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I'm thrilled to have finally reached the end of this thread so that I can now post. I work in a supermarket in Australia (checkout operator/supervisor), and I've been horrified hearing how retail workers in the US are treated, both by customers and their own management. It fascinates me that there seems to be a cultural difference that causes american shoppers to be inherently ruder towards retail staff: we get a few americans in my store, both tourists and people who have moved over here, and I can honestly say that american customers in australia form almost a stereotype: they always seem to be the most incredibly polite people that pass through my checkout (with one exception). I have only ever had one american ever cause a scene at my checkout, and in that case the situation was kind of understandable. Almost all retail stores in Australia have a policy of mandatory bag searches - if you choose to bring a bag into the store, you are required to allow a member of staff to search it before you leave. this woman objected strenuously to me searching her handbag, and since I'm told this doesn't really happen in the US, I can understand it. True problem customers (as opposed to people who do annoying things, like being stupid) are few and far between here, so on the rare occasions when someone has a hissy fit I treat it as free entertainment. my supermarket is across the road from the largest public hospital in the state, and so we get our fair share of crazy mental patients. I'm curious to hear from any american retail workers who have had the opportunity to work in Australian retail, or Australians who have done retail work in the US...I imagine the culture shock would be substantial. also: we don't really have coupons here (fast food places and cafes often do, but not supermarkets). coupons sound like they would drive me to shoot myself.
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Dec 31, 2011 13:38
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ConfusedUs posted:I worked for a privately-owned portrait studio, as the studio manager. It was the best job I ever had, but drat do I have some stories. Then the owner retired, sold the joint, and the new owner bankrupted the place in about nine months. being in australia where management actually supports its staff, I never permit customers to speak to me like that. The instant a customer raises their voice or swears at me, I immediately say, "sir/ma'am, if you continue to speak to me in that tone of voice I will have security remove you from the premises." I don't raise my voice, I look straight in their eyes and say it as coldly as possible. I've very rarely had to follow through. When you put people in their place quickly, things don't tend to escalate. We bend over backwards to be polite and accommodating to customers, but at the end of the day, as I tell new staff If I have to train them, the staff are the ones in charge, not the customer, and we will never bend company policy so much as an inch.
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Jan 3, 2012 03:42
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Sonic Dude posted:That's hilariously different from retail in the US. When I worked for a leading fruit-based computer company, a customer became angry that I wouldn't "throw in" an iPod with his bare-bones, no-attachment laptop purchase. He argued and argued and eventually demanded to know my first and last name (which I gave, since it was on my business card) as well as my address. Because that's not scary as gently caress. Declining that 'request' led immediately to "I want to talk to your boss." I find myself wondering if the difference in perception of retail workers in Australia and the US has anything to do with the way in which Australian retail workers dress? I have only ever worked at a supermarket, so I don't have a broad experience, but up until about 4 years ago, the uniform at both of our major supermarket chains consisted of a white business shirt, black dress trousers, black dress shoes and a company tie. In winter, you wore a black vest or suitcoat over the top, and checkout supervisors wore a waistcoat to distinguish them. People working in the deli, or as in store butchers, or other fresh food handling jobs wore an apron over the top. even with the new uniforms, we have ditched the tie, but we still wear a formal company branded button up shirt over black dress trousers and black dress shoes. I have always thought that perhaps by giving the appearance of being 'a professional' based on our attire, it helped mitigate the belief that retail workers were lower class good for nothings. that being said, Australian culture tends to venerate the 'lower class battler' and ridicule the wealthy.
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Jan 3, 2012 05:17
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spixxor posted:I had one customer today that got all snitty with me about "WHERE IS MY DRINK" when all I did was set it up in the little check signing platform, like we do 9 times out of ten when someone doesn't want it in a bag. Just generally copping a lovely attitude altogether. this was a coworker of yours? because if so that's pretty pathetic
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Jan 3, 2012 05:54
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Meow Cadet posted:We have a new CEO. The CEO does not like to dress up, so therefore, neither can we. We are now required to wear jeans to work, even management. (polo shirts are still recommended though) I'm disappointed that I no longer get to wear a tie at my checkout. I miss the old uniforms. the new uniform shirts come in two styles, the plain ones that feel they've been made from recycled Jeans, and the ones with spots on them that feel like you've been wearing plastic bags. at least when we wore a standard white business shirt I could spend a bit more and buy something comfortable.
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Jan 4, 2012 04:33
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HookShot posted:Yeah, this. we get into trouble if we're seen not checking a bag. I have seen, in my store at least, security detain someone who refused a bag search... at the minimum someone refusing a bag search would be kicked out and told not to return. I raised the legality question with one of my professors my first year in law school... as long as there is a sign at the entrance to the store declaring it to be a condition of entry that customers consent to a bag check, they are legally required to comply...entering the store constitutes acceptance of a contract...if they don't want their bag searched, they can stay out of the store. Most places though, especially small places wouldn't have the resources or will to enforce it. One electronics chain has an airlock system of doors at the entrance with a security guard between them. When you go to leave, they inspect your bags and tick each of your purchases against the entry on the receipt, then stamp the receipt to verify you have been checked At the end of the day, it's about protecting ourselves from being accused of discrimination. Most of the time I give the most causal glance at a bag, but if we are seen to check everyone, apart from the deterrent affect, when we get someone we genuinely suspect, we can't be accused of only checking their bags because they belong to a specific ethnic minority. I've caught a few shoplifters this way, most notably the insane woman who thought she could smuggle a loving watermelon out of the store.
