Express-Lane Their Opinion

(It is 8:00 pm on a normal, quiet Sunday night, and out of the blue, we get extremely busy. I call up all of my available backup cashiers, and proceed to ring up my line as quickly as possible. A customer comes up near the end of the rush and slams the item divider onto the conveyor belt, then places his four small tubes of homeopathic pills behind it. He waits his turn, as there is only one mid-sized order in front of him, I ring him up, and then:)

Customer: “Can I make a suggestion? You need to have your express lane open at all times. It’s just unfair that I have to wait in line while you ring up all of these huge orders. This is all I have. It’s just not right.”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir. This time of night, we just don’t have the staffing for that.”

Customer: “Well, you have the staffing for that lane, this lane, and those lanes.”

Me: “Yes, I’ve temporarily called them up from other departments to help out. But I’ll certainly take your suggestion into consideration.”

(My manager is ringing customers up behind me, and I draw his attention to my customer.)

Me: “Sir, this gentleman is suggesting that we keep our express lane open during all business hours. Just passing that along to you.”

Manager: “Sounds good. We’ll work on it.” *he dismissively goes back to serving his customer*

Customer: *in a huffy, irate tone* “I just don’t see why you can’t have it open at all times. It’s just good customer service.”

Me: “Absolutely, sir. I’ve passed your suggestion along to my manager, and we’ll certainly take it into consideration. It’s not a bad idea at all.”

(His continued glares kept me rambling positive affirmations until he took his four tubes of sugar pills and departed. By the time he’d finished his little rant, we were back down to two registers, and the store stayed quiet right up to closing time.)