Checkout by Anna Sam Page B

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Women can be just as bossy, angry and rude as men.
Boys are just as attractive, sensitive, courteous, frivolous and chatty as women.
    And there’s no lack of proof. So why do we continue to put up with:
Seeing ‘Checkout Girl Number’ written on your cash box every morning?
The guys always (or almost always) being sent to the aisles to lift and organise merchandise instead of the girls?
The term ‘checkout girl’ being used every day but never ‘checkout boy’?
There being far more girls behind the tills than boys?
Our society still being eminently sexist?
    It is true though – and I’d forgotten this – that, probably to shut up chronic moaners like me, retail has invented a very sweet term, ‘checkout operator’. The debate is therefore closed and the problem solved, right?
    I dream of the day when all checkout assistants, customers and managers are treated equally whatever their sex. We can all dream, can’t we?

‘YOUR TILL IS ON A BREAK’
    There will come a time when you have to tell a customer, ‘It’s closed.’ And they will almost certainly reply, ‘But I’ve only got one item.’
    The first few times you’ll let yourself be convinced and scan their sandwich, electric drill or low-energy light bulbs. But very quickly you will learn to refuse politely (since there will always be others behind complaining that they too only have one item). Because, yes, even checkout girls have the right to take a break and relax for a few minutes.
    So why is a break such a big deal? In your office if you want to leave your computer to go to the loo, have a coffee or chat for five minutes with a colleague, you don’t need to ask permission. But you do on the till. It’s like being back in primary school.
    Want to say hello to a colleague in an aisle at the other end of the store? No, not possible during your working hours.
    Need to nip to the loo? Have you asked permission?
    Want a coffee? Have you begged for it?
    Need a smoke? Has your request been accepted?
    It’s 1 p.m. and you’re hungry but you’ve only worked half your six-hour shift. You need to ask before you can take your lunch break.
    In retail (on the tills at any rate) that’s how it works. You were hired to work on the till so you can’t leave your post without permission. So whatever your request or the emergency, you have to make a telephone call …
    Does it feel frustratingly as if you’re being treated like a child (especially having to ask to go to the toilet!)? Get used to it.
    And whether it’s a little local shop or a big supermarket, the procedure for asking for the right to leave your till is the same. You will engage in this little question-and-answer game on the telephone:
    â€˜Can I take my break?’
    (Tick the relevant response.)
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Someone will come and cover for you.’
    â€˜We’ll ring you back, too many people are on their breaks at the moment.’
    â€˜Wait a little while, there’s a rush on at the tills.’
    Depending on the answer, your smile or grimace will reveal your state of mind.
    And sometimes when they tell you, ‘We’ll call you back,’ they might actually forget. You ring back forty-five minutes later (because you support the right of the other girls on the tills to take their breaks) and the answer may well be once again, ‘We’ll call you when you can take your break.’ You’ll be seething inside but won’t be able to let that show in front of the customer who hasn’t done anything wrong …
    Another fake smile and off you go again.
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    There’s another awkward moment for many checkout girls when they have to ask permission to go to the bathroom …
    Imagine the scene: the store is packed and you have been squirming in your chair for two hours, improbably hoping that your need to go to the loo will disappear because you don’t want to bother anyone.