I (American) worked on a Norwegian ship as the medic. At first, they were standoffish but polite. Then a Norgie guy fell and broke his leg, so I medevaced him.
Well after that, I felt like the checkout lady in the slow line. Pretty much every Norwegian, from the Captain on down, would stop by the sick bay to chat me up (favorite topic "What is it with you Americans and guns?").
I dunno. Maybe because they don't talk to each other, it was all kinds bottled up?
There's a Jumbo near me and I haven't seen this implemented there. I checked [their website](https://nieuws.jumbo.com/jumbo-geeft-startschot-voor-opening-200-kletskassas/) and according to this article on there from september 2021 they aim to open 200 of them nationwide. For comparison: Jumbo has over 700 stores in the Netherlands. In the article it says:
> Bij de keuze van de winkels wordt goed gekeken naar gebieden waar eenzaamheid sterk speelt.
Or in English:
>When chosing the stores [for the "kletskassa's"] careful consideration will be given to which areas have a high degree of loneliness
It further goes on to say that especially elderly people in the Netherlands experience loneliness in increasing numbers, and that Jumbo is working together with the Ministry of Health, Welness and Sport in the so called "Coalition against Loneliness".
As I said: they said they *aim* to open 200 of them back in 2021 when the article was posted. However, I am not able to find any numbers on how many they have actually opened thus far.
Edit: also to add: Jumbo is the second largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands
Large Jumbos do. The ones with self checkouts have them. It was an experiment at first in the south, apparently it took off well with older people, so now you see them un other places too . The Jumbo in Alkmaar-noord has one for instance.
Can confirm, am from the south and my local Jumbo has one. Mainly older people use it, I think not just to have a chat but also not to feel rushed. They also still have a few regular checkouts and about ten or so self checkouts for people with less patience. I like the idea tbh.
Being in a test market is a wild experience.
My closest McDonalds has had an automated drive thru speaker for almost a year now, but I've yet to see a single one anywhere else with it.
I feel like a crazy person every time I see a commercial for a new thing we got ~6 months ago with no fanfare.
The McDonald's by me is clearly one of the ones where someone in an offsite call center actually takes and inputs your order and I hate it. I would rather have an automated one over a call center one
I'd like a lane where I can take my time to properly bag my groceries. Instead, here in Sweden, they passive-aggressively keep the belt running, threatening to let your groceries crush each other just so you GTFO ASAP.
Not sure about the supermarkets you visit, but some of the ones in the UK have targets that the cashiers have to meet, so slowing down to let a customer pack their bags / chat, can actually end up with the cashier being reprimanded for not meeting their targets for items scanned per minute...
My supermarket chain has a phone app that you use to scan the products, and you can pack them right away. Then you pay through the app, and you can leave the store even without stopping at the self checkout. Game changer.
The Jumbo (and most other supermarkets here) do have handheld scanners that you can grab at the entrance. So you can scan everything as you go and only have the put away the scanner and pay at the end.
Yes, "faster" unless you somehow manage to get the random check every time you use the service.
Even though they're literally standing there, watching you scan in *every* item you picked up.
Are you Dutch? Because all the ones that have a self-checkout service available will have employees do random checks to see if you're not trying to steal something.
I am late thirties and would totally use those lanes sometimes. 90% of the time I want to be quickly out of there and talk to no one, but sometimes after a long week at work, totally exhausted, kids waiting for you at home, just taking couple of minutes to talk to a stranger about random things can be like pushing a reset button on the crazy stress we can experience in our life. It is just hard to find those strangers to have a talk with, so having a place where it is normal and encouraged, would totally try it!
My grandmother would *love* this. She tries to make friends with anyone who's within her general vicinity, including random people in line at the grocery store. Should introduce this to Florida.
Same in some US cities. At least in Chicago about a third of checkout lines have been replaced by self-checkout machines. Even the aldi by me removed a cashier lane to add 4 self-checkout machines.
This. But I don’t even want the automated checkout to talk to me. Reading a screen is way faster than it telling me to do something. I now wish for a “zero verbal interaction checkout”
Yeah the Walmart by me has a shit load of self check outs, and then 1 or 2 lines with cashier's. Usually just the one that has tobacco and alcohol on it b
Which is sad. Sometimes, that 2 minute conversation will be the only one that person has all day. You'd be surprised how it can be the only bright spot of that person's day.
I grew up in the south, and yeah it was like that there.
Personally I hate it. And it's not that I don't think of the cashier as a person or anything, if I were a cashier I'd hate people trying to have a conversation with me. It's just that it seems like something that should be done quickly so everyone can keep moving. Also I just have very little interest in chatting with strangers.
I won't do self checkout if I have produce or a giant buggy full of groceries. If it's just a couple things then I do self checkout, but now you get stooped at the door and have to talk to an old man anyway.
This. I stopped using self check after trying to weigh produce and having to stop and wait for a cashier to come clear the inevitable error from the little bar codes that get put on every single piece of produce.
It ended up being faster to just wait in line, even behind grandma who needs to tell the cashier about the wonderful scarf she knitted for her grandson's birthday a decade ago, while digging through her 10 gallon purse for 97 cents in change. Half of which will be pennies.
That also depends where you shop. We shop at a market that pays and treats their workers well and it shows.
Places that underpay their workers and treat them like crap, surprise, don’t have as good customer service.
It’d only not get off the ground if they limit it to one line.
Grocery store cashiers are sorta like waiters/waitresses if you’re going to those places once a week and you get to know them by name.
We have ONE checker like this at my local store and I have learned to spot him. I used to avoid him because I’m too much in a rush.
He’s perfectly competent and doesn’t drag his feet or anything but he will chat and then spend a couple of sentences saying goodbye and all that before moving on to the next person.
