Sorry, checkout closed

Saint_Mel

This really grinded my gears today ... I was in Dunnes doing the shopping and as usual they had feck all staff on the checkouts so it was fairly busy around the area with queues building up.

As luck would have it I saw someone unload the last of their trolly on the belt and there was nobody else behind them. So up I go with my trolly and just as I start putting my items on the belt the cashier says "Sorry, I'm closed after this customer". Ragin, but fair enough I thought and at least she told me before I had much stuff on the belt.

So I manouver into the next queue about 3 people deep ... and a minute later another staff member, in uniform but off the clock wheels her full trolly up to the checkout I'd just been dismissed from ... and guess what, it suddenly re-opened to accomodate her!!! Its not as if she only had 1 or 2 items ... by the time she had everything unloaded and ready to pay, I had already gone through my queue!!!!

Considered writing a letter of complaint but cant see it making any difference
Needed to vent!

lalee17

Bástards

bmaxi

I would have made an issue of it there and then. Ask to speak to the manager, tell him the story and that you are making an official complaint to head office.

Cabaal

Does this not belong in ranting and raving? :pac:

Saint_Mel

And the backstards overcharged me for 2 items!!! Got the extra charged money back though

Random

People look after their friends first and others after. That's what happened. Have you ever done similiar in your job?

That's my thoughts on it. Would p1ss me off I guess but wouldn't be too pushed.

Saint_Mel

Random wrote: »

People look after their friends first and others after. That's what happened. Have you ever done similiar in your job?

Actually no, although I'm not in a customer facing role. I just get on with my work as it comes to me

Random

Saint_Mel wrote: »

Actually no, although I'm not in a customer facing role. I just get on with my work as it comes to me

I guess my point would apply more to those in retail then.

calex71

Unless she told you before the 1st few items hit the belt , I would have said nothing and continued to unpack the trolly pretending not to hear her.

If she said it again, that she was closed I'd have politely said "oh you should have said that before I started to unpack" and then continue to unpack

Thus the mexican stand off begins........

Wosrt case you lose a few minutes while the manager is called and tells her to scan the stuff. Now don't get me wrong I would have no problem going to another till but as soon as more than one item hits the belt tough luck I say

borderlinemeath

exact same thing happened to me in my local Dunnes, I approached one of the express checkouts as I only had a few items. The woman was sorting out gift vouchers or redemption vouchers and said "I'm closed" so I joined a long queue and before I had got anywhere near the top she reopened her checkout to the general public.
I was livid, when I finally got out of the queue I was in I approached a manager and told him what she did, but I guarantee nothing was done about it.
I work in retail and if any of my staff behaved like that they would be disciplined.

SoupyNorman

Ever hear of Tescos?

I have both a Dunnes and a Tescos equidistant from my homestead, I always shop at Tescos for a few reasons:

• Generally cheaper
• Symetrical layout
• ACTIVE QUEUE MANAGMENT

Whenever things get busy (or sometimes when it's not so busy) there is a duty manager presiding over the queues, expediting, managing, observing and just all round directing traffic so even when there are queues you can see something being done which really keeps your stress levels low.


Dunnes on the other hand is a disgrace, Tescos seem to have a standardized layout from store to store, Dunnes also have a standardized layout but unfortunately their layout is organic, every store is different, Dunnes in Donameade for example is like Aladdans cave, you come to more dead ends, and you find yourself trying to figure out if you've been down that isle already! (Dunnes Athlone is much the same).

Then you get to the queue where you have trolly's everywhere, people everywhere, no managers hurrying things along, just a bad all round model and attitude.

Dont get angry, vote with your feet.

borderlinemeath

SoupyNorman wrote: »

Ever hear of Tescos?

Dont get angry, vote with your feet.

