How hard is it working a till in a supermarket?

mr_fegelien

I have a friend who works in McDonald and has worked in Tesco before. They say its pretty difficult. They recommended I use a till training game like this to practice.

I want to know how hard is it and can one practice?

Mean Laqueefa

You scan the items, the till does all the maths for you, they give you money #, you input in the amount and again the till tells t#you what you give back,





how you needed to start a thread to ask this is mind blowing

galwayllm

This is obviously some plug for that game linked...

the_pen_turner

Surely your friend is pulling your leg

Your inside protected from the elements sitting at a desk
The product is brought to you on a conveyer belt that wont flood you with product .
You don't need to know anything about the product bar where the bar code is.
Other products without a barcode have codes on a list so you don't have to remember them
Once scanned the product to swiftly taken away so you have plenty of room to work
You don't need to know the price of anything and the change is worked out for you by the till.
If anything goes wrong you can press a button and call for help
If too many customers caome at once you can call for a colleague to open another till


Its sounds like a very easy job.

mr_fegelien

galwayllm wrote: »

This is obviously some plug for that game linked...

LOL...no. I'm not trying to get you to click on the link for ad revenue. Its just my friend told me how hard it is working a till and told me there is only a McD's till practice game online to improve in your speed.

biko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVQTdGDo2oI

limnam

Considering the amount of times an order gets fkced up in the drive through.

They make it look almost impossibe

Samsgirl

the_pen_turner wrote: »

Surely your friend is pulling your leg

Your inside protected from the elements sitting at a desk
The product is brought to you on a conveyer belt that wont flood you with product .
You don't need to know anything about the product bar where the bar code is.
Other products without a barcode have codes on a list so you don't have to remember them
Once scanned the product to swiftly taken away so you have plenty of room to work
You don't need to know the price of anything and the change is worked out for you by the till.
If anything goes wrong you can press a button and call for help
If too many customers caome at once you can call for a colleague to open another till


Its sounds like a very easy job.[/quot

Yeah, sounds like an easy job till you throw in the public. Try taking abuse or having people think they are superior to you all the time and see how easy it is.

I haven't ever worked in a checkout role but I have spent 4 years working in a public facing role and it's definitely not easy.

the_pen_turner

Samsgirl wrote: »

the_pen_turner wrote: »

Surely your friend is pulling your leg

Your inside protected from the elements sitting at a desk
The product is brought to you on a conveyer belt that wont flood you with product .
You don't need to know anything about the product bar where the bar code is.
Other products without a barcode have codes on a list so you don't have to remember them
Once scanned the product to swiftly taken away so you have plenty of room to work
You don't need to know the price of anything and the change is worked out for you by the till.
If anything goes wrong you can press a button and call for help
If too many customers caome at once you can call for a colleague to open another till


Its sounds like a very easy job.[/quot

Yeah, sounds like an easy job till you throw in the public. Try taking abuse or having people think they are superior to you all the time and see how easy it is.

I haven't ever worked in a checkout role but I have spent 4 years working in a public facing role and it's definitely not easy.

i agree with you 100%. i deal with the public everyday. a lot of the public havnt a clue .
that doesnt make a till job hard though .

Captain Slow IRL

Any retail job can be very difficult, especially when dealing with "ordinary" members of the public.

There are some incredibly condescending answers on here, I'd love to know if any of the posters actually have worked behind a till? BTW, I haven't but my other half does and it's not as cushy or easy as it's made out here. The hardest part of the job is dealing with people, they can be absolute f*ckers when they want.

jimmycrackcorm

It's more difficult than driving a Luas but doesn't pay as well because the public can do to other shops

Darc19

It needs concentration, accuracy and speed.

At the same time, you need to be pleasant to customers.

Sounds easy, but it does need training and if you are prone to making errors, you're gone.

Pay is OK, circa €12-€15/hour.

the_pen_turner

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

It's more difficult than driving a Luas but doesn't pay as well because the public can do to other shops

driving a luas or a train is a lot more dificult than at a till. you have the lives of all the passangers to worry about combined with the stress of all the terrible diving that the public do. look at any of the dash camera videos from luas s

the_pen_turner

Darc19 wrote: »

It needs concentration, accuracy and speed.

At the same time, you need to be pleasant to customers.

Sounds easy, but it does need training and if you are prone to making errors, you're gone.

Pay is OK, circa €12-€15/hour.

you clearly havnt been to any of my local discount chains

MadYaker

Darc19 wrote: »

It needs concentration, accuracy and speed.

At the same time, you need to be pleasant to customers.

Sounds easy, but it does need training and if you are prone to making errors, you're gone.

Pay is OK, circa €12-€15/hour.

I did it in college it’s piss easy unless you’re starting when you’re 70. I was on barely above minimum wage though, only supervisors would get 12 - 15 quid an hour. Dealing with morons and arseholes is the hardest part of the job.

Corruptedmorals

The hardest part will be trying to close the till to go for breaks/lunches and dealing with muppets who can't read a sign and pick up a similar product but not THE product and the argue for their discount with you. The public are abusive and stupid and will look down on retail staff. The actual job will be fine you'll be trained in. Never open the till to make change for someone or accept the notes back to make smaller change. You don't need a game to get faster at it. It's not Aldi.

