Cashier Reactions

One sort-of-social interaction that I've come to enjoy is the process of taking groceries through a checkout line rather than using self-checkout machines. One reason for this is that I'm not confident in my ability to correctly identify and weigh fruits and vegetables, but in some of the more isolated periods of my life, talking to a cashier has been a nice social jolt without the trouble of engaging in a full conversation.

Cashiers, I hear, have a very monotonous job, and it seems that if they've been in that line of work for any length of time, they've seen enough to not be surprised by any customer purchases. For the most part, I've found this to be true. When I was going through checkout one day with at least a dozen microwave meals, I was worried that the cashier would make a snarky comment or at least non-verbally judge my life situation. I got no such reaction. When I was going through checkout one day with ten or eleven bottles of grape juice (about 5 gallons total), I hoped that the cashier would be interested, or at least raise an eyebrow. No interest was forthcoming. In my quest for a cashier reaction, I should have, of course, observed the old stories and known that the moment would come when it was least looked for.

Today, I was doing pest control in a relatively remote suburb and went to the nearest grocery store for my lunch break. I had, in fact, packed a lunch, but I needed to find a restroom, and a grocery store is as good a place as any. I was on my way out of the store when I thought that it would be rude to use the facilities without buying something, so I looked around for a good snack.

It was by these events that I approached the checkout counter with a single banana. The cashier not only smiled, but laughed; "Just one banana?" I was pretty happy myself, and I got my debit card ready for a transaction that would surely incur more processing fees than the banana was worth. The cashier laughed again when she saw that my total charge was 18 cents. It's difficult to find something cheaper than that at a grocery store--a smaller banana, perhaps, but nothing else comes to mind.

In any case, I have rarely had such a dynamic exchange with a cashier. When she waved goodbye with an "Enjoy your banana," I even remembered to say "Thanks, have a good day" instead of "Thanks, you too." The moral of this story is ambiguous, but I am happy to learn that cashiers are not all impassive.