Tescos is about 2miles away from my house but Dunnes is only half a mile away and on the route home from work:)

I shop in Tescos about half the time and alway use the self service checkouts, but I won't go out of my way after a hard days work.

punkindrublic

The staff in my dunnes always look like they're on death row or something, never see any of them smile or interact with customers they just have this awful look on their faces like the world is out to get them. Then you bring a DVD box to the counter (which means they have to get up to go get the actual DVD) and they start huffing & puffing. Hate the staff in there.

The staff in my local dunnes always do what happened to you OP. I'm pretty sure the people they let through are friends or family, doesn't excuse it though

Buzzthebatgirl

Working in retail will do your head in as the customers are the worst in the world, but closing a belt and then reopening it is uncalled for.

This is why I prefer to use the self service check outs. I know what I'm doing and don't want some staff member who couldn't give a crap piling up my shopping and then taking the next customer and throwing their stuff on top of my shopping, while I'm trying to pack everything away.

parsi

SoupyNorman wrote: »

Ever hear of Tescos?

I have both a Dunnes and a Tescos equidistant from my homestead, I always shop at Tescos for a few reasons:

• Generally cheaper
• Symetrical layout
• ACTIVE QUEUE MANAGMENT

Whenever things get busy (or sometimes when it's not so busy) there is a duty manager presiding over the queues, expediting, managing, observing and just all round directing traffic so even when there are queues you can see something being done which really keeps your stress levels low.
.

The one duty manager that Tescos have must be in your shop. The crowd in Mahon Point are invisible.

Dunnes in Douglas however have active managers who keep a close eye on things.

The moral of the story seems to be that every branch is different ...

Corruptedmorals

If you worked in Dunnes, you wouldn't be happy either. Whatever it was like to work for before the recession, it's a lot worse now. But then I don't have a huge amount of sympathy for checkout staff, they have it easy. But yeah, there's feck all checkout staff because there's feck.all.staff altogether. Seriously, they're running on empty.

Anyway, that's a bit weird, clearing the line for her friend? Wouldn't blame you for reporting that, surprised a manager didn't see. But in general, they have to close their checkouts to go on break and lunch..it's a lot easier to do that in drapery. In Dunnes, you can't jump on someone else's till which complicates things.

We're supposed to deface all valueclub vouchers and gift vouchers and write our operator numbers on them. Sounds like what that other girl is doing. Again, much more awkward to do on a checkout rather than a till but she didn't mean she was closed permanently.

FortuneChip

I can't stand being told "Sorry, checkout closed"
Why is it closed? If there is a queue, there should be people working to get through it, closing a checkout will only make the queue get longer.
I mean, if the person is scheduled to go on their break they can wait another minute or two to serve another person. And if the queue is continuous, then surely there should be someone to jump in their place

antocann

but thing about tesco's is if you get over charged there rules are your get a full refund and the item for free
not many people relise this

Corruptedmorals

FortuneChip wrote: »

I can't stand being told "Sorry, checkout closed"
Why is it closed? If there is a queue, there should be people working to get through it, closing a checkout will only make the queue get longer.
I mean, if the person is scheduled to go on their break they can wait another minute or two to serve another person. And if the queue is continuous, then surely there should be someone to jump in their place

You can't jump on someone else's till unless a manager authorises it, switching tills and whatever. Generally wouldn't be so many staff that there aren't enough tills for them, but if there is then they won't jump around with it..they'll just open and get the queue moving over that direction.

Checkouts are just really awkward for anything because of the individual queues. What if their shift has ended? Stay until the queue goes? Checkout staff have to leave them when theres customers, and yeah I can see how it's really annoying but it's not very pleasant from the other side either. The entire chain suffers from being badly managed and ridiculously understaffed, it's so stressful and depressing there. Management are often not the problem either- it all comes from head office.

bette

Aldi will actually open a checkout when it starts building up queues. Thety are also considerably cheaper. They also have better and more varied cooked meats.

JohnC.

