Funny Supermarket Cashier Incident!

Do you also hand over money with the comment, 'cash please?' ?

Er, I'd normally just say 'thankyou' when paying, not state my preferred (and only offered) method of payment.

I think i say ' on this please' if referring to a card.

That really is a bizarre comment to make. Could you just talk about the weather?

Today has been a very random day.

WHOOP WHOOP!

Well, she was rude and is another one who would have been told where to get off.

Having said that, "switch please"? Really? ??

Hardly surprising she reacted the way she did. what an utterly bizarre thing to say.

It does seem a slightly odd thing to say to me, but if I'd been that cashier, I'd have just taken your card and kept my thoughts to myself. I'd say she was a bit rude, but maybe she thought she was being helpful.

She probably thought you were educationally subnormal and was merely trying to help you with some life skills ?

In her position though, I'd have probably not bothered to point out your weirdness as it would be far funnier to let you do it week in, week out and make sure everyone in the staff room laughed at you behind your back ?

Hmmmm. Inane and superfluous yes. Bizarre may be pushing it a bit. If i presented her with my card with a flourish, and commented 'frog', well, that would be bizarre.

Anyway, even if it was bizarre, i thought the customer was always right ? or at least didn't deserve a chiding for their troubles. God knows i encountered far worse when i was a Saturday cashier - probably the reason i try to be civil [if a little bizarre ?

it is bizarre though. it doesnt mean anything. you are giving HER the card ?

You're lucky she didn't swap your debit card for a clubcard ?

? Please go to the same cashier next time and do the frog thing.

I'm not sure I'd even notice what you'd said if I was the cashier. I doubt I'd be bothered enough to comment on it.

I think what you said was a little odd, but her comment back to you was unduly patronising for somebody in a client-facing role. I dont think your subsequent explanation was at all fishwifey (unless you're missing out the part where you shouted expletives in front of the general public? ?)

It's like the olden days in John Lewis when they asked if you are paying cash or account. ?

Looks like the surly cashier may have done me a favour. It's clearly high time i dropped the 'switch please' line ? The oracle of Hitched has spoken. My days of being a supermarket moron are at an end.

Really though, the cashier was far crosser than she needed to be, honest.

Obviously i told her to go and *** herself, but i assumed that was a given? ?

'switch please' ?

i had a fishwifely rant at the jobsworth bint in the post office sorting place, when the second lot of flowers sent from my MIL were returned to the office to die, despite there being a massive lable on the box saying 'flowers please leave.' and nothing on the card to suggest it may be worth me getting my arse down there sharpish.

i could just about stomach her 'they cant leave parcels for security' line but when she said 'and health and safety' i had to retort that if i injured myself tripping over a box 30 cm by 10cm big then i really shouldn't be let out unsupervised, so would struggle to get anywhere to pick any parcels up.

she looked at me like i'd just started disrobing. ?

It's a very odd thing to say to be honest. If I was a cashier I'd wonder what the hell you were talking about! ?

That said, cashiers can be odd sometimes too. I was trying to run in and out of the supermarket the other day with four items, all the same. The cashier was scanning them one at a time and the second one wouldn't scan. Normally I'd silently fume, but as I was in a hurry I said, "Can't you tell the till it's four of the same thing?" She said, "I can. If I want to." Then proceeded to try and scan the item that wasn't scanning. I said, "I just thought it would be easier, especially as that one doesn't appear to be scanning when the first one did." She gave me evils, said, "I'll do what I want" in a very non-customer friendly tone and continued to try and scan the unscannable item, eventually typing in the bar code number then scanning the other two identical items separately as well. It took forever. I was seething!!!!

Am I being dim but do Switch cards even still exist? I thought they'd changed to Maestro/Solo?

? good point!

"Maestro/Solo please" doesn't trip off the tongue as well.

I don't think saying "switch please" is that odd. It's pretty common for cashiers to say "how are you paying?" (in which case answering "switch please" while handing over your card is a lot more polite and normal than standing there like a deaf-mute). It's the sort of thing one might easily say on autopilot when the cashier hasn't asked- hardly as weird as people seem to be implying.

I would also have assumed, though, that the cashier explained that all you could do with a Switch card was pay with Switch because she inferred from your words that you might have thought you had the option of paying with cheque and guarantee card (and hence that you'd specified Switch as opposed to a cheque), and she was putting you straight that the cheque option wouldn't have been available.

Knownowt- sucking the humour out of threads since 2004 ?

I'm not getting why you said anything at all!

I normally just hand over my card and carry on packing my bags.

Then when she gives me the card back, I say "thankyou!".

I'm trying to imagine doing this, saying switch please, I dont get it!!?

Or you could turn it into a very funny gag and shout 'music maestro please' when handing it over. Or something.

I didn’t think you had to give the cashier your card anymore. Don’t you just stick it in the little machine?

Common?! The only time I've ever been asked that is when I bought my new car! ?

No, the common onces say "Owyerpayinthen" whilst picking at their nail polish.

Really? They definitely always used to say it in JL/Waitrose because you also had the option of paying on account (as well as cheque/card/cash). I'm certain that I'm asked it more often than not in the UK.

I do love you, KN, only shopping at JL and Waitrose (and M'maaahs and P'paaahs of course ?)

Sophie, shopping at JL/Waitrose is one of the main things I'm looking forward to when I come back to London ?

? at this thread

Speaking as a former Waitrose employee, I can happily state that was never part of our training ? I guess I would have asked if a customer stood there opened mouthed, drooling without making any attempt to pay - something you want to tell us KN? ?

? My sister tells a great story about buying a load of booze at an off-licence, back in the day shwen one used to pay by cheque and some places printed the cheque for you to sign, but not all. She wasn't thinking, and tore out a cheque and handed it over tot he cashier blank, then resumed staring off into space. After a few moments the casher said, with a look of infinite pity, "Would you like some help writing the cheque, madam?" ?