Why Are So Few People Till Trained In Big Stores In Thailand?

[nong38]

All the big chains seem to be well staffed, well over staffed actually but when you get to the checkouts there are only a hand full open, they may have a packer but its a slow process to get out. Why dont they put some of the staff who seem to be watching tv, playing with their phones or just chatting to other employees on the TILL! You sell all you like if there is no money in the till what is the point? To me, perhaps I am alone in thinking this but the end product is getting as much money in the till as quick as possible, yet no one seems to notice or want to do anything about it, anyone feel this frustration? Anyone got any thoughts on why this part of everyday life here?

[BookMan]

Money handling issues?

The greater the number of people handling the cash the greater the risk of loss?

Edited December 6, 2012 by BookMan

[yermanee]

Money handling issues?

The greater the number of people handling the cash the greater the risk of loss?

Indeed, plus training staff is expensive.

Yermanee

[HeijoshinCool]

Last time I was in the States, maybe 70% of the registers were closed in most stores, including around 5 pm in the supermarkets.

[Naam]

any question starting with "why" and contains "thai" is "futhail" !

[IMA_FARANG]

Money handling issues?

The greater the number of people handling the cash the greater the risk of loss?

Indeed, plus training staff is expensive.

Yermanee

Money handling issues?

The greater the number of people handling the cash the greater the risk of loss?

Indeed, plus training staff is expensive.

Yermanee

------------------------------

In many of the department stores in Bangkok (just as an example) what you think you see as store sales staff are actually NOT paid by the store itself.

Let's say, for example that the sales clerk is selling shoes.

He or she is actually being paid by the shoe company NOT the store owner.... the owner being the name on the store.

That shoe section and counter is actually rented from the store by the shoe seller.

When the sales person sells a pair of shoes he or she takes it and the cash to a centralized sales counter where the sale is rung up and the sales clerk then brings back the cash to the customer.

The sales clerk gets a base salary plus a commission from the shoe company for each pair of shoes he or she sells,

That's why what you think is a store sales clerk will simply pay no interest in attempting to sell you an item from another counter or area. If they are selling shoes, and you want to buy underwear, they won't get any profit from you buying that underwear ... it's not their sales counter or area.

Now the store does have store sales staff ,,,, but usually they are far fewer in number than the product sales staff.

And, as a rule, it is the store staff that operate the tills.

Not all department stores operate this way in Thailand, but many do.

One of my Thai girlfriends sister's worked for a few years as a sales person in Central,

She sold perfumes.... but if a customer came to the nearby sales counter to buy a handbag .... my Thai girlfriend's sister wouldn't even talk to that handbag buyer ..... because she got nothing from that handbag sale.

[seasia]

Many of them are till trained but are lazy and would rather take 10 toilet breaks a day, extra breaks to use mobile phone or just wandering around.

Then when management put pressure on them to work harder, they quit.

Staff turnover quite a problem for the big stores.

[h90]

Many of them are till trained but are lazy and would rather take 10 toilet breaks a day, extra breaks to use mobile phone or just wandering around.

Then when management put pressure on them to work harder, they quit.

Staff turnover quite a problem for the big stores.

not only for the big stores...basically for everyone

[trainman34014]

I put a lot of the problems down to piss poor management, starting at the highest level in the company and on down to local store management. Empty shelves in a lot of Supermarkets, staff wandering around aimlessly, no Bakers working during the night to make sure shelves are full in the mornings, indeed, no shelf stackers working during the night in any part of the store either so if you go in early there are many things you can't buy. Don't need a lot of people working till's if there are a lot of empty shelves ! Enquiries to staff are met with a lack of interest and if you ask for a manager they tell you that they won't be in until 'later'.

[exeter]

any question starting with "why" and contains "thai" is "futhail" !

A Borg on the tills might be an advantage!

[exeter]

IM_AFARANG a lot the folks I see around who could be put on the tills in Makro, Tesco or Big C are wearing their unifroms so there has to be another reason, if its cash handling it wouls show up a pattern on cashing up the till and staff would get the boot. Its poor management in that there is never a manager around when you want one and they want easy life, so you/we get a hard one!