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Jan 6, 2012 00:21
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Rabite posted:Ive been reading this thread and Im still on page 90. Blood is the single most annoying type of spillage to clean. Urine and vomit are more disgusting, but blood is harder because it tends to dry quickly and become very sticky. It takes a fair amount of effort to remove
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Jan 6, 2012 04:39
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Arnold of Soissons posted:If I walked into that store planning to buy something, that system would talk me out of it. It's standard practice at any major retailer in australia, at least in theory. we are used to it, most people who know their bag is large enough to qualify for searching - it has to be larger than an A4 sheet of paper - automatically open it up for me to look inside without being asked
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Jan 6, 2012 06:35
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I've honestly very rarely encountered someone who has a problem with it. At the end of the day, those are the terms by which shop owners permit you to enter their premises, and people who don't want to comply can shop online or get a handbag that isn't large enough to be searched. the whole MY RITES!!! argument doesn't really wash in australia, nowhere in australian law are people explicitly given any broad rights beyond those nessesary to ensure the democratic functioning of the government; rights are assumed to exist except in the individual circumstances where the law says they don't; that's why the police here are able to set up on the road side and make each car that passes stop for a breath test, or flag cars down at random. as far as I'm concerned, if you aren't a criminal you should have nothing to hide; most people who pass through my checkout and comply with the check policy get the barest of glances in the direction of their bag... it's the ones who act like they don't want me to check where I start availing myself of my ability to ask you to remove items so I can see to the bottom of the bag, and open any internal compartments. I've searched the bag of our state's head of government when she passed through my checkout, and I'd have no problems searching my parents bags; although that will never happens since it would be a conflict of interest to let a friend or relative through my checkout. back to crazy customer stories, had a great one come in tonight: gentleman walks into the store, wearing army camouflage trousers, but with the bottom of the trousers tucked into his socks and an ancient air force coat. He was wearing a surgical mask over his face, and enormous sunglasses like that guy from CSI:MIAMI wears. around his neck he wore the facemask from a snorkle. completely nuts. when we wouldn't let him split his bill into 30 dollar increments so he could get extra fuel vouchers (when customers spend 30 dollars or more they get a voucher for 4c a litre discount on petrol at our branded petrol stations) he demanded to speak to 'the overlord'. when it was explained to him that we didn't currently have a staff member with that particular job title, and that he could speak to the store manager if he wanted, he pouted and said "Fine, I suppose that will have to do"
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Jan 6, 2012 13:07
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modeski posted:I'm a Brit living in Australia and this is precisely my attitude. I am not a thief, have nothing to hide, but absolutely refuse to have my bag checked between the checkout and the exit. To me, when you've paid your money to the cashier and are on your way out, that is the end of all transactions. This applies even more where the route between the checkout and the exit is clearly defined and presents no opportunities for theft. This is why I always request the bag check when I start serving someone, that way if we need to toss them out of the store they get to leave with nothing. I love customers like you. It amuses me when you have no choice but to wait for me to ask you about your rewards card, encourage you to get one if you don't have one, and waste 15 mins of your time calling management over when you refuse your bag check. I will also take my time making sure each of your bags is a perfectly packed work of art, and I will open each carton of eggs you buy to make sure none of the eggs are broken. then, at the end of all things, when you are shattered and defeated, I will bid you have a good day, and call you back when you invariably leave half your bags behind in your haste to be gone. Thank you for providing a dash of entertainment in my day. The Lord Bude fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Jan 6, 2012 |
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Jan 6, 2012 13:57
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Ockhams Crowbar posted:I'm still new to Australia, but I have yet to encounter this... System. Where do you work, for future reference? I'm in Queensland, the bag check code of conduct we follow is only for Queensland but I believe there are similar codes for other states. In addition to the sign at the entrance, there is a sign at each checkout explaining in detail to customers their rights and obligations under the code: We can only check bags larger than an A4 sheet of paper We have the right to ask you to remove objects in the bag that obstruct our view to the bottom , and to open any compartments We cannot under any circumstances touch your bag during the search If you refuse a search you can be asked to leave and not return. Kicking someone out is the standard response in the rare times its needed, we would only get security involved if we had more substantial proof of shoplifting...we are pretty vigilant about following suspicious customers. Under no circumstances can we search a customers person, so if you were to conceal something in your pocket we can do gently caress all. Also, generally we have a policy of 'you haven't actually stolen anything unless you leave the premises with it'. If we find something in the bag the assumption is that you were intending to pay for it but forgot it was there. the extent to which it is enforced varies from shop to shop, and how diligent cashiers are and how much management cares to enforce the rule. many