I can see the stress at check-out, but after 30 years in the US and watching cashiers and customers moving at a glacial pace, I appreciate the speed in Germany these days :)

About the customer service: I think the reason for that is that, as you have probably noticed, Germans often like to keep their distance to pretty much anyone. So they don't want to be approached and bothered in the shops, they don't want people to come up to them and tell them what they could buy or follow them around the store or something. I'm German and I would absolutely hate that. So I think that is why it's not really a thing here, that's too close😂 I once read a report that they tried to open a Walmart in Germany but it didn't work because the German workers refused to do the things in customer service normal in for example the U.S., menaing greeting people at the door and stuff. So German workers already didn't want to do that and the customers hated it too so the store was closed again😂

The life expectancy in New Zealand is higher than in Germany, so we hurry in the supermarket, we don't have that much time :-)

Checkout at supermarket is so easy and time saving ! You need to know the rules. On purpose the space after the cash register is kept small. Never PACK your stuff here, use your empty shopping cart to put all stuff back into the cart. When ready and payed move over to the packing tables for proper packing into YOUR bags or move to parking lot if you came by car.

The limited choice of fresh produce is mainly a thing of discounter supermarkets. In Edeka and Rewe they usually have lots and lots of fruits and veggies.

Groceries flying on the floor in the checkout process? I've yet to experience that here in Germany.

I tell it so often on expat videos: checkouts in Germany are NOT MEANT TO BAG YOUR STUFF ! Put them back in the cart and leave ! Checkouts are boring so don't waste your and our time ! Customer service is nearly nonexistent in Germany. On the one side it saves money for the shop (meh) but on the other hand you can shop in peace without being harassed by over friendly service teams only wanting your best (your money!)

Regarding smoking: I am American and lived in Germany 35 years ago. I was the only non German playing in our local village band. At my first rehearsal, we were given a 10 minute break to rest, drink a beer, etc. A 16 yr old girl was sitting next to me and offered me a cigarette. I said no thank you. She then offered to teach me how to smoke. I think I was the only person not smoking, so she assumed I didn’t know how. 😂 I made so many new friends. I tried to speak my broken German with them and they wanted to practice their beautiful English with me. They were so kind and helpful for the 6 years I played with them. I miss them all.

Regarding customer service, I am not entirely sure which points specifically she means, very long checkout lines are definitely not nice. However, when it comes to getting advice e.g. for shoes you might want to buy, you have to actively check for a salesperson because it is considered rude or at least very annoying to address strangers out of the blue, and customers in your store are not necessarily an exception. (Unless they look really lost or are looking around, possibly in search for a salesperson.) People usually want to check what's offered for themselves and considering things in peace unless they have a specific question or want a specific thing they can't find. I can see how this looks very cold and distant to a person from a different country but I'd not say this means the customer service is bad: It just means it's more suitable for general local behaviour. (Apart from this, stores are chronically short on staff, so there might simply be a lack of people working at the store at any given moment.

Hello. But you can also see the cash register differently. I go crazy when I'm somewhere, where the cashier is lame, because then you stand in line longer. And the solution now is not simply to hire more staff and open more cash registers , because that would increase the prices with increased personnel costs. Now the question arises which is better? In my eyes the fast cashier.

As far as check out is concerned, I got used to the speed so much, so when I am visiting my family in Poland, I "caught" myself getting annoyed that the cashiers are so slow🙈

About the smoking, when I went to NZ first time (as backpacking German) in the early 90ies there were already strong non-smoking rules in place and it helped me to start at least to reduce how much I smoked. And also in Australia there were strict policies and many anti smoking campaigns. This made the culture around smoking change an I too ended up quitting about 10 years ago.

Just look at your Mom's proud eyes - she really loves you and your Kiwi-German family unlimetedly!!!! She should be awarded with German citizenship of honour. Your Mom's soooo sweet!!!!!! ❤❤❤

Well, I must admit that I would be extremly annoyed if the cassier at the supermarket wanted to engage me into any conversation whatever. I‘m always happy when it‘s over and done…:-) Same in clothing shops. I hate it when an assistant rushes to me asking unnecessary questions. 🤪

I am not organised but I don't have any problems at the supermarket tills. The cashier handles one item at a time, so I pick up two at a time and keep up that way. In our small town there is never a long wait for the tills.

