Working a register at Wal-Mart when it's slow is an acting job. The act is knowing how to find something to do to look very busy. Reading a magazine is too obvious, as is chatting on a cell phone. Most of us have slipped in one or the other of these occasionally. Scrubbing shelves or reorganizing entire displays is real work. So what passes for meaningful work:
- Cleaning the belt. Each register is supposed to be equipped with a roll of towel and a spray bottle filled with a blue mystery liquid. At first, I thought it was watered down Windex, but apparently, it's some cleaner, diluted to a recommended level and mixed by the vat. Nice to have on hand when the 10-pound chicken thighs burst open (ughh). But during down times, one can clean the belt that shoppers cover with toys their kids have drooled on, assorted overripe fruit, leaking raw meat containers, half-thawed ice cream and gooey detergent bottles. No wonder guests don't want to put their white clothing on it. After working here, I don't want to put anything on it that's not itself toxic.
- Facing and putbacks. Guests often come to the front of the store with more than they actually will pay for. Typically, they dump it in the aisles of checkout impulse merchandise. That isn't so bad, unless it's refrigerated or frozen merchandise. Please, folks, if you decide you don't want your ice cream, meat, yogurt or frozen vegetables, hand them to the cashier. We will make sure someone runs them back to the appropriate refrigerated or frozen area. Otherwise we have to claim it out, which results in higher costs for all of us. If it's not cold, cashiers stash it under the register until it's not busy, then take it to a go-back area -- customer service, return cart or even the correct shelf. Taking back empty carts and hand baskets means another trip and a couple more minutes. Finding an empty package of something someone ripped off stashed under the beef jerky -- another couple of minutes to go log it. And so on until more guests come to check out.
- Red Lining. A definite two-edged sword. Cashiers are taught to provide "aggressive customer service" by meeting guests at the "red line," an imaginary boundary in front of the register, separating the front end from the sales floor. At one time, Wal-Marts probably had red lines, but now it's akin to sending someone on a snipe hunt. Like the "blue stars" that are supposed to be on the self-check registers -- they've gone the way of 8-tracks and dinosaurs. Managers don't see it as aggressive customer service -- they see "bored cashier doing nothing." They leave instructions like "Send any red lining cashiers to go zone toys."
A side note, here. I think there are two employees in toys at our Wal-Mart, even during Christmas. Itinerant cashiers make up the rest of the staff. That's why, if you ever go into the toy department during Christmas, guests know more about the department than the staff -- if you're lucky enough to find staff. But associates -- toys or cashiers -- don't really get to zone toys, which means pick up all the out of place items (more are out of place than in place every night). They're more like Tickle Me Elmo TMX's or Wii's -- they aren't on the floor more than a minute when three guests are tugging them in three directions.
So if toy department or cashiers don't straighten toys, when does the straightening and stocking get done? Legend has it that overnight inventory control staff does it between 2 and 5 a.m.
So to avoid being punished for "aggressive customer service," we act busy where the customer service managers can't see us. Straighten soda coolers. Fill the grocery bags on the carousels. Help another cashier bag a large order. Clean the particles that multiply under the scale trays. It's far more work to act busy than to be busy when you have a line five-deep with guests.
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