Why?

[lurker17260]

When the express line in woollies is halfway to the back of the store why do they turn around and serve people at the cigarette counter the moment they come through the door?  It makes my blood boil.

[shinynewid]

Another reason why is because a staff member is allocated to the cigarette counter , that is their principal duty , if no customer is at the smoke counter they " back up " the express lane staff by opening another express till , but if a customer arrives at the smoke counter they must serve ASAP as that is their principal allocated position 

so instead of looking at its as if they have abandoned their duties at the express counter to serve at they cigarette counter , think of it as they were actually reducing your waiting time in the first place by assisting serving in the express lane ( ie not their priority allocated till ) 

the real hold up at express lanes is by tossers not observing the 12 item limit or whatever it is 

that really is a blood boiler when people have a trolley load at the express lane 

[flashie*]

OP...............it is possible the person who was serving was the only person over 18 at the time.

[lurker17260]

Nup, neither of those work.  The one who turned around was called in to assist the other 2 who were already there when I joined the queue.  And they were all definitely over 18.

[lurker17260]

Yes greencat, I know you chimneys are all a little crazy :-x

If you're already in the store and waiting at the checkouts, it's pretty much a given that you're gonna follow through with your purchases.

The cigarette counter is at the very front of the store - so if forced to wait too long, it's easy for a customer at that service point to just leave the store without having purchased something.

That's far too logical crikey.  Not very friendly of you to stop me in mid rant like that X-(:^O

[lurker17260]

Although I have been known to abandon a loaded trolley mid store when they really annoy me :^O

[Anonymous]

:^O ha ha lurker have done the same ,

and at mid self check out ,they encouraged me to use it with a trolly full..grrr

every second item she has to come over and fiddle with it 

lots of meat and deli stuff in that trolley ..

[serendipityricho]

The old days when they sold variety items was fun.

Wind up a dozen alarm clocks and set the times over the next few minutes.

Never did it myselfB-)-but heard that it happens.

~~~waves to Annie.............................................

[katymatey*]

I stopped buying my groceries at Woolies years ago. No way am I going to stand in a line for 20 mins, just so they can keep half the registers shut and save of wages.

[cherry*135]

The supermarket would probably prefer to sell cigarettes from a normal checkout, it is the law not their choice to have to sell them from one special counter only.

At least the person buying cigarettes is usually only buying 1 item, not a whole basket full... 

Customers at the service desk who want to buy mobiles or credit/data and don't know exactly what they want drive me nutty... they dribble on and on and on.

[bella_again]

Do you know its never really bothered me.  I think all the major supermarket and our local foodworks do the same thing.  I agree re the checkout issues with Woolies, there are never enough open and they don't tend to be so quick to open them.  My local coles on the other hand seems to be more on the ball with that.  Maybe its to do with the management of each supermarket as some seem to be better than others.