Lol....I'll never understand the problem with the checkout everyone is complaining about. Why don´t you just put all the grocerys back into the shopping cart and pack them away later. 🤷‍♀

We live in the US and we just returned from Germany. I totally agree with the poor customer service. I have experienced cashiers, bank tellers etc. just to talk to each other and let the customer wait. On the other hand I have to say I have not had the stress at the Supermarkets that you describe. We did a lot of food shopping in different areas, mostly in the city of Nuremberg but also up north in Schleswig Holstein. We noticed that the cashiers were very fast but they were mindful of our slow bagging. They just pushed our groceries to the end and even helped putting them back in the cart. Over all we had very nice and helpful supermarket cashiers. I hope it is the exception that groceries are thrown on the floor. That really sounds terrible! Glad your mom still has a good time.

i think smoking is just more visible. Here in the US outdoor smoking is banned in many places, so people literally sit in their cars smoking, or they only smoke at home. So the rate in germany is not that much higher, but visibility is. Land of the free means: smoke where we can't see you....

Don't forget that the pandemic had cost a lot of jobs which are not coming back. There is a shortage of employees everywhere, especially in service.

Interesting. I was surprised that the difference in the percentage of smokers really isn't that big of a difference. If you listen to expats you get the feeling 80% of Germans would be smokers, which I always found strange, as I don't encounter many smokers. In fact I only know 2 people who smoke. So this makes a lot more sense to me now. I am concerned, where do you shop that the cashier is throwing the food at you and it will fall to the ground? I agree that sometimes it gets a bit hectic, but I have NEVER experienced anything like what you describe. Small produce section and huge amounts of processed meats? I am now really curious, where does this happen, where do you shop? This is contrary to what I experience. Why don't you use the self-checkout if there is only one check-out open? We do this all the time, it's easy, and it is your speed and there are usually not many people in the line. (And this is not just a "young people"-thing, I am in my sixties and I do this all the time). By the way, if you want more staff, prices will rise. Not sure if that is the outcome you expect? You realize that personnel cost in Germany is a lot higher than for example in the US with minimal wage? I am not sure how this is in NZ, but curious to find out. Because that may very well be a big factor in why there is "less customer service" in Germany. Also in the US I know that a lot of the staff are college kids, whereas in Germany it is usually 100% employees eligible for benefits etc. And last but not least there is the service industry problem that definitely got a boost during covid . Many employees went on to different jobs and now it's hard to find people willing to work in the service industry.

An der Kasse im Supermarkt ist es nicht so stressig, wenn Du alles in den Einkaufswagen legst. Es geht schnell und Du kannst Dir dann einen Ort suchen, wo Du in Ruhe einpacken kannst.

My tip for paying at the checkout: I always put vegetables and fruit last at the checkout. The cashier needs a little more time for weighing and typing. You already have a few seconds more time to put things in the shopping cart

At the checkout you must be organized. Always put the goods on the conveyor in the order you would like to pack them. Then the speed is no problem. As others have written, when they still typed the prices -- the ladies at ALDI were the fastest, They also typed the prices as fast as they could identify the products on the conveyor belt "a meter away". Nowadays they are slow, because they have to move every single piece by hand across the scanner.

On the subject of smoking, I completely agree with your mother. But there is hope, because the number of smokers is decreasing every year. Unlike your mother, however, I love it when I don't have staff by my side all the time when I'm shopping. When I was still living in Germany, it was often too much 'help'' for me. As far as the prices are concerned, I would like to have the German prices here (Finland).

It is true: Germans do eat quite a lot of processed meat and deli meats. And since many specialized butcher shops have closed over recent years, much of that is now bought at supermarkets. But you shouldn't estimate the amounts of vegetables and fruits eaten here from what you see people put in their carts at the supermarkets. In my experience, most Germans would never buy those products at a supermarket, but rather at an open-air market, at a specialized fruit-and-vegetable shop, or directly at a farm shop (Hofladen).

You still see those cigarette machines at every corner? I live in Berlin and I hardly ever come across one. Seriously I come across one outside of a store like once a year at most probably. I agree with you on the prices. Prices for basically everyone have gone up extremely, especially since the start of the war in Ukraine. I guess the speed of the cashiers at the discount stores has to do with them being timed. From what I heard they have to serve a certain amount of customers per hour or something like that.

You have to visit thd austrian Supermarkt Hofer (Aldi). Thats busy there compared to german supermarkets.

