Why build a supermarket with 20 checkouts with only 3 till staff?

Changi is the opposite end of the scale to Polish Tesco. I would say they have too many staff, always pestering you and asking if you want this or that. It doesn't annoy me as much as sitting looking at loads of different checkouts with no staff while i am waiting in a queue for ages.

As for the car parking thing. Is that not to discourage people just using the car park and not shopping in the shop? You would think they might do a validation scheme that means your fine doesn't count if you have a receipt of over a certain amount. This isn't supermarket sweep!

One of the things I've heard is that the big hypermarkets like Tesco are having trouble being able to hire (and keep) people. Cashiering in a big box store isn't exactly fulfilling or well-paid.

Also unemployment figures are ridiculously overinflated in Poland (just as they're lowballed in western countries) and a lot more people say they want and can't find a job than actually want a job (sound familiar?)

Some months ago there was a long interesting article in Gazeta Wyborcza on how a lot of the cashiers in big stores in Warsaw are shipped in from the countryside (average commuting time 3 hours each way plus a 10 or 12 hour shift). I've even heard of some of the chains shipping in cashiers from Ukraine but crappy Polish foreign labor laws may make that not a paying proposition.

Every damn evening when you want to go get afew munchies or drinks, 3 tills open in the supermarket and everyone of them busy to the eyeballs of people who thought its easier to do a evening shop.....great if you have to wait 15minutes to buy afew cans of coke!

That's what happens if you have a few IQ points less than an average person.

Oh that sounds naughty my dear!


Ouch!

Hi Ted, your a very smart man. welldone.

And you're not a very smart man?


Well done indeed, thank you.

Your intellect far proceeds mine at this point, just look at you go.

Man on FIRE

In some places like Auchan, they have self serve checkouts, which is where I prefer to go. They never try to short change you, and the machine speaks quite nicely :-)

I sailed through the Tesco checkout tonight. They seemed to be better organised this time round. The only thing was when, standing at the checkout, I decided to go and get some sausages. The wifies were gabbling away and one of them pointed out that I was waiting, to which her colleague replied 'niech on czeka, jest tylko obcokrajowcem'. I should've fuc*ed with their heads for doing that but I didn't.

I dont really have a problem with it to be honest. But what does bother me is when theres an issues with one of your items i.e no bar code and it takes for ever for a staff member to get their ass in gear and sort it out. Even so its a finely tuned instrament if you shop correctly theres no surprises at the till and if there is i create fcuking hell over it. Ive gotten loads of stuff free with this attitude.

Walked out with a 3 meter kitchen side once, no payment, it was like thats what you get for messing me around.

Is this situation mentioned by OP general in Poland and in all supermarkets? My only experience is in Kraków, at the Kaufland of Krowodrza Górka and the Alma of Galeria Każimierz. Never had to wait too long there, always a sufficient number of tills on duty.

And this is the problem with you people fro the Isles, you are too polite, even in situations that call for some drastic approach. Next time, seanus, let it go. It really helps. Of course you don't have to strangle those people, but say calmly what you think.


Of course not in all supermarkets, but I would say that it is quite common here in Pl. Unfortunately. The same thing is with the problems with change. It all comes down to the laziness of the people responsible for ordering money before the opening of the store. It's always easier to count the money if the banknotes are of bigger nominal than when they are coins, right?

Seanus is right about the "don't care attitude".

I might try that, Matyjasz, but I like to drift through life spokojnie. Let them think that way, it just lowers my estimation of them. Scots tend to be hospitable people but I wouldn't describe us as polite in shops generally. Not in the stereotypical meaning of polite anyway. The main difference is that there is more contact when buying your things in a shop. Many Poles have this distant arrogance, like they don't care about anything at all. When they say goodbye, it's not done with any emotion or sense of meaning it. I always smile and make eye contact when saying it.

Still, back to the topic. There were occasions in Plus (when it was Plus and not the switchover to Biedronka) that the second til was vacated but it really needed to be manned (or womanned if such a word exists, lol). The key for foreigners (and Poles but many are used to it) is understanding. Even a basic understanding of motivational issues will make it clear why they are not so enthusiastic so there must be some empathy.

That's true, and we have the cheek to criticize you that you are not sincere with your "how do you do's". :)

Ohh, and I was being polite when I said polite. I guess that youz guyz are afraid of confrontations. I guess that you have your social norms that do the trick.

At least that is how the English and Irish are in my experience. Don’t know about the Scots, as I didn’t have the pleasure to meet many. The same is for Welsh, but than again, I wouldn’t recognize a Welsh guy even if I would trample over him. ;)


Well than you are just like me. Or maybe I am just like you? ;)

Generally, if I can ignore it, I ignore it. But when it is something big it's better to react than to think about it the whole day. It's better for our health.

Precisely, people will be as people will be. Maybe we are just like each other? ;)