small stores have a sign at the entrance but rarely enforce it, it's mostly supermarkets and large department stores. This is the New South Wales code, which is similar to the one in Queensland: http://hsc.csu.edu.au/retail/compulsory/240/theft/3183/bag_checks.htm While we're on the subject of shoplifters: If you take a drink, or a packet of chips or something and you open it to eat while you are shopping, you are shoplifting. your intention to pay for it when you get to the checkouts is irrelevant. I've caught many people doing this. Until you pay for it, it is still our property. when I need to walk from the front of the store to the back, or vice versa, I will always walk down aisles that carry high theft items like razor blades, on the off chance I can catch someone stealing. Also, gently caress minors who try to buy cigarettes, and parents who try to buy them for their kids. I'm not risking 2 years jail or 200,000 dollars for you. If you look under 25, I'm going to ask for ID. If you don't have ID, gently caress off. If I even think you intend to give the cigarettes you are buying to someone under age, you can forget about buying them. I had three separate incidents of this today. The Lord Bude fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Jan 6, 2012 |
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Jan 6, 2012 14:25
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PiCroft posted:This might be off topic but I recognize the "razors are heavily shoplifted" from when I was in retail: is there any reason why razors in particular are so frequently stolen? because a pack of 4 razor blades is something ridiculous like 25 dollars, and it is very small, making it easy to steal. you can get a large amount of money reselling it at markets or attempting refund fraud. The highest theft items are razorblades, batteries, and cosmetics for that reason; followed by chocolate bars/softdrink which fall more into the I want a chocolate but have no money/don't want to pay impulse theft category. Edit: also cigarettes and other smoking products are very tempting targets, because the cheapest 20pk of cigarettes you can get in Queensland is about $12.50, but they are very hard to steal because they are kept behind the counter, and subject to very strict laws about how they can be displayed... most retailers as of a few months ago no longer display any cigarettes...they are under the counter or behind a door and you need to ask for what you want. It's so much fun watching customers have a fit every Thursday when the tobacco prices go up, or when the government passes new laws to make it more inconvenient to buy them or smoke them. I can't wait till later this year when all cigarette packets have to be the same colour and won't be allowed to have any brand logos or distinguishing markings on them beyond a line of small text. The Lord Bude fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Jan 6, 2012 |
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Jan 6, 2012 14:36
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Fil5000 posted:Really? You actively take pleasure in loving with people who's only apparent crime is "wanting to do their shopping without grief"? Whatever floats your boat, I guess. some of my coworkers call me the checkout nazi. No groceries for you. Next!
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Jan 6, 2012 15:21
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froglet posted:I swear practically everyone in retail hates this policy too. I gave no fucks about checking peoples bags and just took the hit to my score when the secret shopper went by. Anyone who checks bags in retail usually has management breathing down their neck to do it. You are 100% correct about the so called envirobags. Not only are they horrible for the environment, but with regular plastic bags you can reuse them as bin liners...people who obsessively use envirobags end up wasting more money to buy plastic bin liners. And they never loving wash their enviro bags even when their meat leaks all through them so they end up smelling totally rancid. And as for me making customers miserable, 99% of customers are perfectly lovely people, if a little dim witted. Those customers love me, because I do my job perfectly, leave them gasping for breath from laughing too hard, and am obsequious as all gently caress. Occasionally, I get the other 1%. These people generally hate me, because I don't tolerate their behavior for an instant. The poster before who said he doesn't let 'uniform wearing retards' check his bag is a textbook example of a problem customer. The rules are in plain sight before you come in to the store. If you don't like them, you have every right to go somewhere else. You don't have the right to come into the store and be a self entitled prick who thinks the rules don't apply to you. Those sorts of people I take every pleasure in mindfucking.
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Jan 7, 2012 03:12
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cobalt impurity posted:I think you're missing the point that yeah, you could just go somewhere else, but the fact that you have to make a decision of whether being treated like a decent human being and law-abiding citizen is more important than saving a few minutes is appalling. How about instead of checking everyone's bag like they're visiting a prison you just walk the floors and look for people who are actually acting suspicious or blatantly stealing? As far as I'm concerned, my purse is another pocket and you have no loving right to see inside it without probable cause. Do you also search people with cargo pockets on their pants, or anyone wearing a floor-length skirt? the difference is when we stop you walking out with something, it can be returned to the shelf. When you open that coke, it is no longer fit for sale. Lots of people open that coke, then conveniently leave the empty bottle on a shelf somewhere, so if a member of staff sees you open something, they will escort you to a checkout so you can pay for it. Obviously if you are at the checkout and you hand me an empty wrapper to scan I'm not going to say anything because clearly you are being honest at least. And now I think I've spent enough of everyone's time debating loss prevention methodology. I've got other interesting stories, but they will have to wait since my tea break is just about done.
