What kind of a customer are you?

Consumers, pay CLOSE attention!! See how many of these 10 mistakes you have made. If you've committed 0 or 1, you're treating your cashier very fairly. If you've committed 2-4, watch yourself. You're an average consumer, but certainly not helping out any. If you've committed more than 4, find someplace else to shop and we feel sorry for them. This part of the site isn't designed to be mean, but to show you exactly what kind of a customer you are by checking these criteria. Some of these have been touched upon in other parts of the page but we thought it would be best to compile them into "The 10 Most Frequent Consumer Errors."

1. "Can I borrow a pen?" This mistake is easily the most common. (besides number 2) Although you may not think it a big deal, this is in fact VERY annoying. Do you think we have a huge jar of ink we simply dip our pens in after awhile? No. And you may say, "But it's only writing out a check." Well, do you have any idea how many times that happens in a day? And do you realize how many days I work a week? See what I mean? So, next time, bring your pen and save us some trouble. This problem is especially annoying when the consumer A)Waits until the end of the sale to ask, B) Writes in your booklet first, or C) Is still writing in the booklet when I need the pen to initial the check. This may not apply at other stores where a pen may be mounted for the customer, but at stores like mine, the cashier brings their own pen. So you can too.

2. Not acknowledging cashier. Do you realize how frustrating it is when a cashier politely says "Hello" and gets only a cold stare in reply?? Does anyone have any common courtesy left? So please, next time, use just a little bit of that energy to mutter a quick "Hey," "Hello," or "Hi."

3. Failure to use dividers. USE THE DIVIDERS!!!!! Do you think they're there so we can look a little more professional?! NO! Use them so I don't have to void 800 items off a sale and call out a CSM to do it. You can load your groceries on the belt, I don't think it's much of an inconvenience to stick the divider there so the cashier doesn't have to guess where the change in sale is.

4. "I'd like two separate orders for this." Sure, lady, we've got a line stretching back to China here but we'll give ya two separate orders just so you can have the convenience of not having to subtract one item from the total. Are you that lazy? Come on, people, you're only making one trip, you only need one order!!

5. Charging a small amount to a credit card. Okay buddy, tic tacs are not a major purchase. I think you can handle carrying around just a bit of cash so the executives at VISA don't have to bust a gut laughing when they see your order being processed. You want fast service, I think you could really speed things up by handing me a dollar insteading of having to approve a credit card.

6. Failure to SMELL GOOD. Sorry, this might sound a little ridiculous but it's very true. A very small portion, but a few of you nonetheless, simply STINK. Honestly, I can't figure out how you can even go in public like that. Please, we have an aisle which has deoderant and soap, if you'd use it a little more often, you could really make things a little more pleasant for cashiers, baggers, and other shoppers.

7. "Could I get 8 quarters for this?" or something like that. What am I, a bank? Considering I need to call up to the service desk almost every day because I am running out of change, you're only making things worse and slowing me down. If you REALLY need quarters, go to the service desk. I'm here to sell you groceries. If you don't have any, you don't need my help.

8. Complaining about a price. This is an absolutely stupid mistake by consumers. Do we look like the people to talk to about the price problems? Go complain to someone else that works in that department!! We get enough crap without having to listen to your price complaints. If you don't like the price, don't buy the item. We obviously don't set the prices when you buy the item, so do you think we have any control over it anyway?

9. Taking an item up to the counter and saying, "Oh, I changed my mind about that item." Well, gee, thanks for letting us know. No need to walk the 20 feet away to put it back. We'll just simply add it to our overflowing shopback cart, and I'm sure Mr. Can of Busch Beans will magically walk back to the aisle himself when the time is right. I realize that you may only do it one time, 1 item, or so. Well, believe me, it adds up. Several times a day, the shopback cart returns everything that YOU didn't want. Believe me, this takes up a lot of valuable time that we could use helping you.

10. Walking past our closed sign. This is inexcusable!!! The sign isn't up there because we're considering it, THIS AISLE REALLY IS CLOSED. So don't think that your one order is really important enough to take through anyway, because then the guy behind you will decide the same thing. We do have lives outside of working, and you're interfering with them by detaining us.