I’m from the uk but in Germany at the moment, I have noticed a lot more people smoke here, while in the uk vaping is sort of the “cool” thing now. Also cigarettes are about €8 here from what I have seen in the vending machines (which is also very odd for someone from the uk where they do not exist) cigarettes in the uk are about £12 so they are reasonably cheaper here.

If you shop at the cheapest grocery store like Aldi, Lidl, Penny, Netto, etc. you get the time is money treatment. If you want the slow treatment go to the more expensive markets.

May be, we Northern Germans are not only the happiest ' tribe' in this country, we have more " Gelassenheit", we are more relaxed. Such big problems in supermarkets we have perhaps around Christmas or Easter,but not daily. Fresh food, fruits and vegetables, I think, you find in all discounters, if needed, meat you can buy in supermarkets or at the butcher's. Germans without Wurst?. Rarely, so there more and more vegetarians and vegans. Cost of living is very high, we know why. Corona,Ukraine a and energy costs and the industry who wants to earn too much. Smoking: I gave it up 4 years ago, I don't feel much better, but it is ok, that in most places smoking is forbidden.

First, shop with a cart. At the cashier just put everything back in your cart and sort things out later, after you paid. Second, as long as you don't pay, the cashier has to wait, giving you time to organise and pack.

I started smoking when I was 13-14 and quit when I was 22. At that time you could legally smoke at the age of 16 and it cost 4€. And the machines didn't have an age test, but I also grew a beard quite early and could buy it in the kiosk and was never asked if I was old enough. Today it's all more complicated. Today I only smoke rarely green plants.

In New Zealand many people grow their own veges. I remember how incredibly expensive tomatoes always were in Kiwiland. We grew our own in Canterbury - the season was very short, but the sun-ripened tomatoes on hot buttered toast delicious. A leg of lamb used to do us for about five days from the Sunday roast to the Shepherds's pie made with the leftover lamb later in the week. Germans are very attached to their meat. It is historical - the German climate was (not anymore) cool to cold; not much grew excepts potatoes and gruenkohl so meat especially pork (processed, smoked etc) saw everyone through the winter. All supermarkets, anywhere, are impersonal, industrial-like places. I see how old people, here in Germany, go to the supermarket to get their only social encounter of the day. it is distressing to see them treated so impersonally when they are longing for just a few minutes of social interchange.

Moin, das Problem mit dem Verhalten an Supermarktkassen lässt sich ganz einfach erklären. Schon seit Jahren werden diese Kassenbereiche von den Unternehmen so konstruiert, dass wir Kunden ohne es zu merken dazu "erzogen" werden, die Sachen so schnell wie möglich in den Einkaufswagen zu schieben und den Kassenbereich dann zu verlassen. Es gab einmal vor Jahren eine Dokumentation über dieses Thema, in der ein Hersteller solcher Kassenbänder erzählte, dass eine Fläche entlang des Bandes extra sehr schmal konstruiert werden sollte, nur damit der Kunde nicht auf die Idee kommt, diese als Ablagefläche für seine Artikel zu verwenden und evtl. dadurch die schnelle Abfertigung der Kunden zu verzögern. Natürlich alles aus Gründen der Gewinnmaximierung.

I haven't shopped at a German supermarket in decades so I don't know if checkout is faster or slower than in Belgium, but here in Belgium they are very fast too. Here a lot of supermarkets there's also a self scan area where you scan your own groceries and put them away at your own pace. In the supermarket where I do most of my shopping I haven't been through regular checkout in years, I just like to self scan my groceries. Here in Belgium we also have few employees in shops walking the floor. That is because we don't like to be "harassed" while shopping. I'm already annoyed when they come up to me and ask me if they can help. If I want help, I'll come and ask. In some smaller shops (that aren't part of chains) I've had employees/shop owners come to me and ask if I needed help. When I said "No, thank you, I'm just looking around." I expect the person to answer something like "ok, but let me know if you need any help" and the walk away. But in some shops the person just follows you around and starts suggesting items to you. That drives me crazy and to me that is enough reason to immediately leave the shop and never return. To me the ideal shopping experience is that the employee/owner says hello from a distance when you enter, I say hello back and that is it. And if I want help or have a question I'll go up to them.

