Whether you personally have worked in retail (specifically within a grocery store) or you know somebody who has, then these seven truths about the experience will not be surprising. But, for those who have no experience, you may be shocked.
1. Adult Breaks
Adults do not get lunch (30 minute plus long breaks) until they work longer than nine hours (sometimes eight)
2. The real job of Baggers
Baggers who are typically teenagers who are below the age of 16, despite being hired to bag the groceries, more often than not tend to spend their shifts cleaning the restrooms, pushing carts and all-around doing the jobs of others who do not want to do their grunt work. It is actually quite uncommon to see someone who was hired as a bagger to actually be bagging the groceries.
3. The real job of Cashiers
Even though the customers strongly believe that it is the cashier's job to do absolutely everything, that actually is not true. Cashiers are meant to do exactly what you would think: they are meant to scan your groceries for you and to help you check out. They are meant to be kind to the customers and help them if they ever need any help,
4. What is NOT the Cashier's job
What cashiers are not supposed to do is leave their register just because a customer did not make sure that what they are buying has a price tag or that the item is actually on sale. Cashiers are also not technically hired to bag the customer's groceries unless the specific grocery store states otherwise.
More often than not when a cashier is not bagging a customer's groceries, it is not because they are lazy or simply do not want to, it is because that is not their actual job and the job that they have to actually do will be affected if they waste their time by bagging the customer's groceries.
Cashiers need to keep the lines moving, and by the customer being rude and not bagging their own groceries, you are actually hurting the job of the cashier in many ways.
5. Relationships between co-workers happen more than you would think
When it comes to relationships between co-workers, every job has them, but for some reason, at grocery stores, everybody is magnetically attracted to each other. It seems as if every week there is a new scandal between two employees. Sometimes, more than two, especially when two people want the same person.
These relationships are comparable to middle school relationships. They seem extremely serious but also end in a week just for both individuals to either get back together or to start dating someone new. The real fun about these relationships is that when they end, the entire store knows about it because the drama is quite big.
6. The employees are quite sneaky
The sad truth about retail (grocery store) employees is that once they figure out the rules of the company and once they've been there for a certain amount of time, it is actually more common than not for the employees to help each other out with discounts and/or simply just letting them get away with anything that they want. Although certainly do not get this twisted, even though employees help each other out, they will not help customers out in those ways.
7. We do not know everything about the store
Customers often get mad when employees do not know information about the store or the company, but it is actually quite simple: nobody tells the employees anything until it is currently happening, such as a re-stock of an item, sales or corporate visiting.