FortuneChip wrote: »

I can't stand being told "Sorry, checkout closed"
Why is it closed? If there is a queue, there should be people working to get through it, closing a checkout will only make the queue get longer.
I mean, if the person is scheduled to go on their break they can wait another minute or two to serve another person. And if the queue is continuous, then surely there should be someone to jump in their place

If a shift is ending, they have to go. Going over time is strictly forbidden. I don't just mean "overtime", which is doubly forbidden, but going over their rostered hours. There won't necessarily be staff to provide break relief either, as staff is often so tight now that it is non-checkout-staff (such as floor staff) who are manning checkouts at busy periods, thus having a knock on effect of not getting their own jobs done.

They are given a budget for wages and the store management get in trouble if they go over that. And it is being cut again now. With rumours of more redundancies on the way too. Staff have no control over management policies. Store management have no control over head office policies. But it is staff who have to put up with the complaints from decisions coming down the chain.

wmpdd3

parsi wrote: »

The one duty manager that Tescos have must be in your shop. The crowd in Mahon Point are invisible.

Dunnes in Douglas however have active managers who keep a close eye on things.

The moral of the story seems to be that every branch is different ...

That's because payroll is so tight in Mahon the managers are on check outs.

I had an employee's mother attack me because her daughter is never out of work less than 15 mins after her shift ends. She is serving customers she has to stay she can't just walk off. There is nobody else to take over they are all on check outs too.
The worst thing about relief check out operators being called is that as the store is busy, there are no staff on the shop floor to serve customers.

Maybe they should just put the price of groceries back up 2007 levels and put more people on tills.

OP did the operator not have a sign saying the checkout was closed?

Sounds more like the member of staff that was served after you was a manager or someone, why else would the operator go on her break late just to serve someone?

whiterebel

parsi wrote: »

The one duty manager that Tescos have must be in your shop. The crowd in Mahon Point are invisible.

Dunnes in Douglas however have active managers who keep a close eye on things.

The moral of the story seems to be that every branch is different ...

Customer are different too, because I think Dunnes in Douglas is a complete joke. I'd swear they have more managers than staff (and customers) and they never do a tap. Half the stuff isn't priced correctly, if at all. Amazes me how they can get away with it. Tesco in Midleton is the pits, though. Actively manage queues????? 99% of the time you can't see a manager, and the staff don't give a toss. Last week I was in there and there was a teenage girl walking around the store for about 20 minutes with a dog in her arms. This included walking past about 10 Tesco staff.......

Corruptedmorals

Not much chance of going over your hours if you're flexi, they're not getting 37.5 hour weeks at all with hours slashed. Staff budget is 8% of total sales, that's disgraceful. In drapery, sales are WAYY up but we don't have the staff to cope with that but total value is way down because prices are halved on their 2007 levels. We have managers on tills so we have a chance of getting out an hour after the store has closed, instead of an hour and a half (maximum time after shift has ended) after plus leaving loads of stuff. There's just been a voluntary redundancy scheme so we're losing a good few of them, and then they just got rid of half of our temp staff. Ladieswear in my store will now have less than 10 staff total for all opening hours, people for morning deliveries, till, and closing for floor. It had 26 in 2007.

Nolimits

calex71 wrote: »

Unless she told you before the 1st few items hit the belt , I would have said nothing and continued to unpack the trolly pretending not to hear her.

If she said it again, that she was closed I'd have politely said "oh you should have said that before I started to unpack" and then continue to unpack

Thus the mexican stand off begins........

Wosrt case you lose a few minutes while the manager is called and tells her to scan the stuff. Now don't get me wrong I would have no problem going to another till but as soon as more than one item hits the belt tough luck I say

I work in Dunnes, I dont work on the checkouts but will occasioanlly get called over there, if I was leaving and you did that I'd tell you twice and then no more if you ignore me its up to you but when I'm finished the customer ahead of you'll I'd be leaving you there alone. And to be honest you really dont come off very well as a person for saying that.

