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Checkout: A Life on the Tills
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Customer Reviews:
Very fun read
I love reading books written by people who share their experiences while working at a particular job. Checkout by Anna Sam is exactly this type of book.
I am always amazed at all the behind the scenes "goings on" in a particular job or field. I mean, I see people working in the supermarket every day and, to be honest, never really gave alot of thought to all that goes behind making a "good cashier". Its like I go to the store and miraculously "poof" someone is there to help me. So, I absolutely loved reading about the stuff that goes on that the average customer never gets to see, hear or experience.
Author Anna Sam does a fine job of telling us, without too many boring details, the finer (and less fine) ins and outs of working on the checkout counter. She is very witty and each experience is written with a healthy dose of dry humor which works perfectly with the stories she is sharing.
The only thing I had a bit of an issue with is the non-continuation of the storyline. Sam jumps from one experience to the next without much of a set up and it always took me a few seconds to get into the next story (or chapter) - still, this proved to be a funny, entertaining and oh my god! I will look at my supermarket people totally differently from now on - type of read.
Thoughtful insight into the realities of retail
Anna Sam knows the tough reality of life behind at the tills. She has clearly experienced the lows but manages to communicate those lows in a style that renders them interesting rather than whiny. Stylistically, the writing structure can be a bit off-putting if you don't give it a chance, and I have real sympathy for those reviewers unable to get under that to the heart of the thing. Do persevere, it is well worth it as the insights into a life almost all of us play a supporting role to are fascinating (there are 4m retail workers in the UK and all the rest of us go out and shop). Read it with an open-mind and you will find yourself becoming that bit more patient when it comes to paying for your stuff in the supermarket and that's no bad thing.
The one gripe I have is the publisher's heavy-handed attempt to localise the content - French retail conventions are twisted a bit to fit UK ones. It's at its most jarring when talk of Euros and Cents is shoehorned into Pounds and Pence. We're not thick, we know Sam is French and that she worked in the French retail system - no need to patronise us with this unnecessary localisation.
I would also recommend that every retail manager has a read of Checkout too - you'll learn much about how not to treat your staff, you will become a better manager. For the flip-side to life in the supermarket, also read the excellent 'Shelf Life' by Simon Parke.
Unique insights into an everyday experience 
It was fun reading the inside story on working in superstores in Anna Sam's book Checkout. If ever there was a lightweight holiday read this is it, but it also worth reading as a snapshot of something in daily life we take for granted - the visit to the supermarket till.
Anna Sam worked for eight years in a Leclerc superstore in Rennes as a check-out operator (a job which she amusingly describes as "beepeuse" in her interview with the Daily Telegraph). With her degree in French literature, Anna Sam was never going to be content with sitting at the till year in year out, and when she cottoned on to the power of the Internet, she launched her blog, Les Tribulations d'une Cassiere, which became an instant success.
Book deals and possible film offers followed with the result that Anna Sam is no longer a beepeuse, showing once again the power of the Internet to catapult people into prominence.
Enough of the background. Checkout is a humorous but also rather humbling account of the experience of dealing with customers - people like you and me who have to shop and try to keep the experience as quick and efficient as possible, often ignoring the real people who work in our local stores. Customers continue mobile phone conversations while packing their bags. They sneeze over the operator. They belittle the staff in front of their children ("if you don't work hard at school you will end up in a job like this").
The check-out operator has to handle an unremitting stream of packages passing on their conveyor while dealing with people who are downright stupid and often unacceptably rude. The chirpy "good morning" and the friendly smiles are compulsory behaviours enforced by the company, and employees are generally denied any way of responding to behaviour which would be not allowed anywhere else.
Anna Sam describes all the different types of customer and the reader may cringe at recognising themselves. There are the people who start snarling when there is a hold-up ahead of them. The people who always complain about the lack of free bags. The impatient ones who can't bear to take a moment longer at the checkout than is absolutely necessary and the people who linger in the store right up to closing time. The people who open a bag of crisps to eat a few then put the bag on the conveyor so it empties its contents on the belt. The smelly customers, and those who hide their money in strange places about their person then hand it to you still warm from their bodies - supermarkets are dirty places!
This is not a "literary" read, but its worth a look. I was left thinking that it should be compulsory reading for shoppers as a reminder that we really can't treat other people as robots. Shop-workers have the most unenviable of jobs and suffer long hours and low pay. If Anna Tam reminds us that there are real people working in supermarkets she will have done a good job
IT WAS OK AND DONT BUY IT FULL PRICE 
This is my first review and unfortunately its not a completely posititve one. Book was funny in some places but mostly dull, too thin and not that great value for money. I bought this based on a review in the paper and it sounded brilliant. Finished it within half a day. Its now in the charity shop. Would give it a miss and go for something more exciting. 1 star rating.
Lost in Translation
No! Just no!
When you translate something, it has to be stylistacally correct as well as factually accurate.
There are many nuances which have been omitted because, it seems, this was tranlated word for word. Any comical effect, tongue in cheek moments, or lucid insights are quite literally lost in translation.
What was probably quite amusing in French, is in English terrible. I even started reading in an accent to see if that helped. It didn't.
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