Working as a cashier is simultaneously one of the most boring and most interesting jobs there is. Long periods of monotonous ringing up items interspersed with interesting/frustrating/entertaining customers.
After working the job for a while, most folks stop noticing the actual items they are ringing up. Sometimes the combo of items, or the behavior of the customer, is just so bizarre that you can't help but notice.
Reddit user u/LordZozzy asked:
20.
I once had a guy come through my register in a hurry with nothing but a pack of condoms... I'm usually on guard with this sort of thing and say something like" thank you, see you again"... nope. This night I said "bye, have a good night!" We then made eye contact and both laughed.
The other one was a girl, must have been about 15 or 16, came in dressed in her school uniform and purchased a pregnancy test. I then saw her go straight down the corridor to the bathrooms... about half an hour later I saw her run out in tears... I'm thinking that was NOT good news...
19.
I work at a hardware store, with house charge accounts for local businesses. Lawncare, the local city departments, some home/repair companies, etc.
We have a local funeral home with an account and I'm starting to wonder if they are just buying stuff to mess with me.
One week it was about 6 pairs of pliers, and 4 50ft garden hoses.
One week it was insulation, plaster, and 6 canvas drop cloths. They returned the insulation.
They also use discretion and never give the name of the funeral home, just the phone number. I know them now, so I just punch in the account name before they even start.
Also had a local hair stylist come in and buy 12 pair of needle nose pliers for the salon she works for, and order 12 more pair to be delivered. Like...what the heck are you guys doing with all those pliers at the hair salon????
18.
i was a cashier. not by the items but how they handle their items. the paper in plastic double bag with the "please pack them light" with $600 worth of groceries combo is the worst kind of person
17.
When I was a cashier at Little Caesars a customer came in on the phone saying something like "Okay hun I'm at the pizza place. Since 20 kids and their parents came to the bday party I was thinking like 5 or 6 pizzas. Sound good? Okay loveyoubye". But when he moved his phone from his face he didn't hang up and the screen was very clearly on the home screen the whole time. He ordered made some small talk about too many people, paid, and then left. The only judgement I made was pity because he must be a very lonely dude, that really loved pizza but didn't want to be judged for buying so many for just him. Other than that the only people I "judged" by their purchases were the super fryed stoners that couldn't decide between cheese and pepperoni, and only because it took them forever to choose.
16.
I used to work for a sporting goods store that sold tattoo sleeves. Not just any tattoo sleeve.. but specifically the tattoo sleeve of Monta Ellis. So you'd be "wearing" the same tattoos he had. I'm in the Bay Area so this was a while back when he was with the Warriors. We had less than 10 in stock and I did judge the customers that bought them. It was $12.00.
15.
One customer bought like five jars of mayonnaise among other things and my bagger was like "OH I used to love eating mayo right from the jar!"
Her and my bagger then had a 5 minute conversation about the joys of mayonnaise and I just sat there trying to hand this lady her change wondering what plane of existence I had ascended to.
14.
I worked at Taco Bell for a year & a half, most of the time didn't really pay attention to what you ordered. But one time, at 7:30 am on a Saturday, this guy pulled up to the drive thru & ordered a single side of sour cream. When he got to the window he paid with change (obviously, as his total was 35 cents or something). But the weirdest part was he asked for a spork. I still wonder what he was doing.
13.
Worked at a OffBrand Kroger store. Guy would always come in for a can of whiped cream and pop rocks (the candy that fizzles in your mouth) Atleast twice a month.
I always wondered wtf was this about (probably some weird oral act) It was confirmed when a lady started coming in for those 2 items, aparently he got into a wreck bevause i seen him in her passenger seat with crutches in the back.
12.
My first job was as a cashier in a supermarket (this was like 20 years ago though). I never judged people on what they bought, but I would occasionally judge customers for certain other behaviors. There was this one regular who nobody could stand because she would come in early in the day with her magnifying glass, and she would methodically pick up every single item, on every shelf, in every aisle, and read the nutrition facts through her magnifying glass while taking notes in a notebook. It wasn't at all unusual for her to come in at the beginning of your 4 hour shift, and she'd only be maybe 2/3ds of the way through the store when you left.
God help you if she ended up checking out on your register, like I said she kept a note of every item she selected and during check out she would watch like a hawk, and then have a complete freakout/meltdown if an item rang up at literally one cent more than it said on the shelf. Because of this she took like an hour just to check out which killed the soul of that unlucky cashier as well as pissing off all of the other customers by clogging up that line for an unreasonable amount of time.