Prices have exploded here but slowly I am seeing them go down. Meat has definitely reduced in the last two weeks. Milch is going down but cream and mozzarella not yet. Still my family in the US pay more. I have learned to love the check outs. I hate slow. I have everything bagged and have my card out to tap before the last item is scanned. I hate grocery shopping in the US now. It takes forever and I don’t care if they look at me strangely when I start packing my own groceries. I’m faster and do it better after living here a while. I have noticed that people eat much less meat than they did 23 years ago when I first came here. Still meats play a major role. For us meats are a small portion of our meals.

But more staff also means higher prices.

Cigarettes are also locked away in German super markets, but mostly stored directly at the checkout. Sometimes the cage stays open however after some customer asked for open it until the cashier has time to close it again. And all cigarette vending machines demand since 2007 some type of electronically readable id (EU driver's license, German identity card or the GeldKarte, a now deprecated stored-value electronic cash card system which provided also age information). You'll see more smokers in public in European countries (not only Germany) than in many other developed countries because smoking in public as not as frowned upon here. 4:40 if it was tiny, it was still a baby chicken and should therefore not be sold as "organic chicken". A real chicken has at least 1.5 kg (if it is a small one), and if it is organic you'd pay up to 10, maybe now 12 Euro per kg on a local farmer's market. In my experience prices in conventional supermarkets have risen far more than those at farmer's markets (but they did rise also, at least for most products) or even at organic supermarkets. 6:45 That is one of the reasons why I tend to avoid purchasing at big supermarkets and especially at discounter supermarkets. If you go however at times when there is less of a rush, cashiers at some of the big chains (except of the discounters) can also calm down a bit and give you more time. 7:40 I think that depends largely on the place (and sometimes the time as well) you go to. Discounters will generally have a smaller choice of fresh vegetables, and with Edeka and Rewe the difference between markets within the same chain can be huge, because those are mainly franchising-like systems, and the local shop owners can add fresh vegetables from local suppliers (which would then vary largely by season) or limit themselves to the goods supplied by their regional distribution center.

I can absolutely understand your mom's complaint about the clothes stores in Germany. In particular those chains such as Zara and others save money with the staff. Few employees at the least possible salary, and their motivation is the least criteria for their work. In my town (Munich), I know only one shop where I always get decent service, and when it is necessary, they have their own tailors to fit the size for a small extra fee. They have only on shop and no affiliations, and it is not extra cheap, but they have faithful customers. I do not buy anywhere else.

thanks for good critic please moor.

What’s the legal minimum hourly pay rate in NZ?

@7:59 If you need help, you get help, otherwise they leave you alone. That is how should be.😊👍 @9:00 Yes, first come, first served. That is perfectly fine and logical. Anything else creates more problems. Why should someone who is almost at the cashier be entitled to be first in next line and at what position? It is a new line. Why should someone be entitled to any position?

as a german - your Mum is an intelligent person!

Well, the smokers aren' t sooo different: In G it is 18%, in NZ it is 12%. Not really far away from each...

❤

life expectancy in NZ and GE are about similar. NZ fights smoking, but doesnt increase population health...

Well for good customer service staff/Personal is needed, and this is expensive. Inflation as seen in these years has its reason in fuel prices, thats caused by the Ukraine war.😑

food prices are ridiculous the last few month.

I'm used to be rushed at the check out, but for me it's stressfull too and I hate it. The problem is that the cashier will be held responsible for beeing slow.

Yeah, way too many smokers here. But it was a lot worse... Checkout is simply: Time is expensive! But there are more and more with self-checkout where you can do it at the speed you want, and you usually have no waiting line. Customer Service: Jep, quite true, called "Servicewüste" aka service-desert. There are those which offer good customer service, luckily including supermarkets in my local area as well.

I would so so hate the slow new zealand checkout. I don't want to chat and don't want to wait. I really appreciate the "german" or western europe checkout speed. In some supermarkets the cashiers get timed on their speed. They absolutly have to be that fast, so don't blame them if you don't like it.

checkout at the mall here in georgia can be SUPER slow as well. One person and 20 people waiting, and the one cashier is working at snails pace. Friendly perhaps, but SLOOOOWWWW. customer service here in the US is not what it used to be.

Well, food must be really cheap in New Zealand. Food in Germany is generally much cheaper than here in the US, at least healthy food, such as vegetables.

Regarding the meat section: In my experience, fruits and vegetables get restocked far more frequently. There are like 50 different types of sausages alone people might want, but only like 6 types of lettuce counting the organic options. So the cold cuts just sit there while veggies rotate. ALSO, common vegetables just get frozen immediately to preserve them as well as possible. You'll find them in 1L bags in the frozen section.

