How I Broke a Cash Register at Wal-Mart

Of course, it had to be I...accident-prone Suzanne...who broke the cash register. And, it had to be Saturday, one of the busiest days we've had at Wal-Mart in a while...what with the "grand opening" of Toyland, in anticipation of Christmas.

First, let me tell you a little about the register. The keys have a base with a stem that connects them to the keyboard. On top is a sort of cap that holds on the label telling the function of the key. On many registers, some of the more frequently used keys have lost that cap on top, and consequently the name label also; and we have to just know what the key does because of its location.

So, when I logged onto register #3, the busiest register in the store, the first thing I noticed was that the "TOTAL" key was wobbly. I assumed that the cap was loose and pushed down a little too hard, trying to snap it back on. Instead, the whole key broke off, even the stem. Well, that rendered the whole register unusable because the "TOTAL" key is required for each transaction.

The CSM came over and looked at it for a few minutes, trying to see if there was any way to quickly fix it. My customers were standing there staring at us. I was able to complete the sale for the first customer in line, but then I had to move down to the next available register and close down register #3.

Some time between 11pm Saturday and 3:30pm Sunday, someone fixed the register; but I was not assigned to use that one again. I spent most of my shift yesterday on the self-checkout monitor where I wouldn't have to use the register much.