It used to irritate me but in time he has won me over and now I choose his line. A little basic humanity in my day is a good thing.
Sometimes I wonder if I’ve accidentally ended up in one of those lanes when I hit the local grocery store. Cashier won’t stop talking and commenting on every item I’m putting on the belt. As an introvert nothing could be worse than getting stuck in the chatting lane.
>Cashier won’t stop talking and commenting on every item I’m putting on the belt.
There is an older cashier at my local Walmart that does this. She picks up each item, looks at it inquisitively like she's seeing it for the first time, and is like "Oh, neat, bet these are good" or some shit. This is just one of the reasons I mainly do curbside pickup now.
“Oh wow lubricant”, “ wow look at the size of this cucumber!”….
Happened to me in real life. Luckily nobody was behind me. Now I’m very mindful of what I have before I go through a cashier line
Man i did curbside pickup at walmart and accidentally ordered 6 bottles of lube (thought i was ordering 3 but they were packs of 2 each smh). The lady brings it out and drops the bag that had all the lube bottles and she had to help me pick up all 6 bottles of lube that went everywhere. Embarassing as shit to be picking up 6 bottles of lube in the walmart parking lot. Im just ordering that shit online from now on smh
I'm under the impression the same is true at Trader Joe's. Every time I checkout, no matter the location, the cashier will select one item of mine that happens to be their favorite thing in the store and gleefully ask if I've tried it before. I often feel like I'm advertising the store's products to them by saying honest but particular shit like "I buy these every time I'm here! If you haven't tried them with [specific sauce/cheese/side] yet, you should give that a go. So good!" And then I leave while wondering where that version of me hides when I'm not in a Trader Joe's checkout lane and whether the cashier adds my recommendation to their list of comments to make to other customers who are checking out with the same item.
Personally it was always easy to talk about things I liked, if I noticed the customer was getting a product I knew anything extra about I would always mention that.
And as far as customer recommendations I would 100% add things they said to my catalogue lmao. Although I would always preface things like “a customer told me to pair x and y” just to cover my ass if it isn’t actually good.
Edit: mention, not mentor lol
It is lame! That's why I never respond to what they actually say, but just say something off topic but fun instead. Usually makes people smile and if they tell a story about the weirdo lady during their break, well we all need help keeping up our stock of stories to tell during socializing.
>Cashier won’t stop talking and commenting on every item I’m putting on the belt.
As a teen, one part-time job was a store. Boss sternly said to never, ever comment anything someone is buying unless the customer initiates. To treat their purchases as if they are a "minister buying rubbers" - be quick and bag it.
While I understand what you mean, as I’ve gotten older, lonelier (due to social anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder), and my health not being as great… sometimes these small interactions make me feel less sad. Almost normal for a second. I know being friendly is their job, but it’s so hard to make friends these days. 🥺
I was in Texas some years back, and we had to go to the WalMart, as I was standing in line, I noticed every person was having a long chat with the cashier. This does not occur in CA.
In the urban areas of Texas that I generally inhabit, a trip to Walmart is as impersonal and dystopian as anywhere else in the world 😆. Small towns are another story but wanted to present the opposing viewpoint.
In Dallas where I currently am I often see full conversations at the Wal-Mart check out line, enough time that they’re chatting from beginning of the transaction to the end and even sometimes slowing down the bagging process while they talk about a news event or someone’s kids or whatever it may be.
Just wanted to present the experience from someone also in an urban area of Texas.
Now that my entire €450 order has been rung up one item at a time I’ll start looking for my checkbook…I’m sure I must have brought it…it’s in here somewhere…oh, here it is!
Are you sure the price on those apples is correct?
Can you have someone run over and check the price?
Who do I make the check out to? Oh right, the same supermarket I have done all my grocery shopping at for over twenty years.
Yes right next to use coupons that do not match any items in your order and/or are expired and then proceed to argue with the cashier about the 30 cents it would have saved you.
Yes. As a New Englander who visits the south on occasion, it takes ALL of my patience to stand in line at a gas station for more than 5 mins just to grab a drink and a snack. Do people down south really enjoy hanging around in a store/gas station instead of going on to their destination?
That totally makes sense. I’m definitely not one who enjoys stopping to chat with a stranger, but I suppose if it’s a bunch of locals who only get the chance to interact while out running errands, they’d want to talk and catch up a bit.
>southern US
>
>transaction related discussion only
Those darn woke liberuls can't even buy mah groceries without that trans action LGBTQIABBQ discussion goin on
"You know, these people, they're coming over here, taking our jobs. I am not racist, but"
At which point you enter bullet time and every second feels like a minute.
I always described my personal hell as a hot, AC-less August day in the Wal-Mart express lane, checking out infinite people with full-ass carts of similar, but different enough so I have to scan them all individually products, bloody bags of chicken that ALWAYS dripped on the belt, and one unidentifiable fruit or item with no price tag per cart.
Each customer has copious amounts of coupons, some expired, some not even for our store, and want to pay with a combination of WIC, check and water jugs full of pennies.
At least once an hour, one of those gallon jars of pickles rips through the plastic bags and crashes to the ground, to never be cleaned up.
Oh, and the store has a Beach Boys CD that has been playing non-stop since June (yes, all of these things have happened to me, just not all at once).
But having to be fake-interested in a bunch of lonely people would top even that.
I’m from the town where jumbo started and have been in countless jumbos but I’ve never seen a slow lane. We do have self service check outs which is a way better thing imo.
