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UberCool
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so as i was waiting in line at the grocery store, i was wondering why they bother putting in 12-15 registers when they NEVER have that many open. i've been to the store at just about all hours of the day and every day of the week, so i've hit some of busy times...but i've never seen more than 4-5 lanes open (excluding self check-outs, which frankly don't count).

i'm sure someone knows the reason for this...

7/26/2009 1:41:44 PM

lmnop
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just to piss you off

7/26/2009 1:43:27 PM

Atlas
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Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, etc.

Having worked at a grocery store, there's been days where every lane is open, and every lane has 4-5 customers waiting. If you had half that many lanes open, then the lines of customers would be 8-10 deep, and that's just not very sightly.

7/26/2009 1:43:31 PM

dweedle
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7/26/2009 1:44:58 PM

wolfpack2105
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i've been into wal-marts that have 30 checkouts before 5 days before Christmas with it as busy as it would ever be, and they STILL only had probably half of the lanes open. I agree with this guy

7/26/2009 1:46:39 PM

FykalJpn
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walmart isn't exactly known for their customer service

7/26/2009 1:47:17 PM

UberCool
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Quote :
"just to piss you off"

i know, right?

and i suppose that makes sense to have that many for the days when it's crazy packed in the store. it's just bloody annoying when only 3 lanes are open, and i'm waiting for 10 minutes because they don't want to open one of the other 10 lanes

[Edited on July 26, 2009 at 1:48 PM. Reason : meh]

7/26/2009 1:47:44 PM

dweedle
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we checked out at the Brier Creek wal-mart at like 3:45 last night and there were 2 lanes open (understandable) ... one lady opened one up for us when we were waiting though.

7/26/2009 1:49:18 PM

Tarun
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recession

7/26/2009 1:54:41 PM

UberCool
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i don't buy the "recession" excuse. i've noticed this for years

7/26/2009 1:57:47 PM

ScubaSteve
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because having the lanes and not needing them is better than needing them and not having them.

7/26/2009 1:57:52 PM

Tarun
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^
yeah build more capacity

^^
recession not for all stores but surely at some of them

7/26/2009 1:59:08 PM

UberCool
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^^my irritation is when they need to use the extra lanes (multiple people waiting) and won't open them

^and i've noticed this phenomenon at new stores, where they never use the full capacity from day one

7/26/2009 2:02:26 PM

wwwebsurfer
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walmart is TERRIBLE. And they'll have one entrance open and the 2 registers open are at the opposite end of the freaking building. Piss on them, I spend maybe $20/month there. Newegg, amazon, food lion

7/26/2009 2:43:13 PM

roddy
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threat of snow

it is based on the time of day...also, when i was a cashier they let us off earlier when it was slow...do you want to pay $15 for a donut? That is why they are not all open....there are rushes but normally it slows back down....

grocery stores profit margins are very small....payroll is the biggest expense...if they can cut it they will...

[Edited on July 26, 2009 at 2:55 PM. Reason : w]

7/26/2009 2:49:37 PM

ShawnaC123
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Before hurricanes when I worked at Food Lion, they'd have every register open. All the managers would have to be on the registers.

7/26/2009 3:14:32 PM

jtmartin
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im betting it is a staffing problem when they are busy and dont open more lanes...

i have a bigger pet peeve with unfriendly cashiers. When I am polite and try to ask how you're doing and just be friendly, dont blow me off and never once even look at me & act like I'm inconveniencing you

[Edited on July 26, 2009 at 3:22 PM. Reason : cashiers]

7/26/2009 3:21:37 PM

lopezlisa
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Sometimes they won't open more lanes (and this applies to really any place with a register) because that means having to take someone off the floor---go to the safe, count a cash drawer, and then later have to count one more drawer at the end of the day. If they just make some customers wait during those 1-2 rushes during the day, so be it. But they won't have that extra drawer/deposit to put in the computer! Woo!

7/26/2009 3:34:35 PM

Bob Dylan
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what? a black man can't go into a grocery store?

7/26/2009 3:35:36 PM

ajgoff1286
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lopezlisa has got the right idea on this one

7/26/2009 8:12:12 PM

evan
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Quote :
"grocery stores profit margins are very small....payroll is the biggest expense...if they can cut it they will..."


qft.

at lowes foods, we were encouraged to send cashiers home if it was slow. we also only had the bare minimum number of registers open at any given time based on trending data.

we'd have a shift leader or a bookkeeper open up if a line got 3 deep though.

and yeah, the only times ALL the registers were ever open were christmas, thanksgiving, and whenever it snowed. even then, we had lines going back into the aisles.

Quote :
"im betting it is a staffing problem when they are busy and dont open more lanes..."


nope... well, not at least where i worked... we had a shit ton of people from each department (deli/grocery/etc.) crosstrained as cashiers and baggers. if we ever needed more people to open up, we just grabbed one of them. in grocery, it's all about the front end... front end gets what front end needs.

Quote :
"Sometimes they won't open more lanes (and this applies to really any place with a register) because that means having to take someone off the floor---go to the safe, count a cash drawer, and then later have to count one more drawer at the end of the day. If they just make some customers wait during those 1-2 rushes during the day, so be it. But they won't have that extra drawer/deposit to put in the computer! Woo!"


this too. a lot of people don't realize how long it takes to close out a store at the end of the night each additional till we had to count meant even more time. not to mention, the more open tills there were, the more requests for pickups and fills we got.

7/26/2009 8:16:46 PM

fredbot3000
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in my experience, in the freak rush (you know, all of a sudden busy for no good reason, not fourth of july or thanksgiving or anything) it's generally over before you can even page another cashier to the front and have them count a drawer in.

7/26/2009 8:38:29 PM

evan
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^we didn't have the cashiers count their own drawers in

7/26/2009 8:43:33 PM

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