gruezi wrote: "Things are not as dire in the USA as you may believe."

But it seems they are for checkout operators. I can't imagine what it must be like to stand in one place for the length of a working day.

I wouldn't stand for it.

Padraig - are you suggesting a 'sit down strike'?

I am amazed that some people want their cashiers to stand up just so that they personally get what they think is faster service.

No, I guess I'm not amazed at all.

I just hope they spend all their time in purgatory as American cashiers.

Yes, all the standing leads to vericose veins and other problems. Yes, most cashiers would probably rather sit. No, they don't have much influence over their working conditions, even those in unions.

Cashiers are lucky to get their scheduled breaks though - or the opportunity to leave the register to use the bathroom.

Just to clarify...

My point wasn't about whether cashiers should sit or not. I do a job where I'm on my feet for hours at a time so they have my sincere empathy. My point was I don't think service is inefficient.

If some efficiency were lost in the spirit of better working conditions, I'm all for it.

(Actually, I have seen cashiers with chairs in some stores.)

gruezi

The average checkout operator handled about 25% more items per hour in our European stores than in our North American ones. Worse, no senior North American manager had ever done this analysis. They just assumed the American Way was best because they'd never been taught - at school or in business - to think for themselves or make decisions based on hard data.

This isn't a universal North American characteristic: I've worked in some businesses where the Americans were as disciplined and rigorous in their processes as their overseas counterparts.

But it's been true of every retail business I've ever been involved in running. In one extraordinary example, the retail business concerned was part of one of the the largest foreign-owned corporations in the US. Many US managers in the group ran rings round their European opposite numbers: but the US retailers were, by light years, worse trained, less inventive and showed worse results than in any other country in the world. Even the French were more professional.

In all the grocery stores where I shop (Switzerland), they are all sitting. They've got it easier than me.

I have to put my groceries on the conveyer belt, find my money and cards to pay and then put all those groceries back into the bags. It can be workout.

I enjoy shopping at our local COOP because they have a scanner to scan in the prices as I put things into the cart. No more unpacking and repacking.

Clothing and department store cashiers still stand.

Though i've seen some U-Scan automatic check outs in Europe, esp in U.K. not the number here

some supermarkets now have about half their check-outs self-operated U-Scans where you do everything yourself

software is being developed so that soon i guess your whole cart will be scanned automatically so maybe supermarket clerks will be made redundant and put out of their misery - yet the U Scan supervisor does stand for some reason - perhaps because they can hop quicker to help someone work something out?

I just spoke to a U-Scan cashier (cashiers are required for payment and random checks) the other day and she said it's the most boring job in the world. She'd rather be a traditional cashier because that's where the action is.

I worked part of my way through college as a cashier. This of course was back in the days of the dinosaur when the cashier had to take the items out of the cart, manually ring up the item and bag it. This couldn't be done sitting down, and the register configuration was so that the cart would be next to the cashier instead of on the other side of the counter near the customer. During slow times I was expected to restock the cigarette cases, clean up around the registers, separate items for restocking, and price nearby merchandise. (OMG I'm really dating myself because I used to use a price gun with stickers and everything!hee).

And I had to stand on a hard floor. On an uphill slant. Both ways.

And I counted back change, instead of handing it back in a pile.

I remember my back and legs aching, so I can see the attraction of being able to sit while ringing up items. But I seem to recall in London that cashiers were standing in the grocery and drugstores. I guess some countries are sitters and some not?

I don't think cashiers here in the states have any say as to whether or not they should sit, or stand. A chair is not provided....so they stand. It does seem rather silly. However, an employee can be fired for any reason here (well, at least in Texas), so, that may account for why employees don't make waves, so to speak. It wouldn't make any difference to me if they were seated, and I really don't think sitting would hinder productivity. If anything, I think it would make them a little more pleasant. Having lived in Europe for 16 years, I do feel that employees in Europe are generally treated better than employees in the US. I know that we had several ladies that worked for us is different offices that were citizens of Germany, Italy, England, etc., and we had to adhere to the rules regarding employment in each country. Breaks were taken at certain times, as well as lunch. They were also allowed alcoholic beverages at lunch. They were also paid much more than US employees doing the same job.

