I don't expect a lot from the cashiers at the supermarket. I'm not fussy about how they bag the groceries, as long as they don't squish the bread (in fact fewer bags the better). I don't care that they have to look up the PLU code for parsnips, parsley, or persimmons. And I surely don't expect them to know my name. So why then do some supermarkets insist on the cashiers thanking customers by name when they don't even know them. It's torturous for the poor clerk who struggles with the proper pronunciation, and it's torturous for the person who has to listen to their name being butchered.The other day I was at Safeway, and Gus (who had a button on his shirt that said something like, "take pity on me, I'm new) was doing a good job. The line was moving well, scanner was beeping, groceries were being bagged, money was exchanged. Everyone was happy. Then Gus remembers line 15 of the training manual that says he has to thank the customers by name. So, he stares at the loyalty card of the guy in front of me, and after a moment stammers out a name that sounds like a mix of German and Chinese. Realizing that he probably didn't get it right, Gus tries again. This time the name sounds like a cross between Hungarian and Nepalese. The customer smiled and said, "Not really, but thanks."
When I handed Gus my card, he looked at it, and realized he probably shouldn't have skipped his phonetics class. He then offered up..."Mr. Don?" Not quite, but at least he went back to scanning my groceries. Then when he returned my change and card, he just called me, "mister". Which at the end of the day is just easier. Same thing happened yesterday with another Safeway clerk. This time I was called "Mr. Dono".
No, the name is DONOHUE (which in Irish means handsome, intelligent, and charming).
To further illustrate how ridiculous this practice is, a few years ago I was at a store and the clerk looked at my Air Miles card and said, "thank you Mr. Williams." She looked blankly at me when I said, "not really!" What she didn't know, and why should she, was that the card I had was tied to my wife's account, which still had her maiden name on it.
Customers don't expect random clerks in random stores to know their names, so let's just dispense with the nonsense. Better for the customer and better for the poor clerks. A simple, thank you, is all I need.
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Having a hard-to-read surname (and, apparently, first name), I find it really annoying when the Safeway clerks, who don't know me at all, presume to pretend to be my friend by mispronouncing my name. I've spoken to the store managers and written their head office, with the response being that I should suck it up because people like it.
I remember being at some event or other many years ago, and I traded name tags with Ann B. People would come over to shake my hand, pretending to remember me, and their eyes would dart to their name tag and would say "Hi there An....um" and then they would trail off as they realized they'd been pranked and they weren't able to pretend they remembered my name. All good fun of course. - Geoff G.
Hmmm... Safeway is still doing this? I don't know because I stopped shopping there for several reasons (a good many of them political) several years ago and I'm so much happier and eating much, much better now (lost 20 pounds without dieting). The whole store, not just the card is an ode to corporate control and manipulation. I'm sorry to have to admit I was under the spell for a while myself but I do think people keep going to these places because to do otherwise means to come out of the denial and admit they've been duped and played all this time as well (check out "slotting fees" as just one example of how our "choices" are limited).
However, I distinctly remember that Safeway had to back off this particular policy at least for the female cashiers as many of the male customers misinterpreted the forced policy as flirting so were waiting for the girls outside to get off-work. The news was several were raped/assaulted.
And frankly, for female customers it's dangerous to have the cashiers announce our names to the general population (much like video stores and Best Buy/Radio Shack making us recite our phone numbers before we can have our transactions completed).
Personally, when I was still going to Safeway I would just punch my sis-in-law's phone number into the credit card/payment station so they thought I was her and therefore, just another "Miss/Ms/Mrs (always an assumption there and I never liked those designations either) Smith.
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