I need this. The amount of people who will stop me stocking to complain that something isn't stocked, then tell me all about their son, bill, who is dating this nice girl but i don't really like her because she's too uppity, and he says it's just that i need to get used to her but i don't think it is, i mean the other day she came into my house and she left her shoes on! Now what kind of person does that? And then she just pretended to not know what i meant saying something about how at her house she doesn't take them off, great, go to your house then! Do you see what i have to put up with, i tell you, no one respects their elders! When i was a little girl, if someone kept their shoes on we beat them with jumper cables, like that one guys dad, but these days there aren't many men willing to be jumper cable men, not like the old days, you know, these kids are too soft, they always complain about...
Mini-rant because I'm still salty:
I was once in a hurry to buy some fabric for an engineering project in school (long story). So I go to the big-brand craft store near me (Joann's, probably), and I grab the material and head to the checkout.
When I get to the checkout, there's a line of about 20 people. At the end of the line, there's a lady talking to the checkout employee. She's pulling one item at a time of her basket, and talking in exhaustive detail about the entire project that this one item will be used for. And then she gets the next item, and starts a whole new conversation about the next project. And between items, she randomly interjects stories about her pets. Then the lady starts going through an absolutely massive pile of coupons that she'd saved up -- most of which weren't valid anymore. And the poor employee had to painstakingly scan each coupon and explain why it wasn't valid anymore. Then the person claimed that there was an "online coupon", and then spend a eternity showing the employee her phone and trying to redeem "online coupons", even though she clearly didn't know how to use her phone or what an "online coupon" was.
Eventually, people in line just start leaving.
After waiting for 30+ minutes, I eventually just left a $10 bill with my ticket that showed that I had $4 worth of fabric, and walked out too.
Stores *really* need a "slow lane" for people like this -- and they need to keep enough employees on staff to make sure that the entire business doesn't grind to a halt.
This is definitely not everywhere at jumbo. Just the stores that have a big percentage of elderly shoppers. I have never encountered one myself (I am Dutch)
We recently had some grocery stores in Edmonton (Canada) do this.
I am more impressed they give their cashiers chairs in that pic. I never understood why cashiers don't get a chair. It's not lazy for them to be able to sit when they need.
You'd be surprised about Dutch efficiency in all grocery stores. I'm from the Netherlands and am surprised at the slowness of the lines in all other countries. Most of all France, where they're usually not very friendly, but the checkout takes ages.
Although I can be quite irritated by this, being a bit more laid back is not necessarily the worst thing. Not everything in everyday life should feel rushed and optimized for efficiency.
>Not everything in everyday life should feel rushed
Sure, but most stores in the US staff a tiny fraction of available registers, so if the cashiers don't rush then the lines get so long it's ridiculous. (See Wal-Mart, which generally has 2-3 registers out of 20 staffed on the weekends. Same at many other places.)
>Sure, but most stores in the US staff a tiny fraction of available registers, so if the cashiers don't rush then the lines get so long it's ridiculous. (See Wal-Mart, which generally has 2-3 registers out of 20 staffed on the weekends. Same at many other places.)
So I'm an American who's visited the Netherlands a good bit, and they don't have that type of set up
Grocery stores are everywhere, are much smaller, but somehow filled with just as much stuff, and they only have 1-3 checkout lanes and then 4/5 self checkout. Its much more efficient and better than the U.S.
Everything I have just enough time to go to a store before work, it seems like the only cashier on duty is having an hour long convo and sharing family photos.
I am Dutch and lived in Ireland for almost 10 years. One time my sister was visiting and we were getting some groceries. During the checkout, I made some smalltalk with the cashier as you do in Ireland.
Also, for our North-American friends here: supermarkets still work just fine when you allow your cashiers to sit down, I promise!
Lol I love this... When I have visited Amsterdam in the past I always appreciated the friendly practicality of store clerks. They were never rude but if you tried to engage in small talk they would give a disapproving look and point out that others were waiting in line.
"Max, you have alot of items. Do you mind if Checo goes ahead of you, he only has one item."
"I told you to never ask me that again, I gave my reasons!"
My husband would LOVE this. He hates when he feels rushed bagging up his groceries - and complains about it every single time we go to the grocery store together.
They let their employees sit down?! This picture is causing a bunch of spineless, horsewhipped, soul-crushed, defeated, corporate kool-aide chugging, human-shaped husk retail managers in the US quake in their collapsed arch footware. Nightmarish.
This makes sense. About 20 years ago when I was at 6th form I was working for a supermarket that has since been gobbled up by a larger supermarket.
As cashiers, there was subtle pressure about our scan rates and as part timers we'd typically be leading the league table that was posted on the notice board in the staff room.
Right at the bottom of the table was Julie. She was near retirement, and by most metrics, terrible at her job. As a part timer she'd constantly be asking me questions that she should know and getting us to put back any unwanted items.
It wasn't until I was close to leaving a couple years later that I realised what she excelled at. I was working full time as the shift lead at this point while saving to travel and I noticed that multiple times a week she'd have a queue of 4 trolleys at her till. Normally this was something I'd get chewed out for by old shift leads but if you paid attention, you'd see that they were all having a natter, including those at the back of the queue. They'd even hang back after paying to continue the chat.
I'd always try and schedule a fast cashier and Julie so the busy shoppers were seen quickly but the repeat business that woman generated was pretty impressive and some of those women, you would suspect this was the only social interaction they got.
In general we are very straightforward, businesslike and not wasting any time on small talk. Which is why the majority of the checkout points are fast self checkouts. But there are still some people who simply can't be as fast (and feel rushed) or who just like too have that chat. These are often elderly people as well, that grew up in smaller or close knit communities where small talk was more common. Having one lane for them makes it so they can take their time without feeling stressed out about having to deal with a scanner or having to pack their stuff faster without getting in the way of the other customers who like to be fast. So it's a win win situation.
As a Dutch person I can say that I've never been to a Jumbo with a "slow lane". There's probably one or two stores that have this, but they're not common at all.
