I worked 3 years as a supermarket cashier, and I want to talk about the downside of this job

Hi! My name is Taísa and I worked 3 years as a supermarket cashier. I want to share a little of my experience and explain why people who work in these positions are sometimes hostile towards customers. I also want to talk about the dubious quality products that are sold in supermarkets.

So, especially for the awesome.club, I decided to share my stories from when I worked as a cashier. I hope my tips will help you avoid disappointment in your Christmas shopping. Follow up!

Working as a supermarket cashier was a pointless and monotonous experience. She repeated a thousand times a day: “Hello. Do you need a bag? Thank you for your purchase, come back often!”

It was almost impossible to forget that magic phrase. And it was good not to forget, because the company hired undercover people to monitor service standards. If something was wrong, you could get a substantial fine. Also, our supermarket had a serious problem with change. Night and day, we asked our customers for change, and when they had a bag full of coins it was an immense joy, as if we had won a gift. But still, some customers were very irritated when we asked the question: “Do you have change? We are out of change.”

On the first day of work, I spent 13 hours straight at the cashier (with two half-hour breaks). And it was in this regime that everyone worked. My back hurt and my eyes burned from the computer light and the long sitting. Also, we had to bring products to the checkout and organize ourselves. One day, I left the supermarket at 11 am, and ignoring all the signs of exhaustion in my body, I walked home for about 20 minutes. And it wasn’t because I didn’t have money for transportation or wanted to save money, but my back hurt so much that I wanted to walk a little. The days when I worked replenishing shelves were much easier.

Every day when we left the cash register, a security guard would search us. We couldn’t have any money, because all the wallets were put in a safe before starting work. I never had any conflicts with security, these checks were just symbolic: she just ran her hand quickly over her shoulders and hips. However, not everyone was lucky for me.

Once, after inspection, a newly hired girl pulled me aside and asked, “Have you been searched too? This is normal?” I started to question myself internally if this was really normal and if my rights had been violated all this time, but I still replied, “It’s normal”. And she told me that “one of the agents had put her hand directly on her bra to check if she had hidden anything🇧🇷 The search took place even after the cash register was accounted for; and any missing penny was paid out of our own pocket.

The new girls who got a job at our supermarket soon left because the pay didn’t match the stressful working conditions. Therefore, we needed employees constantly, and as a result we had double work. Usually only 2 or 3 cashiers worked, and customers piled up in long lines, so we had almost no days off. I once worked thirteen days straight. Although the conditions I had agreed to were 8 hours work 5 days a week with 2 days off, what really happened was 4 hours of rest a day🇧🇷 My financial conditions at that time forced me to submit to this work regime.

One morning, I woke up at 6 am completely exhausted, my eyes swollen and burning from the computer light, and literally hating everything around me; so I called my job and said I wasn’t going to work anymore. In the middle of the day, the manager called me there, and convinced me to stay and promised to do it at 8 hours of work. I came back, I worked for a few months, but when I least expected it I was working 15 hours again, so I resigned again.

Soon after I started working in a supermarket, I concluded that they have their own ideas and conceptions of what a fresh product is.

Sometimes the goods came from “the future”, for example, yogurt or milk arrives on shelves with completely wrong manufacturing dates, as if they had just left the factory. So when the product arrived at the store, it was as if it was “fresh”. Goods that had expiration dates for today or the next day were stored in stock—except for the ice cream, as very few people look at its expiration date—so they usually mixed the new products with the old ones and put them all on sale. There have also been cases where the date was totally wrong and the product showed the date of manufacture as being in the following year.🇧🇷 If you care about your health, don’t buy goods by weight. Usually, they were dropped or stepped on. And if the hygiene of the place is bad, cockroaches, mice and even birds may have touched these products. Of course, the cookies that dropped will be put back on the market. So no one is going to put the new candies and cookies on top; they will be tossed and mixed. Therefore, among the fresh products, there can be a lot of old stuff. When buying glasses at the supermarket, it is best to wash them with boiling water. Some uneducated employees might pick them up, use them, and then put them back on the shelves as if nothing happened. It may be a rare case, but I have personally witnessed such a situation. An employee took several glasses for lunch (each time a different one), until the manager threatened him saying that: “if you use it again, you will have to buy the glass”. If you think the cashier didn’t give you the change correctly, you can ask him to recount. If you’re short on money, they’ll make the difference. However, this is only possible before the end of the shift, because then the cashier will be closed and handed over to the manager and you will not be able to pick up the difference. The first employees who arrive often put the damaged goods in places to be seen because they need to be sold as soon as possible: a bottle with the lid ajar, a torn package, or crushed cookies. If a package is ajar, it can be carefully sealed with masking tape and placed together with the products in the freezer again. However, after depressurization, its service life is less than one month. And I’m sure many people know that goods are constantly on the move: fresh products are in the back and old ones in front.

We pay for air. Manufacturers use this strategy that allows them to sell more goods: they fill the package with air to make it appear more voluminous. Although there is no false advertising here, because the weight of the product is indicated on the merchandise. We always choose packaging that looks bigger.

Do not take merchandise with a blurred date: it may have been violated. Although expired products are sent back to the warehouse for disposal, sometimes some are returned with new expiration dates.

It’s best not to buy sliced ​​and packaged cheese at the supermarket. The sanitizing process used in the act of cutting the cheese is quite flawed; used boards and knives are not washed properly for years, and this shortens the life of the product by 5-6 times. When cut, the cheese’s expiration date is only 7/10 days. If you want to buy a really new product, get together with your friends and buy an entire piece to share.

In the checkout line, not only children, but also adults pick up chocolates and cookies. And marketers are aware of this, because it is intrinsic to being human. Thinking about that, the goods placed near the cashiers are usually obsolete🇧🇷 When we pick up these products, we often make a spontaneous purchase and don’t even remember to check the expiration date.

Care must be taken when buying cut products at the supermarket, such as fruits, vegetables and salads: many employees do not follow the rules of health surveillance because it is faster and cheaper, as well as many do not even clean their hands before cutting the goods. So watch out. When visiting your favorite supermarket next time, be on the lookout for how they do these processes.

Working in a supermarket is a thankless, monotonous and poorly paid job. While my overtime was not paid, my salary was reduced several times for lack of money. But, oddly enough, this job was relatively useful for me: for the first time I learned to respond to rude people and to defend myself. So if you are a shy person, suffer from excessive insecurity and remain silent when insulted, welcome to work in the trade. Surely, within a few months there will be no more traces of your shyness.

Have you ever been in a similar situation in a supermarket? Tell us in the comments section.