How to avoid being that customer staff can’t stand. 

Japanese convenience stores, or “konbini” as they’re known in Japan, are wonderful little places where you can print your own photo postcards, purchase sakura cakes, and try out Final Fantasy chicken nuggets, any time of the day or night.

While there’s a lot of love in Japan for the konbini, things can look a little different from the other side of the counter. Like any job, working at a convenience store isn’t always smooth sailing, and Japanese artist and Twitter user @kimuti_X is bringing this issue to everyone’s attention with a tweet that shows “Four behaviours disliked by convenience store employees“.

So what are the four things that get on the nerves of a convenience store clerk?

First up, in the image on the top left, we have the customer who shows a barcode to the clerk without saying anything.

Having a barcode on your smartphone for the clerk to scan makes cashless payments easy, but that’s no excuse to not say “onegai shimasu” (“please”) and arigatou gozaimasu” (“thank you”) during the transaction.

The second annoying behaviour is when customers request something by just using its generic name.

▼ You mean you can’t read my mind and just instinctively know what I mean?

The example @kimuti_X gives for this one is when a customer requests a “Cafe au Lait“, without providing any other details for the request, like what size they would like. The vaguer the request, the more questions have to be asked, so it’s best to be more specific in order to get exactly what you want. Staff aren’t mind readers, after all.

The third type of annoying customer is the one who loses it if you ask them to repeat what they said.

There can often be door chimes and cooker alarms going off in the store, and some customers speak quietly and under their breath, so if you’re asked to repeat yourself, there’s no need to blow up at the staff and take it out on them.

The final annoying thing that customers do is run back to get something else from a shelf mid-transaction.

▼ “Chotto matte kudasai!” (“One moment, please!”)

Once a staff member begins ringing up your items, the transaction can’t be simply put on hold at the register, which means the clerk has to stand there and endure death stares from other customers waiting in line until you return.

The tweet from @kimuti_X quickly went viral, earning over 50,000 likes and 12,000 retweets, with konbini clerks nodding their heads in agreement at these annoying customer behaviours.

So next time you’re at a Japanese convenience store, you might want to keep these points in mind to avoid aggravating the people who work there. And don’t forget to brush up on these six ways to avoid looking like an idiot while you’re shopping there too.

Source: Jin
Featured image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2, 3, 4)
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