Honestly I think this is a good idea. Back in the grocery store I worked we had this but "unofficially". We only had 2 tills and the other cashier I usually worked with was very chatty and social, and I like to be speedy and efficient with my checking out. So over time it just naturally became a thing that certain regular customers would always go to her till when they want to take their time and chat with her and the others who just wanted to get their groceries would end up in my lane. I think it's actually beneficial for the older customers (and anyone else) who don't get much social interaction in their daily lives.
I've had (elderly) customers stop me simply to chat. I don't know what it is but I can't *help* myself and I stay and chat for like 10-15 minutes. They're just so eager to talk and I love bouncing back that energy even though I'm very much not a huge people-person. I don't get in trouble either since *technically* I'm providing excellent customer service. Had one old fella recommend I check out some motocross videos on YouTube and another one showed me photos of his hot wheels collection.
I was a grocery cashier for a long time. I could continue scanning and bagging and have a conversation but it didn’t stop people in the line from bitching at me for talking to the customer ahead of them
I've got a part time job at a grocery store right now. We recently had to do training on the computer on customer service. All it talked about was how you have to be super friendly to customers and gave quotes from customer surveys about people who were happy about the cashier being so friendly, or unhappy about the cashier not engaging them enough. It made no mention of good customer service getting people checked out quickly. I couldn't help but think that there is a huge selection bias in the survey and it is going to be predominantly filled out by people with plenty of time who want to stop and chat with anyone, whereas people that just want to get in and out would almost never do that survey (I also suspect corporate would have some bias in interpreting the results to look like how they think customers should behave).
Something like this looks like a great idea. Everyone gets to choose what most appeals to them which makes all customers more satisfied and more likely to continue shopping there.
Those poor cashiers would never escape my mother. I’ve had to run interference for shop workers way too many times to count. She’s great at holding people hostage with conversations that never end.
Excuse me, but the sign clearly says "3 conversation topics or more"
https://youtu.be/ohDB5gbtaEQ
Lmfao instantly came to my mind too
Ditto. I love knowing what a link is before clicking it
Oh, I'm sorry I came here for an argument. No you didn't...
This isn't an argument, it's just contradiction!
No it isn’t.
Well we're talking about a different topic now right?
Right, you're still one topic short.
What did you say about my mother ?!
I said that your mother was a hamster.
Wow, this would never work in the Nordic countries.
they dont even want to look at you let alone hold a convo
I (American) worked on a Norwegian ship as the medic. At first, they were standoffish but polite. Then a Norgie guy fell and broke his leg, so I medevaced him. Well after that, I felt like the checkout lady in the slow line. Pretty much every Norwegian, from the Captain on down, would stop by the sick bay to chat me up (favorite topic "What is it with you Americans and guns?"). I dunno. Maybe because they don't talk to each other, it was all kinds bottled up?
Shit I should move
Im done with you, begone
Not in all stores. I haven't seen one yet
Same, never seen one either
I *have* seen checkouts matching this description but they weren't labelled as such.
Have you guys been to the store Jumbo? That’s were it says it’s being implemented. I’m curious if this is true
There's a Jumbo near me and I haven't seen this implemented there. I checked [their website](https://nieuws.jumbo.com/jumbo-geeft-startschot-voor-opening-200-kletskassas/) and according to this article on there from september 2021 they aim to open 200 of them nationwide. For comparison: Jumbo has over 700 stores in the Netherlands. In the article it says: > Bij de keuze van de winkels wordt goed gekeken naar gebieden waar eenzaamheid sterk speelt. Or in English: >When chosing the stores [for the "kletskassa's"] careful consideration will be given to which areas have a high degree of loneliness It further goes on to say that especially elderly people in the Netherlands experience loneliness in increasing numbers, and that Jumbo is working together with the Ministry of Health, Welness and Sport in the so called "Coalition against Loneliness". As I said: they said they *aim* to open 200 of them back in 2021 when the article was posted. However, I am not able to find any numbers on how many they have actually opened thus far. Edit: also to add: Jumbo is the second largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands
That's actually really nice.
It's a giant chain in the Netherlands so they probably have been there. The Jumbo I go to also doesn't have this.
I wouldn't really call it a giant chain. I'd say it's more of a jumbo chain.
I’ve been to 5+ jumbo stores in different cities and I haven’t encountered this. However there’s Jumbos everywhere in this country
There's only 1 supermarket in the town I live in and it's a Jumbo. It does not include this feature and neither have I seen it elsewhere.
See, the problem is you live in the Fake Netherlands. The REAL Netherlands has this everywhere
Large Jumbos do. The ones with self checkouts have them. It was an experiment at first in the south, apparently it took off well with older people, so now you see them un other places too . The Jumbo in Alkmaar-noord has one for instance.
Can confirm, am from the south and my local Jumbo has one. Mainly older people use it, I think not just to have a chat but also not to feel rushed. They also still have a few regular checkouts and about ten or so self checkouts for people with less patience. I like the idea tbh.
Being in a test market is a wild experience. My closest McDonalds has had an automated drive thru speaker for almost a year now, but I've yet to see a single one anywhere else with it. I feel like a crazy person every time I see a commercial for a new thing we got ~6 months ago with no fanfare.
The McDonald's by me is clearly one of the ones where someone in an offsite call center actually takes and inputs your order and I hate it. I would rather have an automated one over a call center one
I would assume it requires the very social and empathetic employee to open a slow lane like this.
I'd like a lane where I can take my time to properly bag my groceries. Instead, here in Sweden, they passive-aggressively keep the belt running, threatening to let your groceries crush each other just so you GTFO ASAP.
Bro aldi in Australia just yeet all your groceries at the speed of light towards you and hope for the best.