On a different note I had 4 staff at the checkout of Global House to help me, well it did not it still took forever and the next customer was being processed before I got my change, modern customer training methods perhaps?

[loong]

any question starting with "why" and contains "thai" is "futhail" !

You are sooooooooooo right.

If you want good service, then go to another country. The chance of finding good service in Thailand is extremely remote.

[pattayadingo]

any question starting with "why" and contains "thai" is "futhail" !

It's the Borg, I tell you. It's the Borg!!!

[cbrer]

Was in retail management in the West.

Skill levels seem on par. There is a number of things they will be required to call a manager for. They see to be the same.

In Thailand the system seems to be better as there are usually more tills open, staff monitoring the lanes and working to keep them short, staff runners employed to get barcodes etc. that aren't on items, and also there's usually one service manager for every five tills open.

So Thailand is far better in this regard. Though all that is due to the difference in 10 Euro p/h minimum wage and 20b p/h minimum wage.

[weegee]

"Are you being Served".... came to mind, while reading this. Bloody good comedy program that one.

[nong38]

any question starting with "why" and contains "thai" is "futhail" !

You are sooooooooooo right.

If you want good service, then go to another country. The chance of finding good service in Thailand is extremely remote.

Thank you for your illuminating words "go to another country.." Not much of an answer to the original post is it?

You are right service standards are not good here. If enough people highlight this, in time it might improve, money might have something to do with it but what about job satisfaction and pride in what you do do they mean nothing? Probably not then.

[allane]

Any foreigner who has been here more than a few days should not have to ask this question. The level of ethics is far lower than it is in the west. Can you imagine how much theft of cash would be happening, if every employee on the floor was allowed to open the till ? Much better to have only one who is allowed to do that. While this is not an excuse for theft, a contributing factor is that store clerks are paid so little, relative to the amount of cash that is in the till.

[nong38]

Any foreigner who has been here more than a few days should not have to ask this question. The level of ethics is far lower than it is in the west. Can you imagine how much theft of cash would be happening, if every employee on the floor was allowed to open the till ? Much better to have only one who is allowed to do that. While this is not an excuse for theft, a contributing factor is that store clerks are paid so little, relative to the amount of cash that is in the till.

All till operators have a number, tills have to be cashed up, problems would surface so I dont accept your idea, unless, of course there is something wrong with the structure of the company which prevents certain practices happening. BIG C and TESCO are European companies which have different ways of operating out here, if the boys from Head Office in Europe came and saw what was going on would they be able to fix it or is part of the deal that you have to operate with certain restrictions and local standards? Yes I noticed it straight away and there is not much I can do about it but it is frustrating when you have been used to better.

[johna]

This is true of Tesco, 7-11, but as the quality of the goods on sale match the service I find it easy to avoid them.

[spidermark]

The service industry is disappearing worldwide. When in the US, it has become very difficult to find service people. So why should Thailand be any different? You want service, walk into a Louis Vuitton store with 50,000 Baht for a purse.

Mike Macarelli

Chaiyaphum, Thailand

Sent from my Samsung SIII

[weegee]

Any foreigner who has been here more than a few days should not have to ask this question. The level of ethics is far lower than it is in the west. Can you imagine how much theft of cash would be happening, if every employee on the floor was allowed to open the till ? Much better to have only one who is allowed to do that. While this is not an excuse for theft, a contributing factor is that store clerks are paid so little, relative to the amount of cash that is in the till.

All till operators have a number, tills have to be cashed up, problems would surface so I dont accept your idea, unless, of course there is something wrong with the structure of the company which prevents certain practices happening. BIG C and TESCO are European companies which have different ways of operating out here, if the boys from Head Office in Europe came and saw what was going on would they be able to fix it or is part of the deal that you have to operate with certain restrictions and local standards? Yes I noticed it straight away and there is not much I can do about it but it is frustrating when you have been used to better.

BIG C and CARFOUR and TESCO in Hatyai are now owned by non Europian companies....I believe that are owned by the Muslem Brotherhood consortium, using money from Middle East. All are now controlled by this consortium. Hense the food on display is changing everyday, slowely removing imported meats.....This happened over twelve months ago.

