumpy; again yes I know as I have a bad back.

She was older than me and there are a few other older ladies that work there and they always seem to be there, as one of them told me the other week:

"the younger ones party on a weekend then call in sick or just don't turn up, so it's up to them to cover for them!"

She also said: "the managers know what they are up to as they go on Facebook to see what they have been up too."

Suffice to say, I will not stop shopping at this grocery store as it's the closest to where we live and has the best prices.  I will just avoid this woman.  I just hope this supervisor did do something.

What are your thoughts?