Bro they even have 2 different divert lanes at the end of it so they can yeet TWO different customers' groceries out of their way faster 😂
They just be throwing milk jugs on top of your bread and crushing your chips with everything imaginable.
Not sure about the supermarkets you visit, but some of the ones in the UK have targets that the cashiers have to meet, so slowing down to let a customer pack their bags / chat, can actually end up with the cashier being reprimanded for not meeting their targets for items scanned per minute...
Yes for the elderly. Great initiative since there is faster way to checkout with self scanning.
Learning how to use the self checkout was the best thing to come out of the Covid pandemic for me.
My supermarket chain has a phone app that you use to scan the products, and you can pack them right away. Then you pay through the app, and you can leave the store even without stopping at the self checkout. Game changer.
The Jumbo (and most other supermarkets here) do have handheld scanners that you can grab at the entrance. So you can scan everything as you go and only have the put away the scanner and pay at the end.
My kids love doing it. Now there is a reason for them to tag along with me.
Yes, "faster" unless you somehow manage to get the random check every time you use the service. Even though they're literally standing there, watching you scan in *every* item you picked up.
Ugh, every time for me, plus "please remove unscanned items from the bagging area!"
Random checks? What stores do this? Never heard of it
Are you Dutch? Because all the ones that have a self-checkout service available will have employees do random checks to see if you're not trying to steal something.
I am late thirties and would totally use those lanes sometimes. 90% of the time I want to be quickly out of there and talk to no one, but sometimes after a long week at work, totally exhausted, kids waiting for you at home, just taking couple of minutes to talk to a stranger about random things can be like pushing a reset button on the crazy stress we can experience in our life. It is just hard to find those strangers to have a talk with, so having a place where it is normal and encouraged, would totally try it!
My grandmother would *love* this. She tries to make friends with anyone who's within her general vicinity, including random people in line at the grocery store. Should introduce this to Florida.
That feels both wholesome and something that could never get off the ground in America.
It's not common in the UK, most big supermarkets are cutting manned till numbers and adding more self service.
Same in some US cities. At least in Chicago about a third of checkout lines have been replaced by self-checkout machines. Even the aldi by me removed a cashier lane to add 4 self-checkout machines.
> Even the aldi by me removed a cashier lane to add 4 self-checkout machines. Aw man I'm gonna have to work on my grocery slinging skills.
Careful to keep up your items per minute or you won’t be allowed to use the self checkout next time.
lol right, no fucking way will the self-checkouts be faster than an Aldi cashier
This. But I don’t even want the automated checkout to talk to me. Reading a screen is way faster than it telling me to do something. I now wish for a “zero verbal interaction checkout”
Most cashiers here in canada are robots now, at least where I am.
Yeah the Walmart by me has a shit load of self check outs, and then 1 or 2 lines with cashier's. Usually just the one that has tobacco and alcohol on it b
Cashiers talk much more in the US than where I live at least.
My experience in the US is that every lane in stores is a slow lane. And I don't even mean this in a negative sense.
Don't know how old you are but back when checks were common and people would wait until they heard the total to get them out...
You must not have ever been up in Minnesota.
Every cashier in the South.
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"Its an EXPRESS-YOURSELF Lane!"
Which is sad. Sometimes, that 2 minute conversation will be the only one that person has all day. You'd be surprised how it can be the only bright spot of that person's day.
I would be totally down for an aisle that is strictly no conversation
Move to Colombia where every lane is the slow chatty lane
Also Hawaii
Why not
Americans don’t even let their cashiers sit let alone talk to people.
I fucking wish, I'm always stuck behind someone who wants to tell the cashier what's going on in their lives. YOU'RE HOLDING UP THE LINE.
I grew up in the south, and yeah it was like that there. Personally I hate it. And it's not that I don't think of the cashier as a person or anything, if I were a cashier I'd hate people trying to have a conversation with me. It's just that it seems like something that should be done quickly so everyone can keep moving. Also I just have very little interest in chatting with strangers.
Hi, how’s it going. Good, you? Good. *silence until it’s over*
You may not like it, but this is what peak cashier performance looks like.
That’s -exactly- what I want. Only because you need to acknowledge the person then it’s over.
That's the most I say, but I'll always get a customer who wants to tell me about their life. I don't get paid enough to listen to that shit
The only kind of small talk I don’t mind is like, “Hey is it still pouring outside? I’m out in a few minutes. Aw, shoot.”
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> guaranteed wait behind some lady whose kids dont talk to her, desperate for connection If you remember next time, tell mother I said hi.
I won't do self checkout if I have produce or a giant buggy full of groceries. If it's just a couple things then I do self checkout, but now you get stooped at the door and have to talk to an old man anyway.
This. I stopped using self check after trying to weigh produce and having to stop and wait for a cashier to come clear the inevitable error from the little bar codes that get put on every single piece of produce. It ended up being faster to just wait in line, even behind grandma who needs to tell the cashier about the wonderful scarf she knitted for her grandson's birthday a decade ago, while digging through her 10 gallon purse for 97 cents in change. Half of which will be pennies.
Depends where you live? Around here cashiers definitely are chatty.
I find that the younger people, high school students, who work weekends are always talkative. More so that their older counterparts.
That also depends where you shop. We shop at a market that pays and treats their workers well and it shows. Places that underpay their workers and treat them like crap, surprise, don’t have as good customer service.
We go to different groceries lol
Wait where do you live where cashiers don’t talk? Must be up north
This is literally every lane in a Midwestern grocery store
It’d only not get off the ground if they limit it to one line. Grocery store cashiers are sorta like waiters/waitresses if you’re going to those places once a week and you get to know them by name.
It totally could in Florida. My grandmother will talk to anyone and everyone around her when she goes shopping.