I love it how she thinks german check out is too fast while we germans complain about checkouts the world over as "Unbelievable slow, in that time you could built a house with a german Baugenehmigung!"... ;-) But joking aside i just realized how cool the NZ-accent is, i really like that (yeah, i'm a bit of an accentophile)...

Customer service is not existent in Germany. So right!

I totally agree to your first point. In principle, cigarettes are the only items in Germany that are available 24/7. I can't believe why vending machines for cigarettes are still allowed. Regarding the 5th point: During the last years it became more difficult for restaurants, shops and others to get enough personell. That leads to longer queues, changing opening hours etc.

i could mention now many things but its not worth it. your mom is a very lovely lady and should enjoy the stay here. i can understand the shocks she gets but thats just how it works here. for example, i am absolute pleased with the customer service here, i do not need someone arround me all the time just in case i have a question. if i do i contact them by myself. for germans its annoying the kind of service they provide she likes. and about the smoking, just compare the numbers you just provided with the ammount of ppl living in the country. how many ppl live in NZ? so its absolute normal that you will see more smoking ppl here. greetings

The food prices shocked me in this. They seem to be about the same as USA without All the benefit’s of German Citizens Health Care System and Vacation Days off!!

Liebe Antoinette, ich wollte einfach mal Danke sagen dafür das du uns immer mit deinen Videos so gut unterhälst! 🙂👍

I think , New Zealand is still behind in many thinks. And the yust slow,

So, in the grocery stores in Germany, it could be that you are the only one in line with your groceries, and the cashier would still go that fast? That's so confusing lol, why is it done this way? It's just groceries....

15 for an organic chicken is not expensive! I do not know what people expect from farmers that do everything they can to raise organic healthy chickens ... keep in mind, if it's 15, they get half of that at the most, if lucky. It has to be processed, packaged, delivered, etc. etc. so I would not have a problem whatsoever to spend 20 or 25 ... I'd simply eat less often, less meat! Also, inflation is not a culture shock, it's a world wide phenomena ...

Sadly, the smoking rate is on the rise again. I am not sure as to why. It had been sinking for ~2 decades and the world was already through quite a bunch of crises before the pandemic, so I do not think it can (solely) be explained by people feeling unsafe.

I would have loved to visit New Zealand but when you really have such an anti-smoking sociaty there, I'm not so sure any more...

We ar Had Not so Problems hier in süd-west German.

You are right. - smoking is very acknoledged toda in austria (where i come from) and germany. if you have a problem with cigarettes and smoke under your nose, you are the unsocial part and not the reckless smoker is. - shops: true. checkouts are too fast, but you have to learn to stand your ground, as it takes some time to pack it all away and it is not my problem, that there is a lack of space for the stuff. furthermore i really do take my time for paying cash. I sure see the inpatient looks, when i take out my purse. but you have to ignore. - processed food: true. we eat that a lot and I love it. but it is not healthy. - prices: yes, fueling wars in the east costs our money and brings money to corrupt criminals. sad. we are forced to pay for such nonsense.

Throwing the products at the checkout is horrible, I couldn't agree more...! and smoking - disgusting as well!

Checking out goods should become an olympic sport.😀 Hello Antoinette, thank you for this video.

1. Criticizing the smoking is a good thing in my eyes. Should be much louder.. 2. And yes, the food prices are high because of the war. But 15 Euros for a bio-chicken is not much - think about it, it's a whole animal, raised in good conditions. What would you pay for a pet guinea pig? More than that I'm sure. I believe the life of a chicken is worth more than 15 €. 3. I don't find the checkouts too fast. Of course you need to be organized, but I hate to wait forever, so this is a good thing. 4. I don't know what sort of supermarket you go to, but in mine the fruit and vegetable section ist much larger than the "salami" area. 😆 (That's usually just one shelf, but greens have several. Still the selection is a bit boring compared to other countries, too many nice fruit don't grow here. 5. Let me get this straight, you guys want slower cashiers, but faster checkouts..? 😄Hmm. But yes, sometimes at H&M paying takes a long time, even if they have like 4 cashiers - there are too many customers, and the company doesn't pay too well, so they are often short on staff. I agree that the race towards newly opened sheckouts is a bad habit; I try to be fair and let the people in front of me go first. But I do not agree that the customer service should be better - it may be bad but that's exactly how I like it. Leave me alone and please don't offer help, I hate that.