Loveinapril

MadYaker wrote: »

I did it in college it’s piss easy unless you’re starting when you’re 70. I was on barely above minimum wage though, only supervisors would get 12 - 15 quid an hour. Dealing with morons and arseholes is the hardest part of the job.

Same here. I worked in a Supermarket throughout college and it was definitely not difficult. There is little responsibility in that the till does all the maths so you are literally moving things from one side of your body to the other. People could be as$holes but I suppose because I had no investment in it longterm, I didn't let it get to me. I can't imagine how people do it full time. It was incredibly boring.

GalwayGrrrrrl

There’s more to it than meets the eye. Dealing with awkward customers is one challenge. Also how to input vouchers, discounts, mix of cash and cards, refunds, voids, gift vouchers. It’s not rocket science but it takes a while to learn all the different tasks. Any employer will give you basic till training and stay near you for the first day or so until you’ve got the hang of it.

Elemonator

It's not difficult mentally. I did retail for three years and during summer sale and Stephen's Day sales, the number of customers made it difficult. On my feet from 5am having done all of the Christmas rush, prep for the sale, and then start work at 5am. You had to be accurate, pack, work at a pace to make the queue manageable, and deal with some difficult customers. It was the same repetitive mundane task over and over again. On your feet too.

On a quiet day, easy. Busy days have their challenges. So I would go as far to say it can be tough physically. Luckily I was only part time.

weldoninhio

Loveinapril wrote: »

Same here. I worked in a Supermarket throughout college and it was definitely not difficult. There is little responsibility in that the till does all the maths so you are literally moving things from one side of your body to the other. People could be as$holes but I suppose because I had no investment in it longterm, I didn't let it get to me. I can't imagine how people do it full time. It was incredibly boring.

I'll third this. Literally the most sought after job in the supermarket. You sit there and swipe things through, then the screen tells you how much to charge. I did it through secondary school and a bit of college and that was 18 years ago where you had to deal with a lot more cash. You don't even need to do that as much anymore.

Dial Hard

Dunno if things have changed since (I hope so) but I did a very brief stint in Aldi back in the day and they deliberately disabled the function on their tills that told you how much change was due from a transaction, you had to do it mentally. Sounds batsh*t crazy and it was, but the official line was that it was quicker. If your drawer was more than a euro out after your shift, it was a bollocking. You were also required to scan at an average pace of 1,500 items per hour. Another bollocking if you missed that. You also had to learn over 200 PLUs for loose fruit and veg off by heart in your first week and if you failed that test - you guessed it, another bollocking.

I sincerely hope their practices have changed since then. I suspect they have, they don't seem to be quite so... German anymore.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Dial Hard wrote: »

Dunno if things have changed since (I hope so) but I did a very brief stint in Aldi back in the day and they deliberately disabled the function on their tills that told you how much change was due from a transaction, you had to do it mentally. Sounds batsh*t crazy and it was, but the official line was that it was quicker. If your drawer was more than a euro out after your shift, it was a bollocking. You were also required to scan at an average pace of 1,500 items per hour. Another bollocking if you missed that. You also had to learn over 200 PLUs for loose fruit and veg off by heart in your first week and if you failed that test - you guessed it, another bollocking.

I sincerely hope their practices have changed since then. I suspect they have, they don't seem to be quite so... German anymore.

I wouldn’t have lasted long there so. :eek: I worked in Tesco for a while in college and my till was often a euro or two out at the end of my shift. Never more than a fiver, not usually anywhere close but, yeah, often! I’m not sure why. Many transactions and handing out the wrong small change a bit, I guess.

It’s not hard, OP, but you need a good, supportive seat. In Tesco, the back of my chair was broken for a while and flopping backwards and my arms started going numb. Once it was fixed, they were fine again.

mr_fegelien

mikemac2 wrote: »

I think they must be watched like hawks

I was given change of €10 instead of €20 I had handed over and a telephone call was made when I pointed this out

Well it’s was like the rugby referee calling upstairs for a decision or VAR in soccer

I guess a manager replayed a video upstairs. Within a minute I got sorted and all was well with the world

As if you'd be stupid enough to take an extra tenner when you get paid €9.50 an hour..:rolleyes:

How do you verify if the cash isn't fake? Do you use the UV pen? Is it only €50 bills?

No, not planning on using fake cash but I always wonder how shops and cashiers don't know their being had for with a customer who has fake cash or half real and half fake cash. Surely you don't have time to check it?

Wanderer2010

So many threads about tills and supermarkets whats in the water this week?

Always Tired

Darc19 wrote: »

It needs concentration, accuracy and speed.

At the same time, you need to be pleasant to customers.

Sounds easy, but it does need training and if you are prone to making errors, you're gone.

Pay is OK, circa €12-€15/hour.

maybe in Dublin but nowhere else are you starting at even 12 an hour as a cashier!

and anyone who thinks it's easy... it depends where you work. my friend works at Aldi they have a target of 1000 items per hour scanned, expected of you regardless of how busy you are.

tedpan

Mean Laqueefa wrote:

how you needed to start a thread to ask this is mind blowing

That you got sucked into this wind up thread is the shocking thing..