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Jan 7, 2012 05:51
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Fil5000 posted:Very possibly, but even so that's just moving from racial profiling over to an assumption of guilt. Sign with the rules on or no, I'm reasonably sure that policy wouldn't stand up to any sort of legal challenge. you should read my attached link to the bag check code of conduct... it was developed in consultation with various legal bodies. Basically, we can't force you to open your bag, but we can refuse to let you shop at our store if you won't comply. As my law professor explained it to me years ago, if a shopkeeper had a sign saying you can't come in to my store unless you clap your hands and hop on one leg, he would have every legal right to refuse to serve someone who refused. The Lord Bude fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Jan 7, 2012 |
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Jan 7, 2012 09:14
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Rick_Hunter posted:As assumptive as it sounds, that's not the case. When you enter a business (in the United States at least), especially when the rules are written, you have accepted the fact that certain rights are no longer granted in their establishment. They are a private establishment. They can escort you out because you had a unibrow for all you/they/I know. But it's legal. It's terrible treatment of customers, and I'm sure the media would lambaste them for doing it, but it's sadly....legal. And I accept that many Americans have a problem with it because it is unusual from an American perspective; but in Australia every major retailer has a similar policy, and so people are used to it... I'd get maybe half a dozen complaints a year and most of those are tourists who are not used to the policy. This entire debate started when I mentioned that American tourists were generally my most polite customers, except one lady who objected to the bag policy, which was excusable because she would have been unnacustomed to it.
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Jan 7, 2012 09:29
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Time for a completely different story There's been a kerfuffle at my store the past week over pay. Basically our payroll manager completely misinterpreted the public holiday regulations for the year and so ended up mispaying everyone. To compound the issue, several deeply ignorant department managers gave staff members completely incorrect advice regarding their entitlements. I should begin by explaining how public holidays work here in Australia at my company: I don't know if american retail differentiates between permanents and casuals: A permanent is either full time or part time, but they have a contract which outlines what hours/days they work each week, so they do the same shifts each week. they also get annual leave and sick leave. Casuals are used to fill in whatever gaps are left over, their shifts fluctuate from week to week, and they don't get paid sick leave or annual leave, but instead they earn 20% more per hour. So, public holidays: When a public holiday falls on a day that you would normally work, you are entitled to get the day off with pay. If you volunteer to come in, you get paid 2.5x normal pay, or if you want you can get normal pay and 1.5x the hours you worked as paid time off at a later date. IF you work 5 days a week and the holiday is on one of the days you don't normally work, then you get an extra day off with pay or an extra days annual leave. the tricky part is this: in our award, when a public holiday falls on a weekend, as was the case with christmas day and new years day this year, the company has to make another weekday a 'replacement holiday'. this means if you work on one of those days, but not the other, that day counts as the public holiday for you, and if you were scheduled to work on both the 'real' public holiday and the 'replacement' public holiday, then you have to pick one or the other to be your public holiday and the other day counts as just a regular day. This year, however, the union petitioned the state government to declare the replacement days as actual holidays, which means all the days were actual real holidays. so we had christmas day on sunday, boxing day on monday, and replacement christmas day on tuesday. (Boxing day is a public holiday in many commonwealth countries, held the day after christmas...it was originally a day when people bought a gift for their servants, but these days it functions as a kind of australian black friday.) The following week we had new years day on sunday and replacement new years day on monday. Our payroll officer and most of management failed to realise that this year, the replacement public holidays counted as real public holidays, despite there being a union notice explaining things in the lunchroom, and the union sending everyone a letter. The result of all this is that many people weren't paid holiday rates for one of the days, and now everyone is very very pissed. Initially management insisted that pay was correct, but our shop stewards corrected them, so now apart from the mass of extra work that payroll has to do to track down everyone who was mispayed and find out how much they are owed, the money will be given to them in next week's pay, which has blown the wage budget for the week all to hell and will result in us being understaffed for the week. what's worse, because people are getting half of last week's pay added to next week's pay, it will end up pushing them into a higher tax bracket for the week. they'll get it back come tax return time, but It's still an annoyance
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Jan 7, 2012 10:43
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Shady Amish Terror posted:We have something like that in America. It's called seasonal work. Instead of +20% pay, you get whatever the lowest wage paid out by the company's policies is (usually the national minimum wage), and you work under the understanding that you are worth less to the company even if you work enough hours to earn full-time benefits (which companies will fight tooth and nail; they may slash your hours to lower the average back down, or fire you spontaneously, which they can, because you're 'seasonal'). It's rapidly becoming the favored hourly position for most companies to hire, because they can, and it means they don't have to worry about paying out for benefits. the idea behind casuals getting an extra 20% pay is based on it being compensation for the 8 paid sick days and 4 weeks annual leave they would otherwise get if they were permanents. probably 2/3 of employees at least are permanent, but you can't do without casuals because you need people without a set in stone roster to fill in the gaps and come in when other people are sick fun fact: we get paid 17.5% more per hour when we are on annual leave than we do normally.