FortuneChip wrote: »

I can't stand being told "Sorry, checkout closed"
Why is it closed? If there is a queue, there should be people working to get through it, closing a checkout will only make the queue get longer.
I mean, if the person is scheduled to go on their break they can wait another minute or two to serve another person. And if the queue is continuous, then surely there should be someone to jump in their place

As has been already mentioned somone else can't jump onto your checkout the hours have been cut way back as while they are doing more volume than a few years ago as the prices are down they're not making the same money. Not all staff are checkout trained though occasionally they go through a period where a big batch will be trained, when I get pulled over to the checkouts it really pisses my manager off as he has had his hours cut aswell but is expected to make do without me as well and keep the place looking well.

Also has been mentioned going over your rostered hours is stricktly "verboten" not just into overtime but just in general.

calex71

Nolimits wrote: »

I work in Dunnes, I dont work on the checkouts but will occasioanlly get called over there, if I was leaving and you did that I'd tell you twice and then no more if you ignore me its up to you but when I'm finished the customer ahead of you'll I'd be leaving you there alone. And to be honest you really dont come off very well as a person for saying that.

My point was really if I have stuff on the belt and an am then told it's closed there is no way I am putting the stuff back in the trolly. As I said if i walked up and was told it was closed before I started unpacking I'd happily go to another one. I'd be the 1st to realise people have to go on break/home. I really don't care what you think of me as a person or what that has to do with anything??

Thoie

Some supermarkets have a "barrier" that the cashier can close - but that's awkward as it involves getting up, walking around, and trying to close it on the last customer and their trolley. I've never figured out why they don't have a special red "Checkout closed" triangle (like the "Next customer" triangle, but bigger) at each till. When someone wants/needs to close, they ask the current customer to put it behind their groceries. When they're finished, stand up away from the till, and put the sign back under the desk. Problem solved.

Even if the cashier is still at the position sorting out paperwork, they can at least just nod towards the sign as they politely smile and say "Sorry, this position is closed at the moment".

Fighting Irish

Saint_Mel wrote: »

This really grinded my gears today ... I was in Dunnes doing the shopping and as usual they had feck all staff on the checkouts so it was fairly busy around the area with queues building up.

As luck would have it I saw someone unload the last of their trolly on the belt and there was nobody else behind them. So up I go with my trolly and just as I start putting my items on the belt the cashier says "Sorry, I'm closed after this customer". Ragin, but fair enough I thought and at least she told me before I had much stuff on the belt.

So I manouver into the next queue about 3 people deep ... and a minute later another staff member, in uniform but off the clock wheels her full trolly up to the checkout I'd just been dismissed from ... and guess what, it suddenly re-opened to accomodate her!!! Its not as if she only had 1 or 2 items ... by the time she had everything unloaded and ready to pay, I had already gone through my queue!!!!

Considered writing a letter of complaint but cant see it making any difference
Needed to vent!

:rolleyes:

Nolimits

calex71 wrote: »

My point was really if I have stuff on the belt and an am then told it's closed there is no way I am putting the stuff back in the trolly. As I said if i walked up and was told it was closed before I started unpacking I'd happily go to another one. I'd be the 1st to realise people have to go on break/home. I really don't care what you think of me as a person or what that has to do with anything??

You said the first few items hit the belt, the cashier could easily be distracted talking to the customer they're serving, fair enough if you have half a trolley or even alot of stuff but if you think its okey to ignore someone because you put three items on the belt before they saw you then you deserve to load up the whole belt then take it off and walk over to another one.

Fighting Irish

What i'm getting from this thread is that everyone never wants to see a checkout close

Ye cos that would work

Thoie

Fighting Irish wrote: »

What i'm getting from this thread is that everyone never wants to see a checkout close

Funny, what I got was that people want a better system to notify them that the checkout is closing.

rubadub

What I hate is when a new checkout opens and people at the end of the queue leg it up to the new till, and you are stuck halfway in another queue. A manager should come out and guide people near the front to the new one. I just play the game now, in my lidl a little bell goes off about a minute before a new person is going to man the tills, so I gather my stuff and am prepared for the dash!

ejmaztec

rubadub wrote: »

What I hate is when a new checkout opens and people at the end of the queue leg it up to the new till, and you are stuck halfway in another queue. A manager should come out and guide people near the front to the new one. I just play the game now, in my lidl a little bell goes off about a minute before a new person is going to man the tills, so I gather my stuff and am prepared for the dash!