[exeter]

Any foreigner who has been here more than a few days should not have to ask this question. The level of ethics is far lower than it is in the west. Can you imagine how much theft of cash would be happening, if every employee on the floor was allowed to open the till ? Much better to have only one who is allowed to do that. While this is not an excuse for theft, a contributing factor is that store clerks are paid so little, relative to the amount of cash that is in the till.

All till operators have a number, tills have to be cashed up, problems would surface so I dont accept your idea, unless, of course there is something wrong with the structure of the company which prevents certain practices happening. BIG C and TESCO are European companies which have different ways of operating out here, if the boys from Head Office in Europe came and saw what was going on would they be able to fix it or is part of the deal that you have to operate with certain restrictions and local standards? Yes I noticed it straight away and there is not much I can do about it but it is frustrating when you have been used to better.

BIG C and CARFOUR and TESCO in Hatyai are now owned by non Europian companies....I believe that are owned by the Muslem Brotherhood consortium, using money from Middle East. All are now controlled by this consortium. Hense the food on display is changing everyday, slowely removing imported meats.....This happened over twelve months ago.

Wrong! BIG C is part of the Casino Group (France ). Carrefour sold out to BIG C and Tesco Lotus are part of Tesco UK ( If you want chapter on this one Tesco Lotus was set in Thailand by Simon Turner) he later turned down the opportunity to do the same job in other countries like Russia cant think why.

[weegee]

Any foreigner who has been here more than a few days should not have to ask this question. The level of ethics is far lower than it is in the west. Can you imagine how much theft of cash would be happening, if every employee on the floor was allowed to open the till ? Much better to have only one who is allowed to do that. While this is not an excuse for theft, a contributing factor is that store clerks are paid so little, relative to the amount of cash that is in the till.

All till operators have a number, tills have to be cashed up, problems would surface so I dont accept your idea, unless, of course there is something wrong with the structure of the company which prevents certain practices happening. BIG C and TESCO are European companies which have different ways of operating out here, if the boys from Head Office in Europe came and saw what was going on would they be able to fix it or is part of the deal that you have to operate with certain restrictions and local standards? Yes I noticed it straight away and there is not much I can do about it but it is frustrating when you have been used to better.

BIG C and CARFOUR and TESCO in Hatyai are now owned by non Europian companies....I believe that are owned by the Muslem Brotherhood consortium, using money from Middle East. All are now controlled by this consortium. Hense the food on display is changing everyday, slowely removing imported meats.....This happened over twelve months ago.

Wrong! BIG C is part of the Casino Group (France ). Carrefour sold out to BIG C and Tesco Lotus are part of Tesco UK ( If you want chapter on this one Tesco Lotus was set in Thailand by Simon Turner) he later turned down the opportunity to do the same job in other countries like Russia cant think why.

I stand corrected.....thanks for the info.

[nong38]

Weegee, Tesco Lotus opened up 1998 in a Thai/Tesco UK partnership, set up from Tesco UK by Simon Turner, in 2003 Tesco UK bought the Thai share of the operation, since then it has been totally owned international subsidiary of Tesco PLC, Cheshunt, Herts.

They do seem to make a bit more of an effort here in N/Sawan but they can never tell you what time or day the 80gm bread rolls will be for sale, its a bit of a stumper for them. Buy them when you see them, they are pretty good, for Thailand.

[Potosi]

What irritates me more is that the prices on the shelves and the cashpoint differ in many instances, and it's always lower on the shelf.

[Seismic]

My initial reply was going to be about money and the security thereof, but a couple of posters gave legit responses as to why it would be hard to start fiddling the till. In the end I would have to say high turnover, low trust factor and no real inclination to provide anything resembling a decent customer service experience. Although I must admit, that a couple of jokes in Thai with some of the cuties at checkout has always been appreciated.

[Seismic]

My initial reply was going to be about money and the security thereof, but a couple of posters gave legit responses as to why it would be hard to start fiddling the till. In the end I would have to say high turnover, low trust factor and no real inclination to provide anything resembling a decent customer service experience. Although I must admit, that a couple of jokes in Thai with some of the cuties at checkout has always been appreciated.