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Jan 7, 2012 12:06
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Shady Amish Terror posted:That might be giving them too much credit for maliciousness, but yeah, I was a bit more naive then. If you're a permanent here, the company isn't allowed to change your roster more than 4 times a year, and there is a grievance procedure you can follow if you don't like your new hours. the company is also required to accommodate any legitimate family, religious, sporting, or academic commitments you have when deciding on your roster. As a casual, you just say 'I'm not available to work on date x' and that is the end of the matter. If they want to cut hours, they have to reduce the hours of casuals before they touch any permanents, and they have to be able to prove that the work you were doing in the hours they want to cut is no longer being done at all and won't be given to any one else. if they need extra hours, they have to offer it to a permanent before they offer it to a casual. If you're a permanent but not working full time (38 hours), you can still be asked to do an extra shift if need be to replace someone, but you can't be forced to work beyond your contracted hours. I dropped back from full time to 10 hours a week during 2011 in order to study, and I told my boss not to waste his time offering me extra shifts until mid November when I finished my diploma. We have a system called youth allowance in Australia: Subject to a means test, full time students under 25 get a fortnightly income (as someone living at home with no dependants it was $255), plus a lump sum of 1100 dollars at the start of each semester, but if you earn more than a certain amount, the extra money you earn is subtracted from your youth allowance. 10 hours a week put me right on the edge of that, so as I told my boss, there is no point in me working more than 10 hours a week because any money I earned at work would be deducted from my youth allowance, and so it would be like working for free. The Lord Bude fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Jan 7, 2012 |
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Jan 7, 2012 12:40
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drat Bananas posted:Re: plastic vs reusable bags (I haven't caught up on the thread in a while) As far as putting a couple of items into a bag goes, you should try to minimise bag usage but minimising bag usage is a distant third priority Priority one is not putting things in the same bag that shouldn't be: packaged food fresh produce meat other cold goods non food hot cooked food each of those categories should never be in the same bag as something in another category. if you have at least 2 loaves of bread I would argue bread should then also be its own category. if you have enough butcher items I would also consider separating chicken from other meat. eggs should be in a bag on their own or at least with a loaf of bread sitting on top. Priority two is weight of bags. Having been a checkout operator for 7 years now, I know exactly how much weight my bags will take, and it is less than many customers would seem to think. also, if you bring your own enviro bags, which can hold considerably more, company policy prohibits me from filling them beyond what I can comfortably lift. regarding bag checks and having items bought elsewhere: In australia at least, if you are bringing an item into the store that we sell, and it isn't obviously old, you have a responsibility to be able to prove you purchased it elsewhere. if you don't have a receipt, you need to go to the customer service counter before you enter the store and show it to them so they can checkseal it. I'd be inclined to give a person the benefit of the doubt on a case by case basis if they didn't do this though...I'd probably caution them that in future they need to either have a reciept or obtain a checkseal; just like if a person came to an express lane with only a couple items over the limit, i'd say 'in future you won't be served at this register if you have more than 15 items' whereas if I saw a person who clearly had well over 15 i'd kick them out of my queue. we are much stricter about searching employees before they leave the store than with customers. I once had a customer who complained about the security cameras in the store, saying he didn't like being watched by faceless people on a computer screen. my response was: 'don't be sillly, the cameras aren't there to watch you, the cameras are there to watch me. watching you is my job.' The Lord Bude fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Jan 8, 2012 |
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Jan 8, 2012 02:27
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). Looking at my pay from working all of 2011, being available "full-time" but still getting cruddy hours sometimes, I made less than 1/4th of my new shiny salary. YAY.
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Baby_Hippo posted:Non-Aussie story via a friend who works the fix-it desk at Best Buy ( warranties don't normally cover liquid damage do they?
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Jan 8, 2012 03:10
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Ockhams Crowbar posted:If it helps, as someone who's moved down to Australia, I've never encountered this policy in any shops, major chains or small independents, that I've been into. I'm not disputing the fact sheets that have been posted, but at the very least, I've never had it enforced on me. I carry a backpack just about everywhere I go, too. Interestingly enough, I've heard from fellow staff members that have worked in other states that queensland bred managers tend to be more laid back, and that the further south you go the more authoritarian managers become. I don't know how these things tend to go in america but we are on first name terms with management, even senior corporate level folk. As I was told when being trained for supervision, a manager is the leader of a team, not the boss. and we do have lots of lazy staff everywhere who don't give a poo poo about security. Everything I have said regarding security in this thread is based on a theoretical 'what should be happening, based on following company policy to the letter', which is the only acceptable way to do your job, in my opinion.