It's a jungle out there, where manners and fair play cease to exist:eek:.

mumof3angels

I worked in retail for years and to be honest I dont get it. Why bother having a complaint system if you dont get any reply from it. Surely if a customer makes a complaint or informs managment of an idea that this can only help that shop cause at the end of the day is'nt it the customer that is keeping them in business. I will say I dont have a problem moving if a till is closing what do have a problem with is if the staff member is rude about it. It cost nothing to be polite...

tinkerbell

This is why I avoid Dunnes & Tesco when doing my grocery shopping unless it's picking up a few small items. I used to do my shopping in Tesco but got so fed up with the crazy queues that now I only shop in Superquinn and do the super scan thing. Scan all my groceries as I go, queue for super scan is non existent, pay for groceries and go. None of this waiting around.

eightyfish

I use the hand-held self-scan in Superquinn. No queues, no putting all your crap on a conveyor belt, no packing everything into bags frantically at the end, brilliant!

jimoc

www.tesco.ie

Shortest queue ever

thebman

Thoie wrote: »

Some supermarkets have a "barrier" that the cashier can close - but that's awkward as it involves getting up, walking around, and trying to close it on the last customer and their trolley. I've never figured out why they don't have a special red "Checkout closed" triangle (like the "Next customer" triangle, but bigger) at each till. When someone wants/needs to close, they ask the current customer to put it behind their groceries. When they're finished, stand up away from the till, and put the sign back under the desk. Problem solved.

Even if the cashier is still at the position sorting out paperwork, they can at least just nod towards the sign as they politely smile and say "Sorry, this position is closed at the moment".

Or they could just install a button that brings across a barrier to stop people queuing.

Tesco used to have a traffic light system in some of them but I've not seen it since they moved to new premises.

Easy Green open, red closed. I never could figure out what yellow was for :P

Fighting Irish

Thoie wrote: »

Funny, what I got was that people want a better system to notify them that the checkout is closing.

lol

I want to be properly notified when a check out is going to close

scheister

having work in a cinema i know times this happens. What we had to do was get someone to close off our line and finish the people in the line then go on break. As for the people that are talking about people jumpin in to replace some1. I was working one night cue was 15 people deep only one working that till. Another lady came to replace me we switched tills so i cud go get mine counted up and did not realise that i never logged out meaning that my till was now 60 short since sales were still being done on it.

Corruptedmorals

I don't see any point in complaining to a manager, any decent manager will tell you politely that severe understaffing means that they can't throw everyone on tills because then nothing on the floor would get done so there's be zillions of complaints about out of stock items/mess/wrong prices etc. Head Office are responsible, with their appalling budgets are the only way. There should be a light system or barrier too.

eightyfish

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Head Office are responsible, with their appalling budgets are the only way.

I think if they could afford the staff they'd have the staff. Supermarkets are not exactly creaming it at the moment. Superquinn let 400 people go this year, Dunnes also but in smaller groups. If we all supported the Irish supermarkets a bit more we might keep the money in the country and help get out of this mess.

Corruptedmorals

Dunnes are only letting temp staff go, 3 month contracts, except for stores that have closed down- though they've done a good bit to relocate them. Dunnes in particular since they're family owned could afford to up the budget, if only to give people more hours. I don't think they'll ever get staff to 2007 levels once they've seen that the stores still function with half the staff.

The queues are a disgrace, in drapery where there's only one queue, the pressure is unbelievable to clear the thing. I don't think the grocery in mys tore is too bad with the number of tills open.

dudara

The most efficient way to queue is to have a single queue which feeds multiple desk/tills etc. Whoever is at the top of the queue goes to the next open one.

calex71

dudara wrote: »

The most efficient way to queue is to have a single queue which feeds multiple desk/tills etc. Whoever is at the top of the queue goes to the next open one.