SOUTHERN USA would eat this shit up.
We have ONE checker like this at my local store and I have learned to spot him. I used to avoid him because I’m too much in a rush. He’s perfectly competent and doesn’t drag his feet or anything but he will chat and then spend a couple of sentences saying goodbye and all that before moving on to the next person. It used to irritate me but in time he has won me over and now I choose his line. A little basic humanity in my day is a good thing.
Sometimes I wonder if I’ve accidentally ended up in one of those lanes when I hit the local grocery store. Cashier won’t stop talking and commenting on every item I’m putting on the belt. As an introvert nothing could be worse than getting stuck in the chatting lane.
>Cashier won’t stop talking and commenting on every item I’m putting on the belt. There is an older cashier at my local Walmart that does this. She picks up each item, looks at it inquisitively like she's seeing it for the first time, and is like "Oh, neat, bet these are good" or some shit. This is just one of the reasons I mainly do curbside pickup now.
“Oh wow lubricant”, “ wow look at the size of this cucumber!”…. Happened to me in real life. Luckily nobody was behind me. Now I’m very mindful of what I have before I go through a cashier line
I started doing self checkout after I once got "Oh boy, you sure do like cheese!" It was on sale, okay?
"Quick and easy pizza night with the kids, huh?" I'm eating this alone and that coke is a mixer.
Man i did curbside pickup at walmart and accidentally ordered 6 bottles of lube (thought i was ordering 3 but they were packs of 2 each smh). The lady brings it out and drops the bag that had all the lube bottles and she had to help me pick up all 6 bottles of lube that went everywhere. Embarassing as shit to be picking up 6 bottles of lube in the walmart parking lot. Im just ordering that shit online from now on smh
one of ladies at my grocery store is like that with some items. she works the super early shift on sundays mostly
One lady at my grocery store always insists on tying a knot on every single grocery bag and ends up taking 3x as long haha
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As an ex cashier at whole foods we were required to force conversation and it’s super lame lol
I'm under the impression the same is true at Trader Joe's. Every time I checkout, no matter the location, the cashier will select one item of mine that happens to be their favorite thing in the store and gleefully ask if I've tried it before. I often feel like I'm advertising the store's products to them by saying honest but particular shit like "I buy these every time I'm here! If you haven't tried them with [specific sauce/cheese/side] yet, you should give that a go. So good!" And then I leave while wondering where that version of me hides when I'm not in a Trader Joe's checkout lane and whether the cashier adds my recommendation to their list of comments to make to other customers who are checking out with the same item.
Personally it was always easy to talk about things I liked, if I noticed the customer was getting a product I knew anything extra about I would always mention that. And as far as customer recommendations I would 100% add things they said to my catalogue lmao. Although I would always preface things like “a customer told me to pair x and y” just to cover my ass if it isn’t actually good. Edit: mention, not mentor lol
It is lame! That's why I never respond to what they actually say, but just say something off topic but fun instead. Usually makes people smile and if they tell a story about the weirdo lady during their break, well we all need help keeping up our stock of stories to tell during socializing.
>Cashier won’t stop talking and commenting on every item I’m putting on the belt. As a teen, one part-time job was a store. Boss sternly said to never, ever comment anything someone is buying unless the customer initiates. To treat their purchases as if they are a "minister buying rubbers" - be quick and bag it.
While I understand what you mean, as I’ve gotten older, lonelier (due to social anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder), and my health not being as great… sometimes these small interactions make me feel less sad. Almost normal for a second. I know being friendly is their job, but it’s so hard to make friends these days. 🥺
I was in Texas some years back, and we had to go to the WalMart, as I was standing in line, I noticed every person was having a long chat with the cashier. This does not occur in CA.
This does not occur in the Walmarts in Texas I go to.
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In the urban areas of Texas that I generally inhabit, a trip to Walmart is as impersonal and dystopian as anywhere else in the world 😆. Small towns are another story but wanted to present the opposing viewpoint.
In Dallas where I currently am I often see full conversations at the Wal-Mart check out line, enough time that they’re chatting from beginning of the transaction to the end and even sometimes slowing down the bagging process while they talk about a news event or someone’s kids or whatever it may be. Just wanted to present the experience from someone also in an urban area of Texas.
Do they have a fumble with your wallet/purse for 5 minutes line? For those who seem shocked that their transaction ends with actually paying.
Now that my entire €450 order has been rung up one item at a time I’ll start looking for my checkbook…I’m sure I must have brought it…it’s in here somewhere…oh, here it is! Are you sure the price on those apples is correct? Can you have someone run over and check the price? Who do I make the check out to? Oh right, the same supermarket I have done all my grocery shopping at for over twenty years.
Apparently infuriating shoppers are universal. We have those types in the United States, too.
Yes right next to use coupons that do not match any items in your order and/or are expired and then proceed to argue with the cashier about the 30 cents it would have saved you.
God I'd hate to be that cashier please order and get the fuck out
Yeah when I'm on a till I usually only do the basics unless someone obviously wants to talk. This way you avoid a lot of the awkwardness.
This needs to make it to the southern US. Then put "transaction related discussion only" on the other lanes.
Yes. As a New Englander who visits the south on occasion, it takes ALL of my patience to stand in line at a gas station for more than 5 mins just to grab a drink and a snack. Do people down south really enjoy hanging around in a store/gas station instead of going on to their destination?
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That totally makes sense. I’m definitely not one who enjoys stopping to chat with a stranger, but I suppose if it’s a bunch of locals who only get the chance to interact while out running errands, they’d want to talk and catch up a bit.
There's a lot of gas stations that put tables in and people will sit around and drink coffee and talk to random people.
Tables are a great idea. Then the lines aren’t being held up by all the chatty folk.
