SoapZone Community Message Board

There is a discount store chain in north and central Ohio called Marc's (formerly Bernie Shulman's). Once upon a time, it was THE cheapest place to shop but since they expanded their grocery section, I've noticed some things are just as much, if not more, than they'd be at a regular grocery store. They still have some nifty discounts in the first section of the store, which is mostly seasonal items with a few other random things...

Anyways, I nipped into Marc's today specifically because I wanted a large gift bag and I knew they'd have them for a reasonable price. And I was right: a $3 gift bag was $1.60 at Marc's. I also picked up four other items that I needed. When I went to check out, I saw they only had two registers open and both had at least 6 people waiting, all with carts absolutely mounded over with items to purchase. Marc's has a customer service counter where they're happy to ring you up...provided you only have a few items (and no produce to weigh). To be fair, this is not written down anywhere but periodically, they'll make an announcement over the loudspeaker that if you only have a few items, you can check out at customer service.

So I took my few items over to customer service and the line there was 8 people long. But they had baskets with a few items in them...except for the woman in front of me, who had a cart that was mounded over with groceries. *sigh* I was waiting to see how the woman at customer service would handle it. Had I been her, I would've politely told the customer that customer service was for people needing just that--customer service--and they'd only check you out if you had a few items, and I would've refused to wait on her.

But the cashier was not me. I don't know if the store has a policy about what you can say or do to the customers but she did indeed ring up the woman's groceries. She scanned the first items the woman placed on the counter, then told her she needed to bag and to hold off a bit. After she handed the woman the third grocery bag stuffed full, she finally, and remarkably kindly, asked the woman if she knew customer service was for people with only a few items to purchase. To her credit, after saying no and asking if there were any signs saying so, she *did* apologize and thank the woman for ringing her purchases anyways. I thought it would've been nice if she also apologized to everyone in (the long) line behind her for holding them up. You know, those of us with only a few items. The cashier also pointed out that at customer service, they *do* have other things to do than just check people out.

Frankly, I think the woman was lying when she said she "didn't know" the customer service desk was for folks with only a few items. And if she didn't, she should've suspected when a) everyone else only had shopping baskets or were holding their purchases in their hands and b) there was no long conveyer belt to put your items on. In fact, you had to lift them up a bit to set them on the counter. Also, who doesn't know that you don't use customer service to pay for what ultimately wound up being 9 full bags of groceries?