Nail on the head there, something like penneys , Dunnes drapery etc.

Unfortunately , I'm not sure how practical or feasible that would be in a super market??? Has anyone ever actually seen that used in a supermarket here or anywhere for that matter? (genuine question as if done right it would be brilliant)

dudara

calex71 wrote: »

Nail on the head there, something like penneys , Dunnes drapery etc.

Unfortunately , I'm not sure how practical or feasible that would be in a super market??? Has anyone ever actually seen that used in a supermarket here or anywhere for that matter? (genuine question as if done right it would be brilliant)

I don't know why grocery stores don't adopt this method. It's demonstratably the most efficient way of queueing, but I'd imagine that Tesco know what they're doing. Therefore, if they don't adopt this, then there must be a good reason.

JohnC.

calex71 wrote: »

Nail on the head there, something like penneys , Dunnes drapery etc.

Unfortunately , I'm not sure how practical or feasible that would be in a super market??? Has anyone ever actually seen that used in a supermarket here or anywhere for that matter? (genuine question as if done right it would be brilliant)

I have heard of it happening in the UK, but not even widely there, it seems. And with the concentration on having as little staff as possible now, I can't see them really wanting someone directing traffic at the checkouts instead of doing something else.

Kintarō Hattori

Random wrote: »

People look after their friends first and others after. That's what happened. Have you ever done similiar in your job?

That's my thoughts on it. Would p1ss me off I guess but wouldn't be too pushed.

I work in a job where I deal with the public. I'm in a position to give discounts and have done so many times over the years to friends and family. While I'm with friends and family if a customer looks for my attention or asks me something friends/family will be left to one side until they are sorted out. Your everyday customer pays your wages, friends and family don't.

In fairness the person at the till in Dunnes most likely has a poor manager.

thebman

dudara wrote: »

I don't know why grocery stores don't adopt this method. It's demonstratably the most efficient way of queueing, but I'd imagine that Tesco know what they're doing. Therefore, if they don't adopt this, then there must be a good reason.

I imagine the reason is it looks like a massive queue and they are afraid it will put people off.

Also they like to section people into groups like non-alcohol purchases and express lanes for people with fewer than 10 items.

People shopping in a clothes store in general will only ever purchase a few items at a time. Family shopping Vs Single person shopping for groceries requires a different approach or someone like me will go to Dunnes instead.

rubadub

calex71 wrote: »

Unfortunately , I'm not sure how practical or feasible that would be in a super market??? Has anyone ever actually seen that used in a supermarket here or anywhere for that matter?

I have only seen it in action on the self service checkouts, and in dunnes cournelscourt down on a separated end they have about 6 tills in a line with operators, usually only 4 people are on the tills. When a customer is gone I think they press a button and a recorded voice says "next customer to till 2 please". This works OK but some people are not used to it, you get (innocent) queue jumpers the odd time who have no idea what is going on but they cop on fast.

With big trolleys it would be a different story, it would need a dedicated section with room to move, e.g. in my tesco if it is full trolleys go right up the aisles and there is no room to move easily. It would need 1 or 2 co-ordinators at the front to guide people. Maybe some sort of winding line like in the airport passport/boarding pass checkin sections.

In lidl the conveyor belts are very long, I notice people booking their spots, e.g. go straight into the shop, grab bread and another item and stick it on the belt and but the "next customer" dividers in place, then run off and get the rest of your stuff. This is also sometimes due to them having no baskets, so people need to run off & back if they have no trolley.

Ciarán_Dublin

calex71 wrote: »

Nail on the head there, something like penneys , Dunnes drapery etc.

Unfortunately , I'm not sure how practical or feasible that would be in a super market??? Has anyone ever actually seen that used in a supermarket here or anywhere for that matter? (genuine question as if done right it would be brilliant)

Every supermarket I was in in Australia worked like this. Works well except when you didn't buy anything and you still had to walk through the queue to get back out of the shop and your getting eyeballed for skipping.