Someone Asks Cashiers To Share What Items Make Them Silently Judge People Who Buy Them, 50 Respond

Not me but I was working with him at the time. This kid around 15 years old came in, late, maybe around 11pm. He was trying to buy condoms. The guy who was traing me took the condoms and said get outta here, you shouldn't be doing that! The kid was embarrassed and left. I told the guy, you probably just caused a teenage pregnancy, that boy was doing the right thing and you embarrassed him. I still cant stand that guy.

This was about ten years ago, but the only time I judged someone was also when I lost a little faith in humanity.

Guy in his late twenties comes through the line. Belt is filled with junk food; chips, chocolate, popcorn, candy, etc. The whole time I'm ringing him up he's saying how glad he is to be out of the house, that the baby has a flu or something and hes at his wits end.

Fair enough, I suppose.

I get to the total, tell him, and wouldn't you know, he's short a few dollars. So what does he put back? The only non-juck food item: children's cold and flu medicine.

I still judge that man, and I don't even remember his face.

I remember one that everyone loved to judge and I caught a write up cause I finally told them to stfu. This customer came in 4-5 days a week *right* as the store opened (7am). She always paid cash and more often than not there were tons of singles and the smell of booze and smoke on them. It was plainly apparent she was a stripper, and for many more reasons than her payment method.

I was one of the few "young" cashiers who'd open cause I was stupid and dropped my college courses for work at the time (I did end up graduating eventually). So most of my coworkers that early were the near-retirement-age cashiers who'd basically forced their way into being only on regular daytime hours M-F. Since they were excruciatingly slow and I could run three systems at a time in customer service and still check people out they wanted me there to keep the flow.

Anyway sorry just setting the kind of scene this was. These cashiers would talk SO MUCH S**T every time this poor woman left the store. And thing is she'd be buying formula and diapers, regular stuff for meals and cereal and produce. Like she wasn't even buying booze like half our customers who rolled in that early were wont to do (and either way I *would not care* it's their lives and their money I spent half my check on alcohol too at the time). But because she was a schmex worker she was trash and a horrible mom and all this garbage their judgemental selves kept saying.

Honestly that woman was one of the nicest and respectful customers we had, and eventually she'd learned to always come to my line when I was there in the mornings. I can't remember her name anymore--it's been 20 years and I'm a recovering alcoholic--but I hope she's doing good and her kid grew up happy and healthy. And f**k judgemental a*s cashiers.

Currently working as a cashier and I was reading thru these thinking "what was something I really judged people for?"

Then I remembered this one customer I judged wrongly. Every morning this one guy would bolt into the store, go to the drink aisle, and come out with 5-6 energy drinks. He would come everyday so one day, I made a joke and said: "don't drink them all in one setting."

He then proceeded to tell me that it's to help with his ongoing chemo therapy. Stopped judging people based on their items after that one.

The only time I ever judged someone was when this woman and a kid came up to the register. The woman wanted four cartons of smokes and when her little kid begged for a packet of strawberries, she was told no because they 'couldnt afford it'.

This was back in the early 2010's so cartons were around 80 bucks. So she spent 320 dollars on cigarettes but didnt want to spend 3 dollars on a measly pack of strawberries :(. Addiction is a hellova thing, I tell you what.

When I was 20 and moving in to our first apartment with my now ex- wife, we had a pregnancy "scare" (it wasn't really a scare, we were trying at the time, but I don't know the term you'd use.) So I went to Target to buy a pregnancy test. We also, happened to need hangers, and I prefer wire ones over those cheap plastic ones. So I went through that checkout lane with a pregnancy test and a bunch of wire hangers. The cashier was shooting me daggers and I had no clue why. It wasn't until I told my wife, confused, about it and she started dying laughing that I made the realization of what this cashier must have thought.

Not in itself, but I always side eye parents who’ll buy my weight in booze and cigarettes, but then scream at their kid to put the bottle of juice back

Not to be that guy but people with very overweight young children and buying a whole bunch of candy, soda, and make-shift high calorie heat up foods/meals. I am in no way trying to tell people how to live their lives, but it would always make me sad seeing super overweight kids just getting set up like that.