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Jan 8, 2012 05:01
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Gilgameshback posted:Dude you are so cool and hardcore and above it all, it's almost unbelievable! well I have an extended comedic sequence which revolves around the premise that despite appearing to be a man in my mid 20s, I am in fact actually a little old lady. nothing cracks elderly folk up faster than a young man launching a back in my day tirade. Sometimes I enjoy anthropomorphising their fresh produce. Other things too: when you greet a customer with the customary 'how are you today sir?' and they respond 'fine thanks, and you?' this is the perfect opportunity to say something like 'I'm always well when I get to be here!' depending on the customer, blunt honesty can be entertaining. Once guy collapsed into hysterical laughter over the following exchange: Customer: So If I don't get points on my rewards card unless I spend over $30, what is the point of me giving it to you to swipe? Me: well it improves my percentage scan rate! I find the best way to manage customers is to talk to them as if they were puppies. Don't speak too quickly, raise the pitch of your voice slightly, speak in soft soothing tones, offering plenty of positive reinforcement, and above all be consistent in establishing a routine with them.
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Jan 8, 2012 08:04
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RobV posted:I am a manager at the major supermarket in Australia (woolworths) and every the lord bude says is company policy but its hardly ever enforced in my experience. I will not check bags of customers unless I suspect them of stealing, I will not check bags of people buying stuff though check outs as I feel it is wrong, I will let customers walk around eating and drinking food as most customers do the right thing and buy it at the end, I would never make a customer get a check seal as they are for staff. I stop people from stealing regularly but that is only once they have left the store, most of the time it is alcohol products. as you sell alcohol, this tells me you are in another state to me... we certainly pursue bag checks very vigorously in my store. we don't make customers get a checkseal, but when they come up to us and say 'hey I bought this elsewhere, is it ok if I bring it in, we generally use a checkseal because it is quick and effective. our store manager recently decided that we would no longer allow customers to leave their property at the customer service desk, or with one of the checkout operators, or at the front of the store, so it became more of a problem. we would also get into a fair amount of trouble if we pursued a customer outside the store, our attitude has always been once they leave it's a problem for the police. are you in south australia by any chance? if so, how much chaos was there when the government banned stores from giving out plastic bags? I've always wanted to know.
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Jan 8, 2012 10:41
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RobV posted:We sell alcohol in an attached store and alcohol can only be purchased there and not in the supermarket. our region manager briefly implemented a policy last year, which was kept up for maybe a month before too many people started baying for blood... Don't know if the policy applies in western australia, but in queensland at least when people purchase 3 items or less we can't give them a bag unless they request one... we can't ask them if they want one, we can't even acknowledge the existence of bags untill they say 'I'd like a bag' (or as is more often the case, just plain 'BAAAG!!!!' now the policy our region manager thought would be nice is this: on express lanes, the bag rule was extended so that no matter how many items a person had, you couldn't give them a bag until they asked, which was usually not till they had spent a few moments staring at you in disbelief for stacking their stuff next to the register; to make matters worse, we weren't allowed to keep bags on the bag rack where they were visible to the customers, they had to be kept in the drawer out of sight and pulled out one by one. as you would expect, queues started piling up because all of a sudden it took twice as long to serve a customer, and complaints went sky high. In the end my checkout manager raised the issue that it was a workplace health and safety issue to have cashiers bending down to grab bags every few seconds, and so it was dropped on that pretence.
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Jan 8, 2012 12:16
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Testro posted:I'm a Brit and I got checked in Australia in 2004 in central Melbourne - I think it may have been a Coles. Luckily, I was with another Brit (I'd just met up with him) who quickly explained what was going on...it didn't particularly bother me when I realised it was a policy that applied to everyone and wasn't just them targeting me. (I didn't get aggro, I was just a bit stunned.) Standing is the norm in Australia, except at aldi. you couldn't possibly pack someone's bags properly if you were sitting, not to mention how unprofessional it looks. I hate it when customers want to pack their own bags, they always make a mess of it. It's like calling a plumber and having him watch while you unblock your toilet...I'm a trained professional, I'm better at it than you are.
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Jan 8, 2012 12:52
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Volcano posted:This seems like a bizarre thing to hate to me, but I'm in also the UK and we're all used to packing our own bags here (maybe because our cashiers are sitting down). I realise you are probably better at it than most people but putting groceries in a bag is not brain surgery. If someone wants to stack tins on top of their delicate fresh fruit or whatever it's their own problem. It's too much fun to let the customers do it. It's like a giant game of tetris that never ends. one day I'm going to come up with a scoring system.
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Jan 8, 2012 13:37
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cobalt impurity posted:Ahaha Americans would have a shitfit if cashiers started sitting down because it's lazy and unprofessional to not have to stand on your feet for 4 to 12 hours at a time. Most chains have baggers who will also carry your groceries out and load them in your car upon request and I've seen people get really indignant in the stores that don't have them. some women treat their handbag as the modern evolution of the filing cabinet. I swear they must keep a year's worth of mail in there. also dirty scrunched up tissues. at least 50% of handbags contain dirty tissues. we normally have one person who scans and packs. if something needs to be taken to someone's car we call the produce department.
