July 14, 2023

Curbside Courtesy

This is my fourth year working curbside at a large, busy grocery store chain. In the previous years, I have seen some extraordinary changes, not so much from the store’s curbside itself, although there have been changes and upgrades there, definitely. But more so, changes in the customers. So much so that it’s led me to write this blog post.

When I first started working curbside, I was quite excited. I could serve others, get exercise (it’s a physical job) and get paid, too. The curbside customers were elderly, or sick and couldn’t make it into the store, house moms for people with special needs, or young moms with a handful of kids. Almost all of the customers were really sweet and appreciative and I loved, LOVED, the job.

Then things changed. Covid hit. Many people who had previously not realized what curbside was, discovered us. Business exploded. A great number of people thought we’d started curbside just for the pandemic, and became worried we would stop after things went back to normal now that they were hooked on the service. Nope, we’ve been here for years already, I told them.

But as business exploded, so did tempers of customers. Now, it’s unusual if I make it through a day without a customer yelling or swearing at me or one of my team members.

Since it is still a relatively new service, here are some tips for both curbside customers as well as in-store customers to make the curbside experience smoother and hopefully more enjoyable (or tolerable) for all.

For curbside customers:

Arrive as close to your designated time slot as you can. Not only do we calculate on how many people we need shopping vs. how many to help retrieve according to how full the time slots are; also, each customer’s order takes up space in our department. If you don’t pick up on time, you are inhibiting our ability to go out and shop other orders because your order is still on the shopping cart. Physically, we have a small department and can’t hold extra orders. We depend on you to pick up on time so we can keep shopping.
If, however, you are running late, please have the courtesy to call and let us know. And while different stores have different policies, it is not our store’s policy to hold orders overnight. We do not have the space, nor do we want to start the new day with the previous day’s orders getting in the way of new orders.

We don’t like to cancel orders; canceling actually costs us extra time and labor. So really, just come pick up your order. On time. Thanks.

If possible, please review your substitutions and items removed before you get to the store. We’re always happy to provide you a substitution, but it’s better if we can do it before you arrive. We are timed on everything. Having to run back into the store to get something adds minutes to our personal time and can affect our performance assessments. We don’t mind getting you the items you want, but it’s better if you can call beforehand so we can correct it before you get there. HOWEVER, know that if you call and we are slammed with retrievals, while our intentions might be good, we might also forget. So do check when you arrive to pick up your order and if we goofed, we can still fix it at the curb.
Additionally, if you do need to call, please let it ring more than three times. Back when phone calls were standard ways to communicate, people usually let the phone ring 6- 8 times to allow someone who was involved with a task the time to stop and go answer the call. Unlike our smartphones, which we usually have on us, the store phones are still landlines and we have to make our way over, often through a crowd of people retrieving orders, to answer the phone.
Speaking of phone, please make sure your contact information is correct on your account. There are times when we try to call you to discuss a substitution with you. Or if you are late and have forgotten your order (it happens more often than you’d think). We need a way to get in touch with you.
As I mentioned previously, we are timed on EVERYTHING, and as we’re only human, with that sort of pressure mistakes are made. We feel as bad as you do. Unless, of course, you are rude to us. Then, don’t be surprised if you get home with very expensive, but broken eggs. (I’m only half-joking here, none of us have ever intentionally messed up an order or dropped eggs, even though the thought might have crossed our mind.) In all seriousness, if we have forgotten an item or if a product is not up to standard, or something got broken on the way home, then give us a call and we will happily correct the issue.
Please take the time to clean out your trunk or the back of your car before you arrive. One of the phrases we all dread hearing is “just put them anywhere” which generally means the car is crammed full of stuff making it harder for us to do our job quickly and efficiently trying to find a place to fit your groceries.
Be prepared to show your ID if you purchased alcohol. This is a rule that we can’t violate so don’t hassle the younger workers because it offends you.
Lastly, please consider we are not your servants, we are providing a service. I suppose this is the litany of every service worker, people treating us like servants instead of as someone providing them a service they did not want to do or are not able to do for themselves.

Really, y’all, many customers are quite sweet, some even give us tips (although it’s not our policy to accept, at least at our store, if you insist, we put our tips in a tip jar and then buy something to benefit our team since it is a team effort to prepare your order), but an increasing number of customers are getting aggressively rude. Which makes it harder for us to motivate ourselves to go to work. And sadly, we have lost good team members. Remember, no one wants to go to work to be abused.

For in-store customers:

Please understand we are shopping for up to 24 customers at a time. Literally hundreds of orders a day. If all those people were in the store, it would be even more crowded than it already is with our big carts that supposedly take up so much room. And for information purposes, our big shopping carts, at least at our store, are no wider than a regular shopping buggy (cart, whatever you want to call it). They are taller yes, about twice as long, but no wider. It isn’t any harder for you to go around us than if we were any other customer.

So instead of being frustrated, be grateful we’re there, keeping even more customers from cramming into the store.

Most importantly, if you can’t manage to hide your frustration, here is one important rule: DO NOT RUN INTO US!

Aside from being an assault, we are people, too, and do not deserve this sort of abuse while doing our job. Although when it happens, and it does happen; hopefully, our shoppers aren’t too timid and will report it quickly enough so you can have a little chat with the store director or a nice police officer before you leave.

And last, do not park in the curbside parking spaces if you do not have a curbside order!! The customers at our store pay extra to pick up their orders; yes, there is an upcharge, although many do not realize it and I have had customers argue this fact with me. Sorry, they pay extra, yes. And while the spaces might look vacant and you’re only going to run in to grab “a couple of things” all of our spaces can fill up within a matter of minutes. When our curbside customers can’t find a parking place, who do you think they yell at? Certainly not you taking up their space, because you’re inside the store.

I’m one of those people who are not usually a fan of change, and even though I work curbside, it is still disconcerting for me to go into another store and see curbside shoppers. But it is what it is and hopefully these tips will give you something to consider and help make your shopping experience better, whether you are a curbside customer or an in-store shopper.