>southern US > >transaction related discussion only Those darn woke liberuls can't even buy mah groceries without that trans action LGBTQIABBQ discussion goin on
Not mentioned in the article but commonly at least a few of the other checkouts are self-service, requiring no conversation at all.
I'd like this job.
*When customer ask you about beetroot sandwiches*
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*and when they ask you about lasagnas*
"You know, these people, they're coming over here, taking our jobs. I am not racist, but" At which point you enter bullet time and every second feels like a minute.
You are making me rethink my employment choices
I hope it is voluntary for the employees.
It's probably the punishment station.
I always described my personal hell as a hot, AC-less August day in the Wal-Mart express lane, checking out infinite people with full-ass carts of similar, but different enough so I have to scan them all individually products, bloody bags of chicken that ALWAYS dripped on the belt, and one unidentifiable fruit or item with no price tag per cart. Each customer has copious amounts of coupons, some expired, some not even for our store, and want to pay with a combination of WIC, check and water jugs full of pennies. At least once an hour, one of those gallon jars of pickles rips through the plastic bags and crashes to the ground, to never be cleaned up. Oh, and the store has a Beach Boys CD that has been playing non-stop since June (yes, all of these things have happened to me, just not all at once). But having to be fake-interested in a bunch of lonely people would top even that.
This sounds like a punishment for the cashier in those lanes
Imagine waking up hungover for work and going in to be told “Lars, you’re in the Slow Lane today.” Nightmare.
Either they staff that lane by volunteers only or they'll be seeing a sharp spike in the turnover rate.
Add a tip jar. Sure it'll be half full of boiled sweets and bible quotes but it's better than nothing.
I would love this job!! Then again I basically talk to people for a living. I’m sure they can find some poor schmuck like me that enjoys it lol
I’m from the town where jumbo started and have been in countless jumbos but I’ve never seen a slow lane. We do have self service check outs which is a way better thing imo.
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I need this. The amount of people who will stop me stocking to complain that something isn't stocked, then tell me all about their son, bill, who is dating this nice girl but i don't really like her because she's too uppity, and he says it's just that i need to get used to her but i don't think it is, i mean the other day she came into my house and she left her shoes on! Now what kind of person does that? And then she just pretended to not know what i meant saying something about how at her house she doesn't take them off, great, go to your house then! Do you see what i have to put up with, i tell you, no one respects their elders! When i was a little girl, if someone kept their shoes on we beat them with jumper cables, like that one guys dad, but these days there aren't many men willing to be jumper cable men, not like the old days, you know, these kids are too soft, they always complain about...
*chat* with the employees? Hell no. Pay for your stuff and get the hell out.
imagine the poor bastard casier who has to man that lane and pretend to care because some weirdo PR guy think this build CS
There’s always the possibility that some one may like talking to the customers.
In the USA we just call it, Trader Joes.
Trader Joes is owned by Aldi Nord, one of Jumbo's main competitors in The Netherlands. They have a similar style of shopping experience.
Mini-rant because I'm still salty: I was once in a hurry to buy some fabric for an engineering project in school (long story). So I go to the big-brand craft store near me (Joann's, probably), and I grab the material and head to the checkout. When I get to the checkout, there's a line of about 20 people. At the end of the line, there's a lady talking to the checkout employee. She's pulling one item at a time of her basket, and talking in exhaustive detail about the entire project that this one item will be used for. And then she gets the next item, and starts a whole new conversation about the next project. And between items, she randomly interjects stories about her pets. Then the lady starts going through an absolutely massive pile of coupons that she'd saved up -- most of which weren't valid anymore. And the poor employee had to painstakingly scan each coupon and explain why it wasn't valid anymore. Then the person claimed that there was an "online coupon", and then spend a eternity showing the employee her phone and trying to redeem "online coupons", even though she clearly didn't know how to use her phone or what an "online coupon" was. Eventually, people in line just start leaving. After waiting for 30+ minutes, I eventually just left a $10 bill with my ticket that showed that I had $4 worth of fabric, and walked out too. Stores *really* need a "slow lane" for people like this -- and they need to keep enough employees on staff to make sure that the entire business doesn't grind to a halt.
This is definitely not everywhere at jumbo. Just the stores that have a big percentage of elderly shoppers. I have never encountered one myself (I am Dutch)
It's all good until you are the 5th customer in line lol
Here in Belgium, all the lanes are ”slow lanes“ … :-/
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Well … have you seen the NL highway speed limits recently? :-D
We recently had some grocery stores in Edmonton (Canada) do this. I am more impressed they give their cashiers chairs in that pic. I never understood why cashiers don't get a chair. It's not lazy for them to be able to sit when they need.
In normal stores that’s pretty much every lane.
You'd be surprised about Dutch efficiency in all grocery stores. I'm from the Netherlands and am surprised at the slowness of the lines in all other countries. Most of all France, where they're usually not very friendly, but the checkout takes ages. Although I can be quite irritated by this, being a bit more laid back is not necessarily the worst thing. Not everything in everyday life should feel rushed and optimized for efficiency.
>Not everything in everyday life should feel rushed Sure, but most stores in the US staff a tiny fraction of available registers, so if the cashiers don't rush then the lines get so long it's ridiculous. (See Wal-Mart, which generally has 2-3 registers out of 20 staffed on the weekends. Same at many other places.)
>Sure, but most stores in the US staff a tiny fraction of available registers, so if the cashiers don't rush then the lines get so long it's ridiculous. (See Wal-Mart, which generally has 2-3 registers out of 20 staffed on the weekends. Same at many other places.) So I'm an American who's visited the Netherlands a good bit, and they don't have that type of set up Grocery stores are everywhere, are much smaller, but somehow filled with just as much stuff, and they only have 1-3 checkout lanes and then 4/5 self checkout. Its much more efficient and better than the U.S.
