Cashier Conversations 1.1

--As a cashier you have a limited amount of interaction per person. Most people say "how are you" and some smile. About every 10 or 15 people I get one who will interact and who talks with me.

I will be writing these down, so I don't bore the people I live with to death, and so I can remember that I have good people skills. I make people laugh and smile. I let them leave happy that they came, and they remember me.

1.1 10/2

Grey-haired guy, sipping a drink: "This is water"
Me, flipping things across the register: *nod
Then, I give him a fake suspicious glare: "Are you SURE?"
He laughs: "No, its actually vodka...gin"
Me: *fake look of absolute shock and horror.
---later after a couple more jokes, he was a good-humored person
Him:"...and can I get the senior discount?"
Me, *sarcastically: "No, I don't think you are young enough for that"


Middle-aged guy buying wine. The computer beeps and asks me to put his age in there. I politely ask him his birth date. He rolls his eyes and tells me he is over twice the legal age. I smile apologetically and tell him that the computer requires confirmation. He thinks for a second and asks me if he can be 29. I laugh. "Sure! What year is that?" I ask. He tries to figure it out, but then he just gives me his real age.

Three ladies are shopping together. They each spend more than $50 and the last lady spends over a hundred. They shake their heads and click their tongues over the price of organic produce and supplements. I use this line for the 4th time. I think I will more in the future: "Which is cheaper? Going to the doctor or buying organic?" The last lady took it as the one-liner of the century and repeated it multiple times to each of her friends and they left talking about the cost of doctor's visits.

This guy with a kid, about 5 or 6 was buying a month's worth of groceries. He was even nice enough to bag it for himself. As I key in the produce codes his son looks over and asks if his dad will pay for the two cars he has been playing with. "No," says the father, "we already bought them. We don't need to buy them twice." He packs for a moment and then in a thinking-out-loud voice says "that is the government's job..." I laugh. "I think they actually pay for it twice," I said.
He scoffed, and repeated it to himself. He also totally loved, like the produce ladies, and said it was the truest thing he had heard all day.