h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Art of Cashiering - A28478730
Author: broelan - U155058

I've been playing with this one for a couple weeks. It keeps going off on tangents I don't really want to get into. I've tried not to make it too long (my first intention was actually for it to be quite short).

At this point I'm looking for suggestions for cohesiveness. Does it seem to all fit together? I can't look at it objectively right now.

Thanks!

Sounds fascinating, and as it's part of my job, I'll have a closer look at this. You can link to DDD's A11689167 Ker-Ching! Ker-Ching! Cash Register Fraud

I put the fraud mention in there specifically for that link, I just haven't added any links yet. Thanks!

I'm eager to hear what you think

I like it, broelan. The shop I work in is very small and specialist (health-food-shop), attached to a pharmacy. All this checking of things having been tampered with etc is not necessary where I work, but I see it would be in larger shops. You could maybe mention that nowadays, price labels are often only to be found at the shelf (if at all), and the till 'knows' the code, as you usually just scan the barcode of the goods. Paying with a cheque card (debit card?) here requires you to know the pin code in most cases. Some shops ask for your identity card in any case (if it's with signature and not with pin code). Oh, and I don't think we still have cheques here, haven't seen any for decades.
Anyway, great entry, I can't find anything to add, really. What I said may, or may not be of interest to you, it was more FYI than anything else.

Just a small note: "always place money in the customer's hand, never on the counter", this isn't always the case and changes depending on the culture of the country the transaction is happening in.

Aside from that,

This is very, very good

Thanks!

laura, is it proper to put money in the customer's hand in most western countries? Or does it vary from region to region?

Bel, they're trying to discourage cheques here, too, but there are still some to be found. I tried not to be too specific, but to include elements from different types of businesses - a restaurant wouldn't have any merchandise at all, but still has a cashier. This is one reason I was wondering if I had made everything too vague, or if it all fit together well enough to make some sense.

It does make sense. As I said, this was more as an aside.
I don't know about most western countries, but you never put money in the customer's hand here. Very few customers will hold out their hand for this, but most seem to be afraid to touch hands - they don't give their money into your hand if you hold it out, either.

In Sweden, you will almost always put the change in the customer's hand.

What really irks me though is those cashiers that start with the bills and then add the coins on top, from where they will slide off far too easily. I prefer coins first, bills on top...

I know in Austria, especially in smaller places, the money (both payment and change) is placed on a little saucer type thing that sits on the counter and when you turn up as the new foreigner in the village and you don't use the little saucer thing, the locals get quite uncomfortable and you receive a good few strange looks.

Oh! And in when I was in Stockholm, Sweden I discovered these strange machine things for giving change. The notes are handed over into your hand, but the coin change was given out of a little machine a bit like how you'd get change from a vending machine. I only saw them two or three times, mind you, but it was enough to make me go, ooooh!

Good work

>>>will earn money by taking it from other people<<<

Are we including Ronnie Biggs and co?

>>>Universal Product Code<<<

Are these barcodes, by any chance?

>>> ant that it's no reflection on you and your ability <<<
--> and

>>>coins can slide off and fall, forcing the cusotmer to retrieve them<<<
--> customer

Alex

So maybe I need to just say to follow local custom for presenting change - I know when I was a cashier that's not something anyone told me, just something that was always done. (although I did have a customer once accuse me of being racist for not taking money from their hand, before they had even offered it to me!)

Thanks for the typos, Alex, I'll get to them shortly
And yes, a UPC is a bar code, I'll get that in there too.

"One of the best things about cashiering is that it requires almost no technical skill at all, so anyone can be qualified to do it."

I'm sorry, I had to laugh at this. My firsty job manning a till I completely failed. Couldn't work the stupid thing to save my life. I once charged someone around £80 for one CD. Even 21 years later they're not that much...

"by scanning a Universal Product Code (UPC) with a scanner." Worth adding that most people think of this a bar code?

Just a couple of other queries about payment - cards in the UK are now mostly chip and pin, so the cashier doesn't need to handle them at all.

With cheques, the cashier should see them being signed - no handing over of cheques pre-written, even if 'mum's hurt her leg and can't get out of the car'. Also the cashier should write down the guarentee card number, not let the owner do it, as they aren't guarenteed then. Both of those may be UK-centric though.

Nice entry!

I've fixed the typos and tweaked a few other items (barcodes, pin numbers, etc). Since this doesn't seem to need a great deal more work, I'm going to go ahead and plop it into PR.

Thanks guys!

with it, broe!