Cashiers: some might say they are the heart or brain of any retail establishment. We deal with the most absurd requests while keeping a smile on our face; customers that just love to tell us their whole life story; and situations you wouldn’t ever want to be in. Over the last couple of years standing on the other side of the counter, there are quite a few things that I have learned to love to hate.

1. We ask you your email/phone number for your benefit. I mean yes, we will send you emails, but nine times out of 10 they will have a coupon in them. However, there are other reasons, we, as cashiers, must meet a certain percentage of emails/phone numbers per transactions. If it would really be that much a burden to give out either of those information’s please do not be rude about it, I have to ask.

2. Telling a customer that their credit/debit card has been declined. It’s always an awkward conversation to tell someone their card has been declined, especially if there’s a long line of customers behind them. Maybe you just typed in the wrong PIN … or maybe you just over spent …?

3. Telling a customer that their credit/debit card has been declined, twice. Either you have two too many PIN options or you really don’t have the funds. This means that your options are to take some things off the transaction or cancel the transaction as a whole. There is no option of holding up the whole line and checking your bank account to see how much money is in there.

4. Not everything fits in a bag. I know my merchandise and there are just awkward shaped items and too long of items that I already know won’t fit in a bag, even the big bags. Stop asking me if I have garbage bag sized bags to fit your awkward sized box.

5. Double bagging is a hassle. On occasion I will double bag something if I put too much in the bag, the bag already started to rip, or the item(s) were heavy. But, if you ask me to double bag something light so you can have extra bags for when you take your dog for walks, or because you have to carry the bags up stairs into your second floor apartment, I’m going to smile and say no problem and do it because it’s my job. And when you leave I’m going to think people like that drive me crazy.

6. I really, really don’t care why you’re buying what you’re buying. I get it, I buy weird combinations of things too, but don’t need to know if you’re going to your Uncle Steve’s 56th birthday party or if you’re crafting a new side table for your house you just moved into. I just want to scan your items and tell you your total.

7. I haven’t tried every product in the store. “Have you tried this? Do you know if this is any good?” Most of the time I’m going to lie to you and say that it should work or that it’s a good product. Yes, I work at the store, but every product isn’t something that I’ve tried nor had experience with. I mean, have you tried everything in Walmart? I think not.

8. Yes, we have a chip reader. This is really nothing against the customer, they can't control if they have a chip card or not, but it gets quite tedious telling the customer if they have a chip card, to insert the chip or swipe if they don't. On top of the customer wanting to tell me that they hate the chip, like every customer doesn't tell me this already.