Most of the time, grocery store customers are perfectly fine. A lot of them are friendly and will interact with you, but sometimes there are those ones who just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I’ve only worked at a grocery store for a total of two months, but these are some pet peeves that have popped up over this period of time.

89 Cents!!!

No, I’m not looking for the price, ma’am. Most of the produce, such as apples and oranges, have these little stickers on them that tell the cashier what numbers to punch in to ring it up. I’m sorry I don’t have the numbers of every little item memorized and I have to use up a few precious seconds just to ring it up right.

My bagger just left…

The wonderful courtesy clerks who bag up every item that customers have bought have a lot more to do than just bagging groceries. Sometimes a customer wants help taking their groceries out to their car. Other times a manager asks them to do something else, which takes them away from my register. Having a courtesy clerk at my register to bag all of the groceries is a big help, and it usually takes a lot longer to get a customer out of the store if I have to scan the items and bag them, unless I’m working one of the express lanes.

We need another cart.

To make things run smoother, each checkout lane usually has an extra cart waiting there to put a customer’s groceries in. Sometimes a customer will end up taking a different size cart out of the store than they originally had, which usually results in having no extra cart at the checkout lane. It has happened a few times that the courtesy clerk I’m working with doesn’t run to go grab another big cart, even if they realize this customer has a lot of groceries.

So many customers, so little time.

Except for early in the morning and late at night, customers are usually at the checkout lanes nonstop. Sometimes the cashiers realize they really need to go to the bathroom and don’t have a break for another hour or two, or they have already had their break. The managers are running around doing various things and it’s hard to get their attention just to ask if they might be able to cover their lane so they can go to the bathroom. Other times, like today for instance, I realized I had run out of dimes and really needed to open another roll of them, but customers kept coming and coming and I didn’t feel that I could just stop and open up another roll before taking care of the customer.

Sir, the customer in front of you hasn’t left yet.

Okay, yes, I realize you just want me to ring up your groceries so you can pay and get out of here, but you can wait just a few more seconds. There was a customer this morning who, without waiting for the lady in front of him to leave, held out his rewards card impatiently for me to scan. I was somewhat reluctant to scan it before the customer in front of him had gone, but did so anyways. The other day, just before I checked one woman out, I waited until the customer in front of her had left the register before I started scanning her items, and she thanked me. She realized that cashiers usually feel that they need to get the customers out as quickly as possible, but she certainly didn’t mind waiting a few more seconds.

Please stop trying to flirt with me.

It’s my job to smile and ask how you’re doing, and maybe I’m reading it all wrong, but please stop flirting with me. It has happened multiple times that a guy who it maybe about 20 years older than I am has flirted with me, and sure, maybe none of them were even trying to flirt, but that’s how it came off. For example, today one man, after I had asked him how he was and how his day had been going, smiled and told me that I had a very beautiful name. Personally, it felt like he was flirting, and maybe he wasn’t, but it was just kind of creepy to me.

I can’t read your mind, so don’t act like it.

There are so many customers who will start rattling off their phone numbers to me without telling me first. I will certainly put in your phone number for the rewards card, but you have to tell me first because I will have to ask you at least once to repeat it if I’m not ready for it. Also, so many customers just rattle them off without letting me repeat the numbers to them to make sure I’m hearing them right and typing in the right number. Would love to help you, but if I get the number wrong, then it won’t work.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind working as a cashier for my grocery store, but some customers just don’t seem to get it sometimes. I’m human and make mistakes, and if I do make a mistake, then sure, it’s on me. Of course, some of these will most likely relate to other jobs as well, not just grocery store cashiers.