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Jan 8, 2012 14:31
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Testro posted:This is definitely a cultural thing, because a cashier sitting doesn't make me think that they're unprofessional. I actually thought how evil it would be to work as a cashier in Australia, because corporate make you stand for 9 hours a day for no real reason. In the UK, you have a seat and if you'd rather stand, you can. In my experience customers quite simply aren't intelligent enough to be permitted to do things for themselves, besides, if they pack for me how do I play tetris with their groceries? and a 9 hour day includes an hour lunch break and two 12 minute tea breaks, leaving roughly 7 and a half hours of standing, which I have been quite happily doing for 7 years. the exercise is good for me, if I had to sit my fat arse would be considerably fatter. and for shady amish terror: if we have to kneel because we are working on something down low, we get special kneeling cushions to use. The Lord Bude fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Jan 9, 2012 |
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Jan 9, 2012 00:48
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TontoCorazon posted:gently caress me running! In a nine hour work shift for me in New York I only get a 45 minute lunch break and if I'm "lucky" I can convince the manager to let me get a 15 minute break later on as well. Usually its a no. Also being able to sit down while doing check out is blowing my loving mind right now our break entitlements also include the rule that the period of time before and after the lunch break can never be more than 5 hours, and a tea break has to be at least an hour after signing on and an hour before signing off. checkout staff are entitled to keep a bottle of water with them at the register, other staff can't but they are entitled to go and get a drink any time they want. you get a lunch break for any shift longer than 5 hours, and if you want you can negotiate with your manager to take half an hour instead of an hour ( to get an extra half hour pay, or to go home half an hour earlier). you get a tea break for a shift of 4 hours or more, and the second tea break for 7 hours or more. the longest shift you can do without incurring overtime pay is 11 hours, because that is 5 hours either side of the lunch break and anything longer would run into the no working more than 5 hours rule. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jan 9, 2012 02:09
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cobalt impurity posted:I'm pretty sure I've hosed up one of my knees from having to kneel so often at work. I might also have breathing problems from the constant exposure to all the dust, glitter, and noxious chemicals that are used to preserve the baskets and wooden items during shipping. So, that sucks. technically they are 10 minutes, but the rules say that a break doesn't start until you get to the break room, and finishes as soon as you are back on the trade floor. since checkout staff have to walk from the front of the store to the break room, and really aren't back at work till they are back at their register, management decided that it would be easier to keep track of breaks if they added two minutes to them, but made it so that the break starts when you leave your register and finishes when you return to it. so you get two minutes 'walking allowance' I had a department manager once who said it was too busy for me to have my break, even though it had reached the 5 hour mark so I had to be sent to lunch. I said to her 'that's your problem, not mine, you are required to provide me with a lunchbreak'. I closed my register and walked off, and while I was on lunch I discussed the issue with the store manager, who gave my department manager a formal write up for failing to comply with break regulations. edited for typos
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Jan 9, 2012 04:40
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modeski posted:I did retail for five years so I know what it's like to wear a uniform. Perhaps a better adjective would have been "blindly compliant retard". Actually it was probably a suit who dreamt up the idea of harassing people with bag checks, so let's say suit-wearing retard. I don't consider myself better than people in retail just because I have a 'proper' job, but I'm not about to blithely go along with stupid policies, either. I'm surprised you lasted 5 years with that kind of attitude. attitudes like that are the same ones that lead to people saying 'it's stupid that the law says I can't steal all the movies and music that I want, I'm just going to do it anyway.' Doesn't make them any less of a thief. rules are rules. they exist to be obeyed.
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Jan 9, 2012 06:10
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Volcano posted:Yeah, my mom never would've let me do that. I had no idea it was such a common thing until this thread. How hard can it possibly be to wait until you're out of the store? I get several customers a day who hand me a wrapper to scan. Obviously they are at least being honest about it, so we let it pass without comment unless they were stupid enough to eat something that needed to be weighed... If I was on the shop floor and saw a customer grab something off the shelf and start eating I'd treat it like any other act of shoplifting... Walk up to them, advise them they need to pay for that, and escort them to a checkout so I can see them pay for it. We get heaps of people eat and then leave the packages on a shelf somewhere. Parents these days are incapable of disciplining their children. They let the kid hold a toy/snack, and when the parent tries to take it off the kid so that I can scan it the kid goes ballistic... I'm not talking about babies either, but kids of four or five who are more than old enough to understand the concept of giving something to the man at the counter so it can be paid for. Never mind all the other poo poo they let their kids do. My grandmother carried a wooden spoon in her handbag when she took any of her kids/grand kids out in public, and I never would have dared even think of doing half the poo poo kids these days do. In other news, our latest 6 monthly pay rise kicked in on Jan 1... Now instead of 19.02/hour, I can look forward to 19.32. Big Whoop. At least I supervise one day a week, so I get my extra 50c an hour for that.
