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The Checkout Girl
 
 

The Checkout Girl [Kindle Edition]

Tazeen Ahmad
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)

Print List Price: £10.99
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Product Description

Review

‘A unique portrait of modern Britain.’
Daily Mail

‘There is a new form of misery lit out there – and it goes bip!’ The Sunday Times

Product Description

How much do you know about what really goes on at your local supermarket?

We see them every week and they are privy to some of our most intimate secrets - those we wouldn't even share with our closest friends. To us they are the anonymous helpers for whom nothing is too much trouble. But for them, every customer has a part in a gripping soap-opera of lovers' tiffs, family feuds and extraordinary innuendos - turning the daily life of a checkout girl into a hilariously entertaining farce.
As we began to contend with the recession, Tazeen Ahmad realised that the supermarket checkout was the perfect place to gauge how the nation was coping with increasing job cuts, sky-high food prices and a billion pound hole in our economy. The answer, it turns out, was with white bread, ice cream and lots and lots of potatoes.
Sworn at, flirted with and at the receiving end of endless customer rants, The Checkout Girl is the deliciously gossipy memoir of life on the supermarket conveyor belt where each one of us has unwittingly had a walk-on part. Reading her story will change the way you shop forever.


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Tazeen Ahmad
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Spot on! 4 Nov 2009
By Dobbins
Format:Paperback
I have been working as a COG at Sainsbury's for 7 months and when I stumbled across this book by absolute chance I was intrigued. Tazeen Ahmad gets life at Sainsbury's spot on - I know all about MCM, "reverse shopping", closed checkout signs and having to work beyond the end of my shift! If I'd written down all of my experiences from the past 7 months then I probably could have written a similar book - but I haven't and this book more than makes up for it. I have however started to jot down the daft questions that I get asked and humorous anecdotes that only working with the great British public can provide. But more often that not the public treat staff (or Colleagues as Sainsbury's calls them) like worthless crap and hopefully this book will get that message across. It's not an easy job and being stuck on a checkout for a 9 hour shift is not fun by any means, especially on the dreaded basket only tills!

Highly recommended.
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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By Damaskcat TOP 50 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The author took a job at Sainsbury's to help her own finances and found out what a checkout girl (COG) is really thinking when she's scanning your shopping. She spent 6 months in the job and the book describes her experiences during that time. The pleasant customers and the obnoxious ones as well as the feeling of team spirit and camaraderie which is unexpectedly there amongst the staff. They have a good manager and they all try and do their best for him.

The author notices how the recession alters the people who shop and the people who work at the store. People made redundant from high powered jobs find themselves shelf stacking or working the tills. Not all COGs are people who left school with no qualifications and some people even do the job because they enjoy it.

I enjoy reading books about people's jobs and thoroughly enjoyed this one as it's written in an easy chatty style. You won't approach your supermarket shopping in quite the same way when you've read this book. I recommend it.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
True to life 22 Aug 2009
Format:Paperback
I really enjoyed this book. It gave me an insight into what it's really like to sit on the other side of the conveyor belt! The fact it is written as the recession bites, people lose their jobs, and others tighten their belts, makes it like a snapshot of modern British history! True to life, it has its moments where you laugh at the job; share stories with those you come into contact with; try to make a little difference to those who are trying to get by; and wonder about those people who never seem to smile! You also start to question why "is the customer is always right"? Recommended!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A remarkable book about the unremarkable
I won't bore you with writing about the many of the good things said about this book by other reviewers. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Road Rocket
A must for all Shoppers
A must read for anyone who is a regular shopper in any supermaket. Yes it is like a diary and can be the same thing day after day, but that's what most lives are like and it is... Read more
Published 2 months ago by C. Anderson
The COG's that keep everything (not just the conveyer belt) in motion
This is an undercover expose of the authors time spent working on a frontline as a checkout girl (otherwise known as COG - a most fitting term, since these underpaid employees are... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ms. J. M. Austin
Check it out
I enjoyed this book very much indeed and read it in pretty much one sitting. I've been a checkout girl for the Co-operative and I've got to say that much of what I read here was... Read more
Published 2 months ago by V G Harwood
Super Cure For Insomnia
I absolutely agree with the reviewers who mentioned the repetitive nature of this book & that it should have been nothing more than an article in a magazine. Read more
Published 2 months ago by mrs julie d watt
I've checked out
This may well be an insight into the world of Supermarket COGs, but after reading the the first few days/chapters they all blured into one. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Anthony V
factual book & good read
i could relate this book to my experiences being an avid user of the store in question! an interesting and different sort of read.
Published 3 months ago by Sue F
An Interesting Read....
I was eager to read this book as I work in retail myself and am always amazed at some of the things customers say and do. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Rebecca Thompson
the checkout girl
i purchased this book in january 2012 after receiving a kindle for xmas, as i too work in a supermarket i found it both true and amusing, and enjoyed it thoroughly, as another... Read more
Published 4 months ago by angeline1
Learned something new!
I found this book interesting and I learned about the everyday experience of those hardworking checkout operators. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Artbrom
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