Some good suggestions in this thread. And there's always the "Hope you found everything you needed?" with the question mark on the end so that they can chime in if they didn't (though that may just be Southern-speak, I'm not sure).
Nice idea, but it nevertheless got me thinking. Just out of interest, what should a member of supermarket staff do if the person said, "Nope. Couldn't find the cat food anywhere"?
Should they:
a) say, "Oh, dear, what a shame. Better luck next time," or
b) say, "Hold on a mo, I'll just rush off and find you some. Which brand would you like?"
If they go for 'a', they'd be considered rude and unhelpful by the person they're talking to. If they go for 'b' the rest of the queue will be annoyed because they'll be holding them up! Seems to me that this is a lose/lose situation!
Then again, I've been curious for a while about this thread.
Qex, why do your managers think you need to interact with the customers, anyway? Maybe this is a cultural thing / regional thing, but I thought supermarkets were moving towards speed and productivity rather than out and out friendliness. In other words, I thought that at least some of the chains were putting emphasis on getting people through the checkouts as quickly as possible.
As for which I prefer... I would probably say that I usually want speed and efficiency over chat. For me, as a customer, my preference would be for a brief 'Hello, how are you today?' without any real expectation of a reply... especially if I'm in a monstrously huge supermarket, doing a monster shop.
Having said that, I do end up exchanging a few friendly words in our small, local supermarket... but then everyone expects to talk to everyone here!
Chris