All of that being said, I would be happy if cashiers in certain large chain stores here in the US could speak properly, and ring up a 10 item sale without having to do a price check on every 3rd item. And a smile or a greeting would be nice as well. Unfortunately, that's asking a lot. I avoid those stores whenever possible. Sometimes, I feel like my business is an annoyance to them.

Good question - at the Paris Monoprix where we bought food items, we bagged our own. So standing to bag more efficiently didn't enter into the equation.

<i>All of that being said, I would be happy if cashiers in certain large chain stores here in the US could speak properly, and ring up a 10 item sale without having to do a price check on every 3rd item.</i>

One encounters the same thing in most grocery stores in Europe. It is the nature of the beast. The job stinks, chair or not, so you won't get the best and the brightest. Throw on top of that the sheer number of items that need to be priced and tracked, and I would think we basically get the service we should expect.

Wow, flanneruk, I'd like to see your European supermarkets. Every European supermarket I've been to has had a checkout line slower than molasses (and I've been to a lot, since we stock up on Coca Light and local cookies for our nightly snacks). Now then, it was probably more a function of the number of lines (we generally have more cashier lanes and more cashiers working than in the European cities, as space in European cities is at a premium) than the standing/sitting or actual efficiency of the cashier. However, even with the chairs, I've found 80%+ of European supermarket cashiers to be dour and surly -- far higher than the U.S.

Wegman's is awesome.

somehow i think that if american cashiers sat and europeans stood, the argument would be reversed and the europhiles would say that the americans are so fat and lazy that they can't even stand up to do their jobs.

kind of like in past threads where a million reasons are stated why it's better NOT to have your groceries bagged for you. sometimes fodors' is very strange.

flanner is just winding you up. british stores have some of the worst service in the world....and we know it.

my favourite feature of our service style is the shelve stockers who completely ignore the fact that there are shoppers in their midst. their tasks come first and they don't bother to get out of the way of the customer. welcome to britain. we also pervert all performance measures that we try to set up. they typically have nothing to do with the customer. anyone in business here understands this failing. flanner go uk, go uk understands this too. he's just winding you up.

At Aldi or Lidl, you have to struggle to get your stuff off the belt. It's so fast, I've got to take one arm and swipe everything back into the cart. It is a little stressful, because at the same time you have to hand the money. You don't want to intervene into the constant flow of the belt, do you?

It's a feeling of total efficiency :D

<i>british stores have some of the worst service in the world....and we know it.</i>

The wife and I were commenting on the sorry state of British supermarkets this past weekend. We went into a Waitrose to grab a snack and water and were not overly impressed with what fancies itself as a higher-end supermarket. They had some downright scary looking sushi. Later, we met up with some friends, and they were talking about heading (out of their way) to Whole Foods to stock up for dinner. I thought of Flanner.

Funny, but I'm always thinking of a scene from the Chaplin movie &quot;modern times&quot; when I shop there.
Well it's cheap :D

I have a pathological hatred of the self-service tills - I've worked hard all day, therefore I don't want to do someone else's job when I get to the supermarket (yes, I know, bah humbug!). I'm paying you, Tesco, so you can bloody well scan my groceries for me.

(BTW I don't mind packing my own stuff as I can a) make sure it's done properly and b) it's more efficient than one person trying to scan and pack at the same time.

The self-service tills have been an unmitigated disaster at our local supermarket, with huge queues snaking back miles whilst some poor sod tries to find 'sundried tomatoes' on the loose goods menu, while everyone else rolls their eyes, looks at their watch and sighs repeatedly. Extra staff are required to help people scan the barcodes on magazines (they never work), sort out payment disputes, and swoop down on 13-year olds trying to buy 'Strongbow' or 'Diamond White'. Why don't you just open a checkout for chrissake?

Maybe we also need seats for the queuing customers.