Hi everyone! So I just started working at Spot last week. I've already done some training in HL and pFresh sales floor, and that was pretty good. Honestly, I'm not sure if my store is representative of all stores, that I'm just so happy to be working with people who can speak English (my last job of 3 years was insane- unprofessional and majority of employees were straight from over the border. Not that I'm racist, but struggling to even understand my coworkers...it was just a huge culture shock and I pretty much always felt left out), OR I'm just full of naive optimism in my infancy of working at Target, BUT, I really think I got a great team, everyone seems super friendly, pretty relaxed and understanding. I feel very welcomed and its a nice thing, especially when all other areas of my life are sortof not going as well, I feel great being in my work environment.
All this to say that today I started Cashier training for about four hours. My wonderful trainer (seriously, this lady was a doll) supervised me for the last 15 minutes or so while I would actually run up real customers. I was nervous, but overall kind of liked it. Just as my training shift was coming to an end, one of my TLs was asking if someone could cover a cashier shift for about 4 hours longer that evening and I pretty much welcomed the opportunity.
So then I was really doing it! At at evening too, and honestly, from 6pm to around 730 it was just getting crazy (I'm told my store is one of the busiest in the group, which is interesting since its not even a SuperTarget). Anyway, I enjoyed it for the most part. I have a few, well, questions/concerns though. Ultimately, I'm not sure how much I'll be scheduled for cashier anyway, because it seems like they're wanting me to do a lot of pFresh. But without further ado:
1) BAGS: My absolute biggest cause of grief with cashiering is honestly these stupid little plastic bags.It's the most inane, smallest thing, honestly, but I've had a lot of trouble with my bags tonight. They get all stuck together, namely- so several times, a couple bags would awkwardly be stuck to the bag I filled up. Or they don't seem to want to open up fast enough or what not. I don't know, but I was such a wreck with that one specific thing. A couple times, the dumb things would get all stuck and fall on the floor and it looked kinda bad. I apologized a few times for my apparent sloppiness, but guests were pretty nice except for this one lady who was like "Your area *is* pretty messy" in a totally serious way (you know how when you apologize for something relatively small, it's weird human kindness/politeness to sort of go 'oh, it's okay!' but this woman seemed kind of....critical. It was probably my one bad transaction, I'd say). Anyway, is there like a trick to the bags? Am I just going too fast? Honestly, I think that's my biggest problem- I try to be fast (and fun and friendly!) but sometimes I think I go too fast, but honestly, I worry any slower and I'll just annoy the guests more :/ The stupid timer thing on the register isn't really helping when it wants to give you a big fat Y or R.
I have to say I just LOVE when people bring their own bags though, or don't want anything bagged.
2) BAGing: Also related to bags is just bagging itself. As I'm already pretty sloppy/bad with these inane, clumpy, flimsy plastic monsters, I also constantly critique myself on how to bag- specifically, I never know how much is too much for a bag or vice versa, too little. It doesn't help one some guests insist on having tons of stuff in one bag and another well, I dont know, I just get the vibe they kind of are more particular and want their stuff all organized. I know the obvious stuff, like not putting chemicals with food and frozen stuff by itself but what about other things? Like dry food and non-chemical, non-food items? Or chemicals and clothing? I assume that's not "unsafe", but I kind of felt bad one time when I put bleach with these little kid socks- it just seemed tacky. Anyway, I guess I'd like some tips on exactly 1)how much to put in one bag and 2) what to put together
3) Other stuff didn't really seem as big of a deal. I did forget this a few times: are guests supposed to scan their redcard/coupon/cartwheel/discount AFTER I hit "TOTAL" or before?
4) I'm going to be honest and say I didn't really push RCs at all. I mentioned it, but honestly, I felt like so much was going on as it is, that I didn't know about trying to push that too. Although, and this just seems crazy, but one guy honest-to-god, was ready to sign up, not even prompted and I should have SHOULD have taken care of him, but I was sortof unsure what to do with the two guests behind him and didn't want to piss those guests off while he takes 5 minutes or so to set up a RC (long story, short, I sent him to GS desk. Oh well :/). Thankfully, my store doesn't seem as fanatical about RCs as some of the stores you guys are at and my trainer said it was okay, just to get the basics down first.
Well, overall, yeah I kind of didn't mind it at all! I like it, it's very fast, and it's very "in the moment" and I like talking to the guests...although I kindof didn't know what to say during a long transaction. Do I comment on their purchases or something?