I was a cashier at a pet store. The main thing i'd judge for was buying way too small of a habitat. Whether it was a gold fish bowl, or a critter trail, i'd be upset. I'd try to use it as a teaching opprotunity when possible but not everyone would listen because "its just a fish/hamster/rabbit/etc".

I was a cashier 20+ years ago. I hated it when people bought frozen kids dinners with food stamps and spent hundreds of dollars on alcohol and cigarettes.

I never judged, but I did notice that if people were buying something they thought was embarrassing they'd also buy some other item. No one bought just a pregnancy test, only a box of condoms, a single tub of lube. No there was always some other item, like a candy bar or bag of chips, as if they were worried I was judging them for buying only the "embarrassing" item. I wasn't, I just found the pattern amusing. I know you didn't come to the store for a candy bar and then thought hey I should grab Plan B while I'm here. I don't care, and if the polite fiction helps you get through the day go for it. But it is amusing.

I once had a guy in his 50s ask me if it was ok to buy his wife a box of hair dye for Mother's Day. I told him it probably wasn't a good idea but he said "Oh well" and bought it anyway. So, yeah, I judged him.

The only time I got judgy was the teenager who was too nervous to buy condoms, so he sent his equally nervous girlfriend into the store to buy them while he paced around outside.

It's like, dude, if you're going to do this, man up and buy your own.

I was a cashier for 3 years, and I can't think of a single thing that anyone bought that I judged them for.

I certainly judged people for their attitudes, for inappropriately asking for a discount, or for various other petty things, but never for the items they were buying.

When I was a teenager a friend and I decided to try and shoot a movie gunfight and wanted to make our own squibs. We read in a magazine that they used condoms filled with fake blood and blew them up with a small explosive charge. We had firecrackers, so off we went to buy condoms.

Two 14-yr old dudes buying a massive box of unlubed condoms? Yeah, boy, we got judged...

I worked at a grocery store for a couple years. An older man probably in his 60's came in, he was with a girl who was in her mid 20's and pregnant. I was ringing them up and he goes hey babe do you need some more cigarette's. He bought her a pack as well as one for him. I usually dont judge people but I judged them.

The double chocolate chip frappuccino for your 4-year-old at 8:32am. You are giving your very small child a chocolate milkshake for breakfast, Karen, just so you can trash your local Target and get 30 seconds of silence and then leave the cup laying down on a shelf, spilling chocolate milk onto a stack of bath towels.

not a cashier, but rather the customer who was judged 😭😂

I decided to buy candy after valentines day since i kno it would be on discount (it usually is). I got like 3 packages of caramel candy and 2 chocolate bars. The cashier looked at the stuff i bought and was like “Didnt your boyfriend get you something or are you buying these for him?” i just stood there awkwardly like “im just buying candy cuz its on a 50% discount… I like being single?” and then the cashier just laughed at me like being single was a bad thing? I mean i dont see being single as a bad thing?

And this kinda caused me to stop buying candy after valentines day.

Pity, which is a judgement of a sort. I am overweight myself, but have a job where I still have to do physical labor and I get by, so while I could stand to lose a few dozen pounds, I am not breathing hard from walking down the block, or anything. When I see people who are at the point where their ankles look like they are about to give out, or that barely fit in the mobility scooter, buying a lot of sweets and not much else, I feel genuinely bad for them. I know how exhausted, out of breath, sore, and sweaty I get when I exercise, which is not often enough, and I can't imagine how terrible it must physically feel to be in that poor of shape. I try not to look down on, or scoff at their choices internally, because we all do what we must to cope with a tough and often cruel world, but man do I feel bad for them.

woman on a scooter with grey skin and on oxygen buying two huge jugs of wine and a carton of cigs.

on one hand, wtf, you trying to die soon?
on the other, if I was a little old lady shut in all day, I'd drink and smoke a lot too.