Dear Derby (KS) Dillon’s
Cashier-
First of all,
I’ll start out by saying that I hope that your night got better after I
left. I know that me having a cart full
of groceries and you being the only cashier in the front lane when I pulled up
must’ve looked impossible that you would ever get through it. But you did!
And today is a new day!!
You see, I knew
that when I went shopping at 9:00 last night that the store would be slow and
that I’d (for once) have plenty of time to think about everything I was going
to get and that I could take my sweet time and enjoy it alone. And boy did I.
If you don’t have
children, some day, when you do, you will realize that going grocery shopping –
sans your brood – will be comparable to a luxury vacation!
I will also tell
you that, even if you have the most well behaved children, sometimes … you just
need some time alone. Trust me, I would
know! I have GREAT kiddos. They don’t ask for anything and if they do,
they don’t cry when I say no. They don’t
touch everything in sight and they’re not loud or over-talkative. They put their tiny little hands on the sides
of the cart and they help me when I need it.
I’ve received compliments on how good my children are. They rock the supermarket!
So why would I
not take them with me and go during the day when there are more cashiers?
Well, we went to
a movie earlier that afternoon and pigged out a little too much. The oldest was not feeling well and the
youngest had diarrhea. And because my husband was on-call for work until 9pm, I
had to stay home and take care of them in case he was called in.
So why wouldn’t I
wait until Sunday when again, there are more cashiers?
We do church
Sunday morning. Sunday’s are our family
days since we can guarantee that dad won’t be on-call. The last thing we want
to do are chores. And anymore, grocery
shopping is a chore. It takes time away
from our family time and that’s frustrating.
But I will say this, Dillon’s always seems to make that chore a little
less painful.
Unlike Wal-Mart,
I’ve always found the Dillon’s employees to be kind and helpful. My husband and I were just talking about this
a couple days ago. We live in Rose Hill
so we have the choice to either go to the Dillon’s in Andover or the Dillon’s
in Derby. And regardless of which one I
choose to go to that day, the staff is always polite and obliging. But at the Wal-Mart supercenters {primarily
the Derby Wal-Mart}, I feel as if I’m a nuisance. The store is dirty and the shelves are never
stocked.
So when I say
that going grocery shopping at Dillon’s – sans my brood – is like a luxurious
vacation, it truly is.
Until last night.
Last night, when
I started unloading my groceries on the belt, you had another Dillon’s employee
checking out. She was buying a pie and
it wasn’t ringing up right. Which is to be
expected on specialty sale items. I get
it. I worked retail for five years as my
first job.
I also get that
when you see somebody pull up in your lane with a LOADED cart and you’re the
only cashier, it can seem overwhelming.
But as you found out, you have some very helpful coworkers – and
customers.
Once you were
able to get the price adjusted on the pie and that associate finished with, it
came time for me – that annoying customer who just made you work for your
paycheck.
I’m sorry if that
sounded brash. But that’s exactly how
you made it seem. You never once said
hello to me. It wasn’t until you were
nearly finished ringing through my items that I started to realize that maybe
YOU were the one that needed the hello first.
So I said it. I mean, after all,
I was the one doing chores as I stated above.
The more you stood quiet and the more I realized that you were making it known
that you were annoyed with my abundance of groceries – because of the way you
were throwing them to the end of
your counter towards the bags – the more I realized that maybe YOU needed me to
ask you how your night was. So I
did. In which you merely turned your
head towards another associate to tell them to “cancel” something. Maybe it was to bag my groceries, because you
realized that I wasn’t just somebody that was going to stand there and stare as
the line grew when I am fully capable of bagging my own groceries to help speed up the process. Again, it's the whole "chore" thing that I have my mind set on.
Anyway, I never
did find out how your night was. But by
the way it looked, it was not going well.
You were young, cute and it was 10:12 on a Saturday night. Remember, I was young and in retail once too.
And also cute. But that’s beside the
point.
But those five
years in retail taught me more life experience than any of my other careers
combined!
I learned that,
regardless of how crappy my day had been, there would always be someone who is
having it worse than me.
And maybe that person will be one of my customers. Early on in retail, I learned that my smiling
face and friendly hello may be the ONLY smiling face and friendly hello that my
customers receive that day.
I think about my friend, Amber when I say this.
She has four young girls at home.
Her brother lives in Colorado and her husband is an accountant. She is a stay-at-home mom and lots of times,
the first adult interaction of the day may be the cashier at the register when
she goes to the store.
Amber’s mom is
extremely ill. She is in critical care in the hospital and is not doing well at all.
During the day, Amber stays at home with her girls, which helps keep her mind off of things. When her husband gets home, she goes to the
hospital to see her mom, optimistic that things will turn around, but still no
answers as to when.
Afterwards, she may stop by the grocery store and stock up because this may be
the only night she has to go. Again, her
family size is six. So while I was
refilling for two weeks, only half of a week’s worth of groceries would fill
her cart.
So I thought
about my friend last night after leaving your store. If it were she instead of me last night, Amber
had one last chance before going to bed to have somebody smile and say hello to
her and you would’ve blown that for her.
And she's the last person that would have deserved that sort of treatment. She would’ve been made to feel like SHE was the nuisance
instead of me. And that bothers me so much
because Amber would do anything for anyone at any moment. So in a way, I’m so glad it was me that
annoyed you and not her. All I did that day was wipe hiney's and rub upset tummy's. Pish posh.
I apologize if
your night was actually going just fine and maybe I’m just blowing this all out of
proportion. But do you honestly think that I’d
take the time away from my family to write a 1,300-word blog post for nothing?
I’m writing this
in hopes that maybe I can help open your eyes.
Maybe you’re new and haven’t had the experience long enough to realize
that sure, there are some customers who can be real assholes or some that just
don’t feel like talking. But there are
also those customers out there that really need to see your beautiful smile or
hear your friendly hello. You can
usually tell who is who --- if you would just take one second to look up, smile
and say hi. I promise, I would have been
that customer to smile and say hello back.
Because I need it just as much as you do.
PS – I would’ve
much rather have been told to 'have a good night', than how many fuel points I
have. But maybe that would’ve taken up
too much of your time? Regardless, I
hope that your night got better after I left.