Just a sidenote, my store is apparently one of the busiest in the group, which is weird because it's not even a SuperTarget. I mean, there was literally hardly any downtime at all from 6-8 and after that, it was still like, a few consecutive guests every few minutes so I don't know. Very fast. I think I want to slow it down a little, but I'm not sure, I don't want to make the guests impatient or something. Thanks yall.
All this to say that today I started Cashier training for about four hours. My wonderful trainer (seriously, this lady was a doll) supervised me for the last 15 minutes or so while I would actually run up real customers. I was nervous, but overall kind of liked it. Just as my training shift was coming to an end, one of my TLs was asking if someone could cover a cashier shift for about 4 hours longer that evening and I pretty much welcomed the opportunity.
So then I was really doing it! At at evening too, and honestly, from 6pm to around 730 it was just getting crazy (I'm told my store is one of the busiest in the group, which is interesting since its not even a SuperTarget). Anyway, I enjoyed it for the most part. I have a few, well, questions/concerns though. Ultimately, I'm not sure how much I'll be scheduled for cashier anyway, because it seems like they're wanting me to do a lot of pFresh. But without further ado:
1) BAGS: My absolute biggest cause of grief with cashiering is honestly these stupid little plastic bags.It's the most inane, smallest thing, honestly, but I've had a lot of trouble with my bags tonight. They get all stuck together, namely- so several times, a couple bags would awkwardly be stuck to the bag I filled up. Or they don't seem to want to open up fast enough or what not. I don't know, but I was such a wreck with that one specific thing. A couple times, the dumb things would get all stuck and fall on the floor and it looked kinda bad. I apologized a few times for my apparent sloppiness, but guests were pretty nice except for this one lady who was like "Your area *is* pretty messy" in a totally serious way (you know how when you apologize for something relatively small, it's weird human kindness/politeness to sort of go 'oh, it's okay!' but this woman seemed kind of....critical. It was probably my one bad transaction, I'd say). Anyway, is there like a trick to the bags? Am I just going too fast? Honestly, I think that's my biggest problem- I try to be fast (and fun and friendly!) but sometimes I think I go too fast, but honestly, I worry any slower and I'll just annoy the guests more :/ The stupid timer thing on the register isn't really helping when it wants to give you a big fat Y or R.
I have to say I just LOVE when people bring their own bags though, or don't want anything bagged.
2) BAGing: Also related to bags is just bagging itself. As I'm already pretty sloppy/bad with these inane, clumpy, flimsy plastic monsters, I also constantly critique myself on how to bag- specifically, I never know how much is too much for a bag or vice versa, too little. It doesn't help one some guests insist on having tons of stuff in one bag and another well, I dont know, I just get the vibe they kind of are more particular and want their stuff all organized. I know the obvious stuff, like not putting chemicals with food and frozen stuff by itself but what about other things? Like dry food and non-chemical, non-food items? Or chemicals and clothing? I assume that's not "unsafe", but I kind of felt bad one time when I put bleach with these little kid socks- it just seemed tacky. Anyway, I guess I'd like some tips on exactly 1)how much to put in one bag and 2) what to put together
3) Other stuff didn't really seem as big of a deal. I did forget this a few times: are guests supposed to scan their redcard/coupon/cartwheel/discount AFTER I hit "TOTAL" or before?
4) I'm going to be honest and say I didn't really push RCs at all. I mentioned it, but honestly, I felt like so much was going on as it is, that I didn't know about trying to push that too. Although, and this just seems crazy, but one guy honest-to-god, was ready to sign up, not even prompted and I should have SHOULD have taken care of him, but I was sortof unsure what to do with the two guests behind him and didn't want to piss those guests off while he takes 5 minutes or so to set up a RC (long story, short, I sent him to GS desk. Oh well :/). Thankfully, my store doesn't seem as fanatical about RCs as some of the stores you guys are at and my trainer said it was okay, just to get the basics down first.
Well, overall, yeah I kind of didn't mind it at all! I like it, it's very fast, and it's very "in the moment" and I like talking to the guests...although I kindof didn't know what to say during a long transaction. Do I comment on their purchases or something?
Just a sidenote, my store is apparently one of the busiest in the group, which is weird because it's not even a SuperTarget. I mean, there was literally hardly any downtime at all from 6-8 and after that, it was still like, a few consecutive guests every few minutes so I don't know. Very fast. I think I want to slow it down a little, but I'm not sure, I don't want to make the guests impatient or something. Thanks yall.