I totaly agree with you (or your mother) on the customer service and especially on the cashier speed! (I actually think they are correlated.) In Japan they are also VERY fast. But there they have a very customer friendly system: They don't have a conveyor belt but you just put your shopping basket to one side of the cashier - they scan the items - put them into another shopping basket on the other side - you pay and take the full shopping basket to one of the benches/desks right behind the cashiers and you can pack in peace. They just take "your" shopping basket and place them behind the cashiers for the next customer. I've always thought this was so much better thought through. Because in this way it doesn't depend on the customers' speed but on the cashiers'. I'm not that old - at least not as old as most would think "Oh she is old. Let's take it a bit slower." But I have a condition which makes my right arm/hand tremble especially when under stress. So my hand starts trembling whenever I'm trying to get coins or my card out of the wallet and let them fall down (or sometimes even fly high in the air) and/or some of the stuff I'm trying to put into my bag. Which makes it even more time consuming than if they had adjusted to my speed of packing. So even if Germany doesn't pick up Japan's way of doing it the German cashiers could at least try to adjust their speed to their customer. That's how I think anyway. Your video shows yet again how respectful and thoughtful you are towards different way of handling things. And I admire you for that. Keep up the good work you are doing and the positive vibes you are spreading!😊I really enjoy them.

Yes the check out can be stressful that's right. But don't makes stressful, let take your time what u need. If the Cashier stopped and get angry, it's sometimes good to tell them that they shall give time. If it not works then say it harsh. Sometimes they will understanding that u mean it seriously that u need more time.

deine Mutti hat mit allem recht 🤷‍♂

Let's be real for a second here: The prices are exploding here because of The War, yes, it might not be too polite or too politicised to mention this in polite conversation with your (from all we've seen *super* nice) mother, but that's the cruel truth. Ukraine is a *huge* agricultural produce exporter right on the EU's border. It's one of the reasons that the EU (and I for one, not to get too political) hopes for a swift Ukrainian victory as a condicio sine qua non to stabilize the Union. That and the little fact that if they loose this war not only produce will *really* get expensive really fast but we will be fighting this war on the fields of Poland and in the mountains of Romania ten years down the road... and yes, this *is* a politicized statement. I don't mean to be a spoilsport and if you feel this I'm really sorry, but this is the elephant in the room all over Europe currently and the reason why a lot of habits and opinions have substantially changed all over the continent faster than we would have experienced without a symmetrical war right on our border that also happens to be a proxy war to the maximum and more substantially than the Yugoslav Succession Wars in the 90s *this* truly is *the End of the Long Peace* because it involves *The Powers* and *that* ripples effects down to the banal things of everyday life. Best regards Raoul G. Kunz

I'm German and I also hate the speed at the checkouts. What is the point of the employee at the checkout trying for a speed world record in scanning your items when you as the customer just can't keep up.

On the contrary, it is often common practice to let shoppers go first without a shopping car and to exercise patience, which often results in nice chats between those waiting and the cashiers, especially if you shop there regularly! Maybe it's a bit different in some hectic and loveless big cities, but you usually only cause yourself stress if you're stupid enough to let yourself be rushed!

Das Problem mit der Supermarkt-Kasse läßt sich ganz einfach lösen, indem man sein Sachen ganz langsam einräumt und erst dann bezahlt, wenn man damit fertig ist. Auf diese Weise kann der Kassierer keinen anderen Kunden abkassieren und man hat alle Zeit der Welt, seinen Einkauf in aller Ruhe zu beenden!

I'm German and I hate the checkout at the supermarket. I don't understand why they can't make the space behind the checkout bigger, just like at some stores (dm for example). That way you can pack your things in peace. But all the discounters, like Lidl or Aldi have tiny spaces behind the checkout and it tends to be super stressful.

Smoking people shock me, too. They usually do neither consider other people nor the nature.

Complaining about bad customer service and long waiting before checkout and at the same time moaning about the high speed checkouts?.... Well....

