What not to do at a register

Let's see. That list would include calling your friends up, telling them you're about to become a cashier, then having them come through your line with a huge buggy of groceries, hitting the [PRICE INQUIRY] button before each item so the register beeps, then bagging the item and charging a total of $7.00 for the entire purchase.

The district loss prevention manager was in the store today. The saying goes "When Gerri come in, someone goes out in cuffs." That was certainly true today!

We ran out of bags today, and another CSS, (customer service supervisor) had to go to the back to get some, so I was running the front end all alone for about 45 minutes, because getting bags involves power equipment, moving the power shelves and a whole ordeal. Of course, things go totally haywire in this time.

The handheld device we use to keep up with what the cashiers need goes off like a palm pilot on steroids. Five change orders, a price check and WIC assistance on register 8. The self-checkouts start eating receipts and this one customer, instead of stopping, lets other customers keep checking out. So of course I can't get the receipt out now that other people have checked out. AAAARGHHH!

All this time, I'm trying to send people to breaks and lunch, get the people who need to leave at 4 off registers in time to count down their money, get the door greeters to their breaks, and handle the routine requests for change and customer assistance.

I finally just took two cashiers and started sending them in different directions with money. Take this to Register 3 and bring back a $50. Take this to Register 21 and bring back a 20. No, that's not a WIC item. Tell 23 to go on break. Tell Register 10 that unless it is a $50 difference on that price check to just let the customer have it.

All of this fun and jollity was on top of the ordeal back in Layaway at lunch, when a customer claimed she handed the layaway clerk $40 but the clerk only punched $20 into the register. What we have to do then is stop all sales, get what is called a reading on that specific cashier and then count down the drawer to determine the exact amount of cash in the till. The reading tells us how much cash SHOULD be in the till and we compare that to our count. In this case, the cashier had EXACTLY the correct amount of cash in her till and the customer was trying to take Wal-Mart for $20. Hopping mad doesn't quite begin to describe this person when they realized that Wal-Mart wasn't going to just hand over a crisp $20 on her say-so.

One of my friends told me that within the past week I've gotten at least 30 gray hairs. My check was a nice figure this week though, and should be even more next week. If I don't drop dead in my tracks first ...