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

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

I wasn't sure if this one was coherent enough so I put it EGWW first. No one's claimed they couldn't follow it yet, so I'll assume it's ready for PR.

The EGWW thread is here:
F8555087?thread=4793113

If the cashier tenders payment for goods and services, then I want to shop in your establishment. In all the ones I use, it is the purchaser who tenders payment. There are two places where you have got this wrong, although the third time you use the word 'tender', it is used correctly.

Fixed now!

Nice entry.

I liked it, too, Brolean!

You certainly covered a lot of ground in the entry.

If you think it has room for additional advice on handling individual customers, mine has to do with that infamous Christmas season of which you wrote.

There are many types of stores, of course: mom-and-pop shops, corner stores, outlets, mall stores, big-box stores, etc. At Christmas time, the lines at some can be exceedingly long. Instead of the one to ten persons in line at other busy times of the year, there may be dozens per register.

In these situations, it is important to surgically implant a smile on your face at the beginning of your day and not remove it until the store has closed. Each person deserves a cashier that is friendly and glad they came in, even if the long, frustrating lines (with occasional stalls for missing wallets or refused credit cards) have made them testy.

I've seen many a nearly burstingly upset customer leave smiling and unruffled by a good cashier who takes the "attitude" in stride and turns it around with a "I apologize for our long lines" and a smile, and maybe just enough chit-chat to fill the time at the register.

Excuses like "we're down two cashiers today" don't seem to make much difference; nor does blaming the management and siding with the customer. A sincere sounding "sorry" without embelishment is much harder to take further or argue with.

Without so much detail, I did put something in about smiling during the busy season.

I could've sworn I looked up links for this, hopefully they're on a paper in my other desk. I'll get them added this weekend.

Nicely Done!

I've added links, although there are probably more. Suggestions welcome

I had no idea this was still in PR.

...so, if there are any needy Scouts lurking...

Nice entry Broe. I think I might print it off to give to one or two of my own checkout operators - maybe you can succeed where expensive company training has apparently failed!

A couple of 'transatlantic' points need mentioning. Firstly on this side of the pond product barcodes are usually EANs (European Article Numbers), not UPCs. It's only a matter of different barcode formats but the term 'UPC' is not generally known here, although we do see them occasionally on imported products and EAN equipment can scan them (whereas UPC equipment can't generally scan EANs). Secondly, 'Shrink' would normally be 'shrinkage' in the UK; I can't say I've heard the shorter form in common use.

A more problematic matter is in the title itself. I'm sure it is technically perfectly correct, but in my experience the phrase 'cashiering' is not in everyday use in the UK in this context. In fact before I read the text I wondered why you were writing an entry on discharging people from the armed forces ("to be cashiered" is, I believe, what happens to someone dismissed from the army)! I have to be honest and say I can't offer a satisfactory alternative, though. Come to think of it, even the term 'cashier' itself seems to be slowly dropping out of currency over the past few years.

Perhaps being replaced by plasticeer?

Or even plasticier!

My use of the term 'checkout chimps' did not (quite rightly) go down well with my services manager...

The everyday term is simply 'checkout operator' but in my company they are officially 'customer service assistants'. Ghastly, eh? 'Cashier' is obviously a better term, but is becoming a victim of the fashion for ridiculously over-inflated job titles. My own title, for instance, is 'Ambient Trading Manager'.

I didn't like the sentence where you discuss payment options - "Most of the time payment will be presented by credit card, cheque or debit card, cash or, on rare occasions, even a cheque."

I didn't like the reference to 'cheque or debit card' only because when you say later 'even a cheque' it made me say 'huh?' and forced me to go back and read it again.

I would only write 'debit card' with a footnote explaining that these are also called cheque cards.

Otherwise, I thought this was a great entry. That was the only minor stumbling point for me - and maybe it was just me and you can feel free to ignore it.

Surely an opportunity somewhere in there to link to A28596252...?

Thanks for the great comments! I won't have time to tweak it any more today, but I'll try to get to it by the weekend.

PF, I was thinking of that when I put the links in, but nothing occurred to me for where to put it. I'll look again.

Okay, I've made some changes. I attempted to fix the 'cashiering' thing, although I'm stumped for a title. I've used cashier in the entry, but explained it's meaning and used a couple alternatives. So now I don't know if I've been consistent enough. Anyone for another read-through?

I checked with Cambrige online and 'cashier' is there as a person who operates a cash register, but, as you point out, 'cashiering' isn't the same thing. I eventually came up with 'checker' and 'checking', but those aren't in Cambrige either. I've used check out operator and check out person some, too. Suggestions?

Also, thanks for the EAN info, I'd never have guessed it.

Jimi, I fixed the cheque/cheque card thing.

It reads pretty well to me!

As for the title, it's not a great problem anyway, but how about 'The Art of the Checkout Operator' or simply 'Operating a Checkout'? Not very attention-grabbing headings, though, I admit...

How about...
Check Out - A Job in the Retail World
Check-Out a Job in the Retail World

Not sure where I like the hyphen.