The Functional and the Personal Customer

Abstract

Asked by an interviewer, ‘Could you describe to me how a normal customer behaves? Are there any points of particular importance?’, Mrs Weinlich and Mrs Kowalewski, employees at a discount supermarket, reply:¹

Mrs Kowalewski: ‘What’s there to say? Normal is when everything is put on the conveyor belt, everything goes through the scanner, [we say] ‘hello’ and ‘good-bye’ (Mrs Weinlich: ‘Yeah.’), money is handed over, and then he leaves.’ Mrs Weinlich: ‘He just does his normal shopping. He’s glad when he’s out again, most customers are glad when they’re out again.’ Mrs Kowalewski: ‘That’s right. There’s no talking or laughing out loud or anything like that. It’s only with regu- lar customers that we chat and say ‘well, how nice you’re back again!’ Then we talk to them. But usually the customer is left alone; most cus- tomers want to be left alone. Then we just say ‘hello’ and ‘good-bye’. Mrs Weinlich: ‘And we do the checkout quickly, so they can be out of here as quickly as possible.’ Mrs Kowalewski: ‘So he doesn’t have to wait.’