11.
I make sandwiches, and I definitely judge people who request odd combinations. You want just tomato on a blueberry bagel? Whatever floats your boat, man.
10.
When I was 15 I worked at a DVD store. I wasn't allowed to dust and stock in the adults only section, but only one customer borrowed out from that section anyway.
Small, middle aged man with severe eczema or psoriasis, always wore a blue plastic jacket that made swishing noises when he walked. Quietly came in at 8 AM when nobody else was around, would borrow out whatever the titles were, and quickly depart. Carried a black bag and declined our transparent plastic ones. Back in my day, you had to leave your home for porn.
Even as a 15 year old girl I appreciated he seemed embarrassed and made the transaction as fast as possible. After a year of this, he came in one morning and borrowed out a single DVD.
Finding Nemo.
I guess I couldn't hide my surprise, so he said the only thing he's ever said to me. "I have clown fish, and everybody keeps telling me to watch it."
And that's it, he eventually ran out of titles I guess and stopped coming in. Over a decade later and I still remember the customer who liked MILFs and clownfish.
9.
Dude comes in for a frozen pizza, 6 pack of BL, pint of ben and jerry's and a pack of smokes.
"You getting the wife out of town special tonight?"
"My wife's been out of town for 17 years now"
And that's the last time i used that line.
8.
GiphyWorked cashier for many years when I was younger. The answer is...
No. I don't even notice. I don't notice anything. I don't want to be here. You could be buying gasoline and a lighter and tell me you're lighting someone on fire and I'd be like "Would you like a gift receipt sir"
7.
Worked at a supermarket, dude buys $300 worth of cherries. Cleared out the whole area where we had them. We weren't even having a sale. To this day I still wonder what the hell he needed that many cherries for.
Might have been a DIY liqueur person. You take cherries (or any fruit really), soak them in brandy/whiskey/etc and sugar, leave for a while and have a nice drink for sipping or gifting. All those cherries would make a lot of liqueur, making the per bottle cost reasonable.
6.
For the most part I don't really care as long as they're polite.
There is this one regular who likes to bring a lot of stuff to the registers but only buys 1/3 of it (still spends heaps). She's also pretty rude. I judge the crap out of her.
5.
When I worked at Wawa I'd get the same people buying the same coffee, breakfast and pack of cigarettes everyday. But there was this old mailman that bought a bundle of tootsie pops instead of the cigarettes everyday. I'm not sure if he ate them all day or gave them out to kids but he always made me smile. I quit that job and went on to become a mailman myself.
4.
GiphyAlright so I’m working at dollar General, a normal night, but this guy comes in striding with confidence. Greet him with a hello, as I do with customers, but he’s in the zone and forgoes the formalities. He walks straight to the movie rack and grabs a cheesy Kung Fu movie, and walks to the counter, I ring it up and it Costs $5.46. He reach in to his coat pocket and pulled out a bag of nickels and a single penny. A 109 nickels and a single penny for a Kung fu movie called, “Kung Fu masters” or something that looked like it had a 100 dollar budget. I’ve never had more respect for some one in my entire life. He knew what he wanted and he got it.
3.
Not really, only customer that ever really got my attention was a lady who bought a cake that said something along the lines of "We never want to see you again". Previously when I've told this story people have said it couldve been a gag gift but going off of this ladies expression I don't think it was, she showed some real pride when she saw I noticed what was on it
2.
We had a guy come in every week to buy a generic birthday cake. No big, except he was insistent that the cake have a seven day expiration window-essentially meaning it had to be a cake baked fresh that day, which they didn't always have. The bakery people would grumble but whatever. He wouldn't tell anyone why, usually just shrugged but one time he came in upset and didn't buy his usual cake.
He finally spilled his guts to the cashier-his wife had some pretty crippling health issues (Alzheimer's or cancer, I can't remember now) and they would celebrate every day with a piece of cake, like celebrating they were still alive and together. She had gotten sent to the hospital and they wouldn't let him bring her cake. Broke all of our hearts, and the bakery kept fresh cakes for him after that without complaint.
1.
I work in online grocery fulfilment. In short, I shop for people, bag it up and place the items in rolling totes, fridge and freezers. I've seen some weird orders. One of my favorite types to speculate on is when they are 50% organic vegan items and the other half is absolute junk food and meat products.
I always visualize a couple who's polar opposites or a vegan poser who hides their guilty pleasures from their religiously vegan room mates under their bed or in a locked fridge somewhere in the house. These thoughts are all in a funny 90's sitcom style.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.