By Loh Keng Fatt
Copy Editor
kengfatt@sph.com.sg

 

It is a familiar experience – you are stuck in a long queue to pay for your purchases at a supermarket, whether run by NTUC FairPrice or Cold Storage.

This is what usually happens.

When a shopper finally gets to the cashier, he heaves a basket full of groceries onto the counter – and does nothing more.

The harried store employee is left to take out stuff from the basket, sorting things out for scanning before bagging them.

The consumer nonchalantly watches the entire process unfolding, sometimes pulling out a mobile phone to check for whatever, while the line of customers behind him gets longer.

I have always wondered why many people do not think it is their job to help the cashier.

How hard can it be to take things out for the employee to speed up the process of scanning and bagging?

Surely, it is also to the customer’s advantage to get these chores executed quickly so that he can exit the store faster?

The other day, I had the unfortunate experience of yet again being stuck behind an indifferent customer.

I was so turned off by such behaviour that I pointedly took out items from her basket to hand over to the cashier.

The customer did not bat an eyelid and did not get the hint to help out.

Later, I asked the cashier if she should politely ask customers to lend a helping hand.

“Oh, but not everyone is like you. Not everyone would think this is their job. They may scold me,” she said.

That was why I was happy to find out later that some supermarkets have installed machines where you can scan your purchases and pay for them, without the need to trouble anyone else.

As it becomes more and more difficult to get people to work in the service line and as more stores run round the clock, this mechanised option seems more and more a worthwhile investment for supermarket operators to roll out.

And if fewer cashiers were to man the counters, it would also force more of the lazy shoppers to learn to scan, bag and pay for their purchases themselves.