I used to work as a cashier, and let me tell you: we really see all sorts of weird things on the job. Usually it boils down to rude or odd customers , though.
But you can sort of tell a lot about a person by their buying habits. As the people of Reddit can tell you , there are some things that a cashier might secretly judge you for buying (or not buying!).
Rule of thumb: pets need a lot more space than you might think they’ll need.
“I was a cashier at a pet store. The main thing I’d judge for was buying way too small of a habitat. Whether it was a gold fish bowl, or a critter trail, I’d be upset.”
“I’d try to use it as a teaching opportunity when possible…”
“…but not everyone would listen because ‘its just a fish/hamster/rabbit/etc..'”
Yeah… you should really do extensive research on whatever pet you plan on getting before you go to the store.
Sometimes you have to judge out of duty.
“When I worked at the liquor store we only judged people if they came back several times a day.
“…I only did this because it was illegal to sell alcohol to drunk people.”
“When you have someone making multiple trips during a shift they may be drunk…”
“…whether or not they were an alcoholic wasn’t my concern, but yes I had to judge them.”
I mean, that’s just a matter of safety and all.
This story makes me worry for a lot of kids out there.
“This was about ten years ago, but the only time I judged someone was also when I lost a little faith in humanity.
“Guy in his late twenties comes through the line. Belt is filled with junk food; chips, chocolate, popcorn, candy, etc..”
“The whole time I’m ringing him up he’s saying how glad he is to be out of the house…”
“…that the baby has a flu or something and he’s at his wits end.
“Fair enough, I suppose.”
“I get to the total, tell him, and wouldn’t you know, he’s short a few dollars.”
“So what does he put back? The only non-junk food item: children’s cold and flu medicine.
“I still judge that man, and I don’t even remember his face.”
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Like, some people really shouldn’t be allowed to have kids.
“Not in itself, but I always side eye parents who’ll buy my weight in booze and cigarettes, but then scream at their kid to put the bottle of juice back.”
It’s definitely a weird move to buy water… in a place… that can and will give you water for free.
“The ethos water at Starbucks. We literally give out free water and it’s way better than the ethos water like sir.”
You mean they don’t have big packs of cheese slices?
“Not judged as much as hated when people bought dozens of those individually wrapped snack sized cheese slices. At my store we had to scan each one of them.”
Might be getting divorce papers for the next holiday.
“I once had a guy in his 50s ask me if it was ok to buy his wife a box of hair dye for Mother’s Day. I told him it probably wasn’t a good idea but he said ‘Oh well’ and bought it anyway. So, yeah, I judged him.”
It’s called “express” for a reason, people!
“When I was a cashier on the Express lane, I would silently judge the people that told me to wait while scanning their items to ‘grab a few more things.’ Normal lane with a giant cart and only missing one thing is relatively okay, but the express lane? Judgement.”
Does anyone really need that much Red Bull at one time?
“Anything of a large amount. I once saw a person buy like 15 boxes of Red Bull. The most concerning thing is that they were like 12.”
Going to the gas station really shouldn’t be as time consuming as some people make it out to be.
“Fuel that they don’t pump right away. It times out after 8 minutes and refunds back to the card. I don’t know why people pay, then [expletive] around for 20 minutes, then yell at me for their pump not working.”
Now this is someone who knew what they wanted.
“I worked as a cashier in high school and college. I only remember one combo that a customer brought through my register.
“It was a Friday afternoon, and an older gentleman brought up a large, glass jug of red wine, the biggest tube of KY Jelly we carried, and two potatoes. I didn’t say anything, but I thought to myself ‘This guy has plans for the weekend.'”
Sure, they may be useless. But the commercials always make them seem so enticing!
“Certain As Seen On TV items. Most ASTV items are cheap, pieces of junk that don’t do as advertised.”
I guess that’s why they try to advertise so hard.
You mean… the dirt was dirty?
“I didn’t judge people on what they bought, but I definitely judged them on what they returned. A woman once returned a bag of dirt as ‘defective’ because when she opened it a fly flew out. Like, lady, it’s DIRT, just put it in your yard and bugs will go in and out of it all day long. Still one of the stupidest things I ever saw.”
I guess some things are higher on the list of priorities.
“As a waitress I judged the lady who said she needed her steak well done because she had a bad liver and couldn’t process rare meat but then proceeded to order a vodka raspberry with her meal.
“It was 11:30am.”
One mystery we’ll never get to solve.
“My first week when I used to work at Walmart, a guy bought $300 worth of potatoes and nothing else.”
I… actually really want to know what that guy was planning on doing with all those potatoes.
The kids need to learn tough lessons, too.
“When your child is being a little arsehole in the shop (shouting, screaming, running about) and you are being a good parent by denying them the toy/sweets etc. they are whingeing for, only to crumble like wet cake and give in to their demands so they learn nothing .”