Etiquette from both sides of the counter
By Anna Graham, Contributor
During these last four months (and counting), Iâve finally experienced life from behind the till. Thus far, working as a cashier has presented some important life lessons: you come to recognize when service is actually good or bad, what you can and canât haggle yourself out of, and what you do and donât have to put up withâas a customer or otherwise.
As a late bloomer in the world of retail, Iâve wracked my brain to recall when I might have been a horrible or at least difficult customer. Iâd like to think human decency has stopped me in the past from ever yelling, snapping, or being rude to an undeserving cashier, but I doubt that actually ever stops anyone who hasnât done the job.
One would think itâs common sense, particularly among young adults, to not order food with their headphones blasting in their ears, or to not dump Ziploc bags full of coins (including pennies) onto the counter to pay, or to not outright threaten their server for one reason or another. There are annoyances, like bags of coins, that are inconvenient, but arenât the end of the world. There are issues, such as headphones, which can cause a transaction to go horribly wrong, but can be fixed. Then there are difficult situations, such as threatening or harassing an employeeâthis last one, regardless of the customerâs reasons, I refuse to find fair ground on.
But the point of this piece is not to rant about the crap weâve all been through. Rather, Iâm attempting to implore any readers of this piece to just be more aware of their actions towards those on either side of the till.
Iâm not shocked when an elderly person is difficult; Iâm disappointed, seeing as I and other people employed to serve them are oftentimes much younger, but Iâm not surprised that there is a generation gap to overcome during transaction. What does surprise me is when young adults are difficult, rude, verbally aggressive, or even violent to the cashier. There could be dozens of reasons for why a younger customer might act in those ways, but if the person is fully aware of their actionsâas apologizing after would implyâwhy cross that line to begin with?
Most customersâ immediate reaction to anything going wrong is to blame the employee serving them. Employees make mistakes all the time; as a customer, a lot of those mistakes are indeed annoying, even more so when it concerns money. Itâs impossible to be patient or considerate of others all the time, but itâs important to keep in mind that there are few people who would actually go out of their way to be downright lousyâthey certainly exist, as customers and cashiers, but theyâre far from everybody.
Regardless of what menial or pointless tasks my job entails, I still take it very seriously, and I actually donât mind it. Not until very recently though have I begun to find dealing with people draining, and even depressing. With most corporate retail jobs, the mentality of âdeal with it or quitâ doesnât exactly lift the âdepressingâ factor either.
For whatever reason, customer service workers are seen as the thing to release all oneâs aggressions on, and that goes for customers and even some managers. So while I do stress that customers have the right to complain when there is a legitimate issue, I also stress that to make any little thing a problem is not just difficult, but from one person to another, itâs shitty.
Donât treat a cashier or a customer any differently from how you might treat a classmate; you donât know them, but if you need something from them, do you not ask them nicely?
