Sarcastic (but helpful) Shopping Tips from a Cashier, Part 5

Yes, it's been a while, but I'm back.

#13: If you're returning something without a receipt, don't complain about the price you get for it. (Refer to #6 in part 2 for a horror story regarding this tip).
I haven't had much of a problem with this, but there is a huge problem of people bringing in gifts that they'd been given without gift receipts (grrr). Usually, they're ok with the price - it's only half a season old, so it's not really cheap yet. However, we sometimes have people give REALLY old gifts. I'm talking two years or more, where it's so old the system doesn't recognize it, or it does, but it's really cheap. And by really cheap, I mean only a dollar or two. Also, these things like to come in without price tags (in which case we really can't do anything). Just yesterday, someone brought in a cute little coat and snow pants that had been a gift. They're too big now, but they'll be too small next year, so the lady was hoping to be able to exchange it for something else. The coat had no tag, but we can work with that. I scanned the snow pants a couple times, and the system wouldn't read it. I looked at the season on the tag - V4, meaning winter 2004. The tag also had many sale stickers on it, the lowest being $2.99. I winced and explained to the lady that this cute little outfit was very old, and our system didn't recognize it. I also explained that I could return it for her, but it would be very cheap. She figured it must have been regifted a time or two. Fortunately, she wasn't angry with me (whew!), just the person who'd given it to her.

#14: Actually, it makes perfect sense that only some colors of an item are on sale.
I frequently have people complain about this. They see a sale sign near one color of an item, and assume all the colors are on sale. Not so - some items, like socks, come in basic, neutral colors, as well as seasonal colors. At the end of the season, the seasonal colors go on sale, while the basics stay the normal price. This makes our customers furious. Another reason companies do this is when a color isn't selling as well as others. Nobody wanted the floral fleece pants until they went on sale. Then, they flew out the door - everybody wanted them. The solids were still full-price because they were selling just fine that way, and the company saw no reason to sell them for less. The third reason that only some colors are on sale is that they're being discontinued. We have several colors of jeans that did this just recently, and nobody seemed to be able to figure out that only certain colors were on sale. It was really infuriating until the company finally had us separate the sale and non-sale jeans at the last floorset.

#15: Don't walk away from the register while I'm ringing you up.
This is really annoying. People realize that something's on sale, and they run off to get three more, or they see something else they want and go get it. Sometimes, it's fine - like when there isn't anybody in line. However, on a busy day, it's really irritating. I usually give someone a minute, then suspend the transaction and help somebody else while the first one keep shopping, bringing their transaction back up when they're done. This tends to really slow things down, because suspending and retrieving a transaction takes a few seconds.