For months now I’ve noticed that whenever I patronize a fast food restaurant, a grocery store, or even a medium brow eatery, I receive what I have come to term as the “look through”. Not sure if it is me or what, but for the entire length of my one on one time with the cashier I get little to no eye contact. And as if that weren’t bad enough, while said cashier is NOT looking at me (yet still maintaining the necessary verbal exchange) he or she makes it a point to “look through” me and eye everything else that is going on at that moment. It’s very frustrating.
At my local Raley’s, for example, I’ll walk up with my grocery items, set them down, say hello, and wait for them to be scanned. During this time the cashier will often times find it necessary to hold a personal conversation with the courtesy clerk about who came in late and who is going to be fired if they keep it up, or even chat with the customer behind me in line. Meanwhile, I’ll stand patiently waiting for my card to authorize feeling like an idiot who doesn’t warrant small talk. When it’s time to leave, and at that moment only, I’ll receive a last minute eye to eye contact wishing me a good day. Off I go.
At Jack’s Urban Eats this weekend I made my way down the awkward cafeteria style assembly line and proceeded to summarize the food items I had ordered along the way. The oh-so cute pre-teen girl working the cash register runs through her list with me. “Would you like a drink with that?” “How about some fries?” “Do you want cash back?” “Can I see your ID?” All the while making sure that things are well in the parking lot, under the counter, and in the kitchen.
I look you dead in the eye, Sacramento, and ask what in the wide wide world of sports is going on here?
The Sac Rag 
It’s better than that fake cheery, “Hi, welcome to Blockbuster!”
I’ll take the one glance over the fake notice ANY day.
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It’s because people have grown so accustomed to non-personal modes of communication (e.g. cell phones, text messaging, blogs, etc.), that their interpersonal skills are virtually non-existent. It’s almost like they’d rather have you IM them your order.
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You people aren’t sexy enough. Grocery clerks can’t take their eyes off me.
Too bad they are all guys…
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P.S. If you want to get the look-through AND get treated like crap by other patrons, just cruise into your establishment of choice looking like you’ve been doing manual labor. Spending time in the field taking photos makes a girl dirty, and in jeans, steel-toed shoes, and orange vest, one might mistake her for a ditch-digger or other laborer (who are the backbones of civilization, by the way.) The Country Day moms and stay-at-home-non-moms at Peet’s are especially caustic and condiment-counter-hoggy to such hard-working folks. **Note: If you go into the Squeeze Inn looking like this, you’ll be treated like family.
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let’s all try something: the minute they stop looking at you, freak out Peter Finch style. “Look at me dammit!!! Look at meeee! I’m a human being!!”
Try this at Jack’s, Bel Air, Wamu, wherever. Sac Rag’s first social experiment.
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I think it’s ADHD. Try wearing one of those flashy rave necklaces. The flashing light might draw some attention so that you can get some satisfaction.
Alternatively, you could just whisper perverted comments during lulls in the order-taking process. That usually gets their attention.
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I always get a personal greeting. But then, maybe it’s because I never eat at home and go to the same six places all the time.
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Sorry to have to admit I was a practicioner of the look-through. I used to be a cashier at The Good Guys on Arden, among other places. The main reason for the look-through is, simple population pressures. So many people! The soul gets in danger of being crushed under the psychic weight. The look-through is sheer self-preservation for service staff. They don’t know they’re doing it. But if you give a friendly ‘hi’, they’ll usually snap out of it.
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