If someone has never worked at a check-out themselves or as a shop assistant in general (and it doesn't matter in what country), they shouldn't complain about anything in retail because maybe they want to do the job themselves instead, well, go ahead, job vacancies are probably everywhere. I did both, check-out and shop assistant and there are loads and loads of stories of customers misbehaving I could talk about. These jobs are so ungrateful to do. I would never want to do either job again because whatever you do, it's wrong. As staff you can only loose. You greet the customer in the morning with a friendly "Good morning" and you get a grumbly answer "I only want to buy my newspaper, don't speak to me!". Well, if you don't greet the next customer, he probably will be cross because you didn't greet him. If you work slowly at the check-out, it's too slow for some people and they start complaining about waiting in the queue so long. If you work too quickly, oh my goodness, then people complain about the check-out process being so stressful. Whatever you do as staff, someone will be complaining! That's probably why shops don't find enough staff these days because working there is not nice in general because customers are never happy. So, my advice: If you think the check-out is too quick, well then just talk to the check-out staff and ask them to do it more slowly so you get more time to put your items into your bags. Communication is important. I do that and I don't have problems. Of course I always put all the items in the right order on the conveyor belt anyway so I can put them into the bag in the right order with the heaviest items first and the lighter ones later on top. I don't want to wait longer in a queue than necessary so I'm fine with staff working quickly. But as a customer you need to think ahead as well and be a bit organised to help the process. That's all. And most shops these days have self check-outs. Everybody who wants to do everything extra slow can go there and take their time. It's everybody's choice where to shop and what the experience will be like. - I wish we had much much higher prices for cigarettes in Germany, I hate all that smoking going on. And only 22%. Hard to believe, feels more like 50 %. At least where I live. The government should raise the prices to triple the price, then maybe people would finally stop because they don't want to pay so much. Money might be a reason to stop, if they don't listen to how unhealthy it is.

I always put my things away with great peace of mind, while I advise the cashier to take a quick breath, which she then does and gratefully reaches for her drink bottle. Fast cashing is taught to them and also controlled by the system, but the time to grant is not limited in any way! It is a big mistake of our foreign guests, that they are forced to concede as soon as they are registered!

When you listen to the GREEN, Frau Göring-Eckert, richness means now, more of less.

I am a smoker but i am no criminal or some kind of a jerk. I dont get why people are annoyed by seeing me smoking even when there is nobody nearby. I mean, are you annoyed when you see fat people because they eat unhealthy food ?

3:10 *Food prices:* So the _culture shock_ is, that there is no difference? 🤔 1:22 *Smokers* are so enjoying here in Germany. It's public consumption of drugs and it's bothering and harming the clean people.

Wer sich hetzen läßt ist selber schuld! - Ich kaufte und kaufe regelmäßig in verschiedenen Filialen von Aldi, Norma und Liedl ein und bin überall auf ruhige, höfliche, verständnisvolle und freundliche Verkäufer und Kunden gestoßen und habe mir auch immer viel Zeit und Muße für das Einräumen meiner Waren gelassen, ohne je ein böses Wort oder einen unfreundlichen Blick bemerkt zu haben. Im Gegenteil es ist vielfach üblich, Käufer ohne Einkaufwagen den Vortritt zu lassen und sich selbst in Geduld zu üben, wobei sich auch öfters nette Plaudereien zwischen den Wartenden und den Kassierern ergeben, insbesondere wenn man regelmäßig dort einkauft! - Vielleicht ist das in manchen hektischen und lieblosen Großstädten etwas anders sein, aber Streß macht man sich doch meist immer nur selber, wenn man so dumm ist sich hetzten zu lassen!

Ich kann deine Mutter gut verstehen, vorallem das mit dem schnellen kassieren an der Kasse, das ist auch für uns zu schnell

New Zealand's fairly ridiculous crusade on cigarettes is beyond my comprehension. Yes it's unhealthy but so are other consumer items too that aren't targeted. Does it really infringe anyone's liberty if someone smokes? And to demonize one entire group of people sounds very problematic to me, especially keeping in mind that it becomes illegal for future generations. I think no government should be allowed to fully regulate its citizens' choices even if they might be the wrong choices. Let people make their own choices

the smoking disgusts me myself as German. so annoying you cannot sit in a beer garden without getting covered in fumes. I hope the laws were a lot stricter on this.

When a new cashier opens and people come rushing from behind, I always feel ashamed about this german behaviour.

The easy way to solve the Supermarket-Checkout-Problem is to slowly put your Stuff away and only pay when you're done with it. That Way, the Cashier can't charge another Customer and you have all Time of the World to finish your Shopping in Peace!

At point 2 I would be honest: If the prices for food would be growing the german politicians would be hang at the next traficlight. I hope your mom get it like it is.