Service with a Smile

How do you pick your cashier at Wal-Mart?  Is it who has the shortest line?  Or maybe who seems to be moving the people through the quickest?  Or is it who does the most efficient bagging job of not putting your stupid frozen goods in with a cardboard cereal box?!  I mean…seriously?!

Well, I tend to choose the cashier with the nicest smile.  Those other things are important (especially the frozen goods and cereal box one…I mean, who does that?), but a nice smile and attitude can completely change your day in ways that efficient packing or quick throughput can’t.  It breaks the monotony, it makes you feel more human.  It’s not just a mechanical dance…it’s more human.  If I wanted to dance with a robot, then I’d go to self check-out.  But I didn’t.  I went to an actual cashier.

I liked this post from this website that describes the life of a cashier:

“Bing! Ding! Ching! Ka-Ching! That's your music. And it is music. Because you do this little dance—more like a single dance step on repeat—all day long. You go through the same motions time and time again, and naturally you've developed a rhythm. "Find everything?" (cha-cha-cha), "Paper or plastic?" (dip-turn-spin), "Help you to your car?" (rumba-two-three).

Some of your dance partners are old hat. You've seen them for years. Every Tuesday they buy a loaf of wheat bread, a carton of milk, fruit, ten pounds of bran cereal, and toilet paper. (The amount of bran cereal purchased is in direct proportion to the amount of toilet paper.) Your dance with them is familiar. But the majority of your customers are strangers, and you mechanically "check them out." Service with a smile…and not much else.”

- The Real Poop (https://www.shmoop.com/careers/cashier/)

But it doesn’t have to be this way.  Cashiers can find enjoyment in their jobs, not through the repetitive tasks, but through the people…who are as different and varying as they come…especially at Wal-Mart.