"Express" 12 Items Or Less

[justplugit]

Never use the self check outs Cashiers offer young kids a chance to make money. Even more important bagging is one of the few jobs that can offer mentally handicaped people employment and some feeling of self worth.

[Skip N]

Originally Posted by justplugit

Never use the self check outs Cashiers offer young kids a chance to make money. Even more important bagging is one of the few jobs that can offer mentally handicaped people employment and some feeling of self worth.

Thats a good post. Theres a couple kids that used to live on my street that are mentally handicapped. They both work at a local super market and take pride in what they do. Good post, i never looked at it that way before.

[RIROCKHOUND]

All good points;
However I dont notice less registers open at my local S&S then pre-self scanners. I think that it offers a convience when you need a few things.
Weekly shopping I use regular checkout
Honey, can you pick up milk; I use self check-out.
As far as theft.. The one in gansett still employes someone (generally young) to watch the machines and help out with problems, so it isnt completly automated.

[Mike P]

I will tell you this---Stop&Shop was not a bad company to work for. In the first part of my life, I worked for them for 13 years, both part time while I was in school and full time when I wasn't. You always started at almost double minimum wage, even as a bagger. I don't know what their benefit package is nowadays, but even a part-time bagger had full medical and dental, plus TDI. 3 weeks vacation for full-timers. Plus, you had a raise schedule in your CBA, and with a shift premium if you worked an overnight, you could take home 300 clams a week. That wasn't bad for a 24 year old kid in the late 70s..

Cashiers start around $9 or $10 an hour now. It's a great job for a high school or college age kid.

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Skip N

12 items and under my ass!! Why dont the cashiers EVER say anything when someone brings up 30 items at the express lane!? And those self checkout things suck too. They never work half the time.

When the customer's 12 items suddenly become 30, i usually wait for the lull when the customer now starts to write a check , then look at the cashier and say, "poor guy, he can't count" .

[chris L]

Originally Posted by Mike P

My uncle told me the origin of the term "Jamoke".

It was the name of a race horse back in the 40s or 50s. It ran at Narragansett Park and Suffolk Downs, and apparently was one step away from the glue factory. It became a term applied to a mopey kinda guy--"he's a real Jamoke"

that is true or at least what I was told.
its also the name of the hamchunk's (vietnamese kid ) dog in the movie " the green beret "

[Backbeach Jake]

I wish that I could rig the 12 item register to charge double for item # 13, triple for #14 and so on. It should be expensive to be an inconsiderate idiot and this way the fare is pro-rated The dumber you are, the more you pay and the less likely that you'd notice.

[riverrat2]

I worked as a shelf stocker in a Stop and Shop and it was the most miserable job of my life. I had this b*&#$ of a boss who was on some type of crazy power trip and I got stuck stocking the womens higene aisle. Try stocking tampons while a 50 year old lady is standing next to you browsing. Not to mention I was making minimum wage minus taxes obviously and 10 $ a month union fees.

[Jimbo]

The key is RR2, you were paying union dues. You should have gone to the shop steward (or in your case the Stop and Shop Steward) and made a claim that you were allergic to the aroma of unused beach whistles and that you were unfairly put in a position where your background did not allow you to respond to patrons' questions regarding, scent, cardboard vs. plastic, mini, maxi, or full size mattress. I bet you would have found yourself in a nice cush job in the frozen food aisle, with a reprimand to that boss.

[Mike P]

Except that the dept managers at Stop&Shop are also union members--or at least were when I worked there. The union would be placed in a position of having two members pitted against each other. At best, all they could do was try to mediate a problem

Only the store manager and asst store manager were considered "management".

A good dept manager made the job a pleasure---a bad one could make it miserable.

[Skitterpop]

Originally Posted by Mike P

I will tell you this---Stop&Shop was not a bad company to work for. In the first part of my life, I worked for them for 13 years, both part time while I was in school and full time when I wasn't. You always started at almost double minimum wage, even as a bagger. I don't know what their benefit package is nowadays, but even a part-time bagger had full medical and dental, plus TDI. 3 weeks vacation for full-timers. Plus, you had a raise schedule in your CBA, and with a shift premium if you worked an overnight, you could take home 300 clams a week. That wasn't bad for a 24 year old kid in the late 70s..

Cashiers start around $9 or $10 an hour now. It's a great job for a high school or college age kid.

Me.......around 75 to 76 in a meat cutting facility in Marlborough

[Mike P]

Yup--Sydney Rabb and his sons. It's now owned by some European outfit.

Sydney used to make it a point to visit every store at least once a year and meet all the employees personally.

[Bass Babe]

Yeah, a job at the market is great when you're a teenager with a 3-hour shift saving for a beater car. I can barely wrestle 30 hours at 7.50 per hour out of Shaw's grimy little hands. On top of the crap pay and inadequate hours, I also get the shaft in scheduling. 1030 to 130 on a Saturday? I'd make about 10 bucks that day if you take out taxes and gas. Not to mention that they actually expect me to take my job seriously! I got a 20-minute talk when I scored a 39% on the mystery shopper. Why 39%? Well, I didn't have paid stickers for her large, unbagged items -- the store itself doesn't have one paid sticker in it! Is that now my problem? Should I buy them and bring them to work with me? I also made fun of our "Xtreme Item". I have to mention this weekly garbage (fruit snacks, razors, popcorn) to each and every customer, or they get it free. It doesn't matter if they're deaf, blind, buying just a paper or box of tampons, or if they don't speak English. Being required to pitch this junk is degrading. I don't get rewarded for how many I sell. I just get written up if I have to give too many away for free. Anyways, apparently I didn't say thank you to the mystery shopper, either. Thank you for what? She didn't do anything for me! I always tell everyone to have a good day, though.

I say make every register self-serve and staff a few decent, responsible kids to supervise. Nobody needs to go through the hassle and degredation of working at the supermarket. And if people's bread is squashed or if their bags break because they're too heavy, they have only themselves to blame.