- Invitation Status
- Looking for partners
- Posting Speed
- One post per day
- 1-3 posts per week
- One post per week
- Writing Levels
- Intermediate
- Adept
- Advanced
- Preferred Character Gender
- No Preferences
- Genres
- Urban Fantasy, High Fantasy, Epic Quest, Sci-Fi, Time Travel and World Hopping, Steampunk, Action/Adventure, Modern Drama, Mystery, Slice of Life, Romance, and many more.
I've been working retail for about 8 years now, and call me an optimist but I think most people don't realise how rude/inconsiderate they are sometimes being! So I have compiled a list of common things to avoid so that you do not make yourself look like a dickhead, and I all-but guarantee that the clerks you interact with will be much more inclined to be nice to you for it!
So there you go. Minibit's four-step guide to stop being an unintentional jackass at the store. I hope this sheds some light on why some people may be getting a supposedly undeserved stinkeye from their cashiers.
- Say Hi
Most businesses have a policy to greet customers, so odds are your clerk initiated contact with a "Hi, how's your day" "hey how's it going?" or even just "Hi.". When you skip saying Hi back, or ignore the inquiry to your well-being, and just skip to "I want this this and this", it's extremely rude, and makes the clerk feel snubbed. So just say Hi first. If you want to be extra awesome, ask how they're doing today, too. - Eye contact
It's basic. But when you spend the entire interaction with your service worker staring at your phone, your shopping list, or the items in question, and never once look at your clerk's face, it makes the clerk feel snubbed and ignored. Especially if you don't even look at them when they're talking. - Remember it's not their fault.
I understand many people are in a hurry, you probably have a bajillion things to do today and you got in a fight with your friend and you're stressed out from work and burnt dinner and can't afford take-out. This would put me in a lousy mood too, but don't take it out on an unsuspecting clerk; it isn't their fault, and odds are they've dealt with crap today too, but they're not venting it on you, so return the favour. - Was I supposed to laugh?
I'm sure they're well-intentioned, but saying things like "It must be free!" if something doesn't have a tag or won't scan, or asking if someone is "working hard or hardly working?" or even worse, conveying pity for someone because they're working, is not only something every clerk has heard a hundred times already, but it can some cases be downright aggravating.
So there you go. Minibit's four-step guide to stop being an unintentional jackass at the store. I hope this sheds some light on why some people may be getting a supposedly undeserved stinkeye from their cashiers.