CASH COUNTER- MY EXPERIENCE

A tall, well built lady customer, almost five feet nine inch in height, wearing an ‘Abhaya’ (the native robe worn by Arab ladies) covered fully from head to toe approached me. I could only notice her beautiful eyes, with brownish black pupils and beautiful eye brows which were trimmed to perfection, and made up with an eye liner.
Her eyes looked at me and I heard her saying, “Fen Synthiana”.
I could just understand the word “synthiana”, which I assumed is a girl’s name. “Why is she asking for a girl with that name?”
We all knew very well that girls are not allowed to work here. I could not understand what she meant.
All of a sudden a small boy wearing a white ‘Kandura’, the national dress of the Arabs, approached the cash counter, looked at me and said, “Fhi mandil, ana fhi wahid”
I did not understand a single word that he uttered. He looked at me for some time as if waiting for me to act on his command. I assumed that this small boy was making fun of me. I looked at the boy, then the lady, gave a slight nod, as if to show that I understood them, and immediately went to call Vikas.
“Sir, there is a small problem at the cash counter, one lady is asking for a girl named Synthiana and a small Arab boy is talking something in Arabic. I strongly feel he is trying to make fun of me. Please come to the cash counter sir.”
He immediately came at the counter, and approached the small boy. From a distance I could see him conversing with the lady and the boy, and smiling at them. He then gave some tissues to the boy, who took it very happily and then just left the counter after shaking hands with Vikas. I was a bit surprised.
Vikas then came to me and said, “The lady was looking for lingerie and the boy just wanted some tissues” and laughed.
I then realised that “synthiana” means lingerie and “mandil” means tissue paper in Arabic. The first word which I learnt in Arabic and found interesting was “Synthiana”

I personally felt very bad especially after this small incident, and realised the importance of learning the language. Just by perception I could spoil relationships very easily with my customers. I understood that here standing at the cash counter I would be able to understand and learn the language very quickly, which I of course learnt.

I was assigned at the cash counter on that day, and I found it very challenging. Here I came across many customers from other parts of Africa, especially Egypt, Syria, and Sudan. Most of our customers were Egyptians and Europeans. I was very attracted by the cash till, the way the drawer used to pop open automatically after every cash transaction, and by its application. Benedict showed me how to place the currencies in the drawer. The cash drawer had partitions to place the currency notes of various denominations, with clips to hold the same. Apart from this there were two rectangular small partitions to keep coins. I realised that I also had to learn to speak the numbers in Arabic, as I was finding it difficult to exchange currencies with the local customers. What I noticed is that even the customers preferred and felt comfortable when we spoke in their language. One of the customers wanted to pay by credit card. “Benedict sir, can you please help me out with this credit card transaction.”
Benedict was busy arranging all the garments in his section, which he usually does when there are not much customers in his section. He approached the counter, and showed me how to use the credit card machine. Every individual banker had their own credit card swipe machine, with their bank’s name and other informative details embossed on a metal plate fixed on the machine over which the credit card will be placed and swiped across.
Those days in the absence of Electronic Data Capturing machines we had to prepare the credit card pay slips manually and swipe the same across on a manual imprint machine to get it stamped, similar to franking. After filling in the details like the credit card number, the expiry date and the purchase amount on the slip that has been swiped one has to call up the particular bank to get the approval code, which is usually a four digit number, which is then entered in the slip.
Benedict took out a shopping bag, packed the garments neatly, and handed over the bag to one of the customers and said “Shukraan, madam,” (Thankyou) then looked at me and said “You need to check how many garments are there, and accordingly need to pick the right size of bag, you see we save this way also, and also its convenient to customers as well”
Benedict was very particular about each and every activity within the store. I liked his way of working, and got to learn a lot from him.
There were two cash counters only inside the shop and those days these were sufficient enough to handle the customer flow. The main cash counter was besides the lingerie section. Gradually I mastered the cashiering process as well..


It was nearing noon time and there were not many customers on the floor. I was assigned at the lingerie section. One lady customer, a local hurriedly entered the store, came directly towards the lingerie section, looked here and there around the browsers, picked up two panty hose, colour beige and white, and went directly to the cash counter to pay. This also is a part of our routine where we notice customers come, shop for what they want, without wasting much time, and moving out of the store. I assumed this was one such customer. But that day surprisingly this lady customer returned to the store and directly approached the cash counter.
“Phen Mudir, ana phi badal adi synthiana” (where is the manager; I need to exchange these bras?) said the lady in an incensed tone.
“Lesh”? (Why?) , asked the cashier.
“ Aadi katir shagir” (its very small) the lady said pulling out the items from the shopping bag.
Looking at the two pieces of panty-hose the cashier got a bit confused. Those were not “synthiana”. When the cashier tried to explain that there is some confusion, the customer started arguing. She started complaining that the products are damaged and not proper.
Vikas, who was at the ladies section, came immediately to check what the commotion was all about. He realised that the customer had mistook the panty-hose, which were displayed on hangers on a browser, for bras. He immediately apologised to the lady and allowed her to exchange the same.
Once the customer left the store we all had a big laugh looking at the incident that occurred. Vikas then instructed me to remove the panty hoses displayed on the browser and to pack them and display them on a gondola- a display unit with shelves on it. He then told all of us that sometimes we need to learn from our customers.

It was so very true, at-least for me as I really got to learn a lot from my customers. As ladies are not allowed to work in the Kingdom we had to sell lingerie also. Hence I got an advantage of learning the lingerie products also in detail. In the beginning I found it a bit uncomfortable, especially when lady customers approached me. But what I noticed is that these customers looked very normal, as they were accustomed to such a service, and also were more comfortable to speak to us. I got to learn more about these products from the lady customers. It was very exciting for me because I did not know that there was so much to know from this section. Now I am proud to tell that I can train staffs on lingerie products and have also trained many on the same, thanks to BHS- Jamjoom. The kids department was also very exciting as I came across various brands and themes which I had not come across earlier. It is here at BHS-Jamjoom that I learnt in detail about how you display a product, visual merchandising, and importance of retail standards, brand awareness and of course selling. And yes, I also learnt to speak in Arabic.