Overtime Crime, Part 12

Having worked as a cashier for over a decade, I could fill a book with all the moments that left me scratching my head or shaking it in disgust. One was the time a lady tried to give me a check, and she had slyly written “Void” on the line where you normally write out the amount. But that was nothing compared to this.

It was after I had been working at this store for a few years. Our registers were quite old, and some of our procedures were a little unnecessarily complicated. One such complication was voiding items on an order. Every item voided had to be written out on a piece of paper with the UPC and price to be dropped with the till at the end of the shift. Also, there was no running total on the machine, so the only way to know the total would be to hit the “total” key. Any void over $10 triggered a manager’s key.

This particular night, it was the end of my shift. I had shut my register down with only two customers left to ring up. The first lady had a basket that was full of groceries. I started scanning as she finished loading up. About halfway through her order, she walked up and asked me what the total was.

Me: “Right now, you are at $140.22.”

Customer: “Oh, no! I went over. I need to put a couple of things back!”

It wasn’t unusual for this to happen, but it was kind of a pain. With half of her order still not rung up, I had to call for someone to bring an extra cart to put the rest away. Not to mention the poor customer waiting behind her. I liked to try to streamline these situations as much as I could, so I asked:

Me: “What’s your budget, so we can figure out what you need to take off?”

She ignored me. She handed me several items, which I voided, and then I had to wait for the manager as I began to write them down.

When he came, I gave her the new total.

Me: “$125.72.”

Customer: *Exasperated* “I’m still over!”

Me: “If you tell me your limit, I can help you figure out how much you need to take off.”

She still ignored me. She handed me several more items, and I began to void them, write them down, and call the manager again. At this point, I shot a look at the next customer that was a mixture of apology and helplessness. It was too late for him to get in another line because all the other lines were incredibly long.

The manager came for the override, and I gave the customer the total. “103.39.” She was pretty frustrated at that point because, apparently, she still didn’t have enough. The manager decided to stick around because I was on overtime, and it was obvious that he would have to come back anyway.

I decided to switch strategies.

Me: “How much more do you need to take off?”

Customer: “I have to stay under $50.”

Me: “$50?!”

So, off came the razors for $14 and the deli turkey for another $10. Off came both bottles of vitamins for $5 a pop. Then, she decided on a large number of less expensive items to put back.

Finally, finally, we got the total under $50. She paid and left with a fraction of what she had rolled up with. I put the other customer through and then spent another fifteen minutes finishing up writing the rest of the voids down. I ended up working forty-five minutes of overtime.

When we got new registers that kept a running total, no one was more excited than me.

Even to this day, I can’t understand how someone can miscalculate what they’ve spent by that much.

Related:
Overtime Crime, Part 11
Overtime Crime, Part 10
Overtime Crime, Part 9
Overtime Crime, Part 8