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Jan 10, 2012 15:49
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Every three years when the union renegotiates the award, the new award will set out exactly what pay rises everyone gets over the next three years, the date each one takes effect, and how much each one will be. And retail management, with the possible exception of checkout manager, absolutely sucks. Most of the protections and rights that we take for granted in our award don't apply to salaried staff. Even though the average department manager gets 10 to 15K more a year, when you factor in the crazy hours many of them work, their pay per hour is less than mine. $55k a year is fine and dandy, but not when you have to consistently work a 90 hour week, like a guy from my store who got promoted to being long life manager at one of the largest stores in the region. At least I can never be asked to work more than 38 hours. $19 an hour is probably at the top of what a 'standard grunt' can expect to earn in Australian retail. Having a quick perusal of several of the awards the Retail Union has negotiated, most department stores are in the $17 to $19. Fast food places are lower, McDonald's pays its staff about $14 an hour. By Australian standards retail pay still sucks big time, only hairdressers earn less than we do. Both my friends who graduated from university walked into jobs between $50k and $60k. Also, Australian retail doesn't have a concept of earning more based on seniority or job performance. Every grunt earns exactly the same amount as every other grunt. On the other hand, you don't get full pay until you reach the age of 20 or 21 depending on where you work. In order to encourage companies to employ kids, we have a system of junior rates that apply to people under a certain age. At my company, a person under the age of 16 earns 45% of the full rate of pay. That percentage goes up every year until they reach full pay when they turn 20.
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Jan 11, 2012 02:14
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In Australia Boxing day (day after Christmas) functions as a kind of Black Friday, except the crazy sales last a week or two. Supermarkets go dead, as everyone eats Christmas leftovers, but department stores go nuts.
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Jan 11, 2012 23:03
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Rick_Hunter posted:[quote="Pookah"] If you're sick you're sick. Presenteeism (coming to work when sick) is just as big a problem and just as costly to your company as people who take sick leave when they aren't actually sick. You make yourself worse, so when you do end up taking time off, you end up being gone longer; you work at reduced productivity, compared to whoever would have come in to replace you, so that your employer isn't getting their money's worth; and with cold and flu you end up spreading it to others, costing the company more money. It may just be our Australian non slave driving approach to management, but I've never had a boss that didn't prefer sick people to stay home, rather than be sick at work, and potentially have to go home half way through the shift...Doing that will piss someone off because you shouldn't have been at work in the first place. We have informational posters in the lunch room, that teach you how to tell the difference between cold and flu, and urging people never to work when sick. On the other hand, we also have 11 days paid sick leave a year, so it's less problematic to take a day off.
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Jan 13, 2012 02:36
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Azuth0667 posted:You guy's will get a kick out of this. When I tell a customer they have too many items for an express lane, if they don't leave the queue I would call the person behind them to move forwards and start serving that person, pretending the person with too many items no longer existed. I don't permit my customers to behave like that, if that woman started berating me in an aggressive tone I'd be arranging for a nice man from security to help her take her stuff to the car. Addressing the hygiene topic that has cropped up in the few days since I've checked this thread, my personal pet hate is people who lick their fingers/slobber all over their hands in order to separate notes to give me. I always make a show of vigorously applying hand sanitiser after I take their money, and I put the money under the notes already in the till so I don't have to encounter it again. We have a couple of ladies working at our registers who think it's acceptable to lick fingers in order to separate the bags on the bag rack, another filthy habit. (They get dampened sponges to use for this purpose if they need them.) If I ever see them do it while I am supervising I have words with them.
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Jan 19, 2012 07:16
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silversiren posted:If you work someplace like I do, you're not allowed to tell customers who have more than what is permitted to go through another line, and you have to put up with any abuse they throw your way because 99% of the time, the manager will take your side and you'll be the one getting written up. Come and live in Australia. Company Policy is Company Policy. Period. I count how many items customers have, unless they sneak up on me. Obviously well over 15, I toss them out of the line, a couple over, or people with lots who managed to start unloading before I noticed them, I warn them to use a different line next time. I always make a point of apologising to whoever was after them in the queue, loudly so that Mr Rude gently caress gets embarrassed. Honestly, genuinely abusive customers are very rare here, but anyone in the store has the right to ask someone to leave, and we don't put up with it when customers start yelling. Another time, when the sound of my mechanical keyboard won't wake everyone up, I will recount the saga of Meat Markdown Woman. Also... Thursday is a public holiday in Australia... I get to work 9am to 6pm. It's going to be magnificent. 8 hours pay at holiday rates, on a day when I imagine half an hour will pass between customers. We can finally catch up on the cleaning... Deep cleaning every register, dusting the tops of vending machines, the security camera, even the ceiling. I'm gonna make that front end shine.
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Jan 19, 2012 16:16
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Rick_Hunter posted:Oh, I got it. The same could be said for notes just without the 'tone' thing. The problem is that customers inherently don't understand those machines, they get all confused. Expressing the problem in terms of the machine is too complicated for simple customer minds; instead, say something like: Credit not available, debit and cash only. If a customer is interested enough to ask why, then you can explain the issue.
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Jan 20, 2012 02:59
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