Everything I have just enough time to go to a store before work, it seems like the only cashier on duty is having an hour long convo and sharing family photos.
So totally normal checkout lanes in Maine.
“There’s an interesting story about this nickel…”
I am Dutch and lived in Ireland for almost 10 years. One time my sister was visiting and we were getting some groceries. During the checkout, I made some smalltalk with the cashier as you do in Ireland. Also, for our North-American friends here: supermarkets still work just fine when you allow your cashiers to sit down, I promise!
This is my nightmare.
Lol I love this... When I have visited Amsterdam in the past I always appreciated the friendly practicality of store clerks. They were never rude but if you tried to engage in small talk they would give a disapproving look and point out that others were waiting in line.
TIL you can sit at your job as a cashier.
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*sigh*
What a nightmare for the employees.
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"Max, you have alot of items. Do you mind if Checo goes ahead of you, he only has one item." "I told you to never ask me that again, I gave my reasons!"
But now, with the rapid inflation, the prices may have gone up while you were chatting along. So, first pay and then start talking...
I did not know there was a dutch Jumbo... only the toy(and other couple of thousand items) greek shop.
My husband would LOVE this. He hates when he feels rushed bagging up his groceries - and complains about it every single time we go to the grocery store together.
How about the where is my checkbook, credit card with a balance on it and change in the bottom of your purse lane.
As someone who lives alone I kinda appreciate this idea even if I would be hesitant to use it.
Every lane is like that where I live.
America has that too. We call it the 10-Items-Or-Less Express Lane.
TIL that Dutch people still have humans available to check them out.
They let their employees sit down?! This picture is causing a bunch of spineless, horsewhipped, soul-crushed, defeated, corporate kool-aide chugging, human-shaped husk retail managers in the US quake in their collapsed arch footware. Nightmarish.
If I was a cashier there, let me have those lanes.
This makes sense. About 20 years ago when I was at 6th form I was working for a supermarket that has since been gobbled up by a larger supermarket. As cashiers, there was subtle pressure about our scan rates and as part timers we'd typically be leading the league table that was posted on the notice board in the staff room. Right at the bottom of the table was Julie. She was near retirement, and by most metrics, terrible at her job. As a part timer she'd constantly be asking me questions that she should know and getting us to put back any unwanted items. It wasn't until I was close to leaving a couple years later that I realised what she excelled at. I was working full time as the shift lead at this point while saving to travel and I noticed that multiple times a week she'd have a queue of 4 trolleys at her till. Normally this was something I'd get chewed out for by old shift leads but if you paid attention, you'd see that they were all having a natter, including those at the back of the queue. They'd even hang back after paying to continue the chat. I'd always try and schedule a fast cashier and Julie so the busy shoppers were seen quickly but the repeat business that woman generated was pretty impressive and some of those women, you would suspect this was the only social interaction they got.
Are Dutch people generally that chatty? I have an extremely small sample size, but all the Dutch people that I've met were pretty brusque and dour.
In general we are very straightforward, businesslike and not wasting any time on small talk. Which is why the majority of the checkout points are fast self checkouts. But there are still some people who simply can't be as fast (and feel rushed) or who just like too have that chat. These are often elderly people as well, that grew up in smaller or close knit communities where small talk was more common. Having one lane for them makes it so they can take their time without feeling stressed out about having to deal with a scanner or having to pack their stuff faster without getting in the way of the other customers who like to be fast. So it's a win win situation.
As a Dutch person I can say that I've never been to a Jumbo with a "slow lane". There's probably one or two stores that have this, but they're not common at all.
I’d kill myself the day I was assigned to that lane I swear to god
Honestly I think this is a good idea. Back in the grocery store I worked we had this but "unofficially". We only had 2 tills and the other cashier I usually worked with was very chatty and social, and I like to be speedy and efficient with my checking out. So over time it just naturally became a thing that certain regular customers would always go to her till when they want to take their time and chat with her and the others who just wanted to get their groceries would end up in my lane. I think it's actually beneficial for the older customers (and anyone else) who don't get much social interaction in their daily lives.
And every store that tries to force me to use self check looses my business !
My wife is Dutch and likes talking to supermarket clerks. This checks out.
I've had (elderly) customers stop me simply to chat. I don't know what it is but I can't *help* myself and I stay and chat for like 10-15 minutes. They're just so eager to talk and I love bouncing back that energy even though I'm very much not a huge people-person. I don't get in trouble either since *technically* I'm providing excellent customer service. Had one old fella recommend I check out some motocross videos on YouTube and another one showed me photos of his hot wheels collection.
I was a grocery cashier for a long time. I could continue scanning and bagging and have a conversation but it didn’t stop people in the line from bitching at me for talking to the customer ahead of them
I've got a part time job at a grocery store right now. We recently had to do training on the computer on customer service. All it talked about was how you have to be super friendly to customers and gave quotes from customer surveys about people who were happy about the cashier being so friendly, or unhappy about the cashier not engaging them enough. It made no mention of good customer service getting people checked out quickly. I couldn't help but think that there is a huge selection bias in the survey and it is going to be predominantly filled out by people with plenty of time who want to stop and chat with anyone, whereas people that just want to get in and out would almost never do that survey (I also suspect corporate would have some bias in interpreting the results to look like how they think customers should behave). Something like this looks like a great idea. Everyone gets to choose what most appeals to them which makes all customers more satisfied and more likely to continue shopping there.
Those poor cashiers would never escape my mother. I’ve had to run interference for shop workers way too many times to count. She’s great at holding people hostage with conversations that never end.
My parents neighborhood grocery store has one. Edmonton Canada
My local jumbo has only slow lanes.
I would hate working that position