The Student Room Group

Operating a till

A lot of places I want to try and apply for say that you need previous experience (one place requires that you've worked in retail for at least 6 months, so that one is out!) and the thing is, I have absolutely no experience at all of working a till. The other stuff, like stocking shelves etc I don't think would be problematic in the slightest, and I probably wouldn't hate it as I enjoy tidying... anywhos, the lack of till experience, I don't think going to work in any busy shop is a good idea because I have no idea what to do. Do the employers take this into account and do you get training? How hard is it when you have it cracked + how long does it take to get to grips with working a till in a busy place?
If they are asking for someone with experience then they are lazy. A good business will provide you with training. I worked in retail (unsing a till) for 2 years. And all I had was a 3hr training session. You get used to it after a while.
Reply 2
Working a till is no issue at all - anywhere will give you training. Tills are different everywhere anyway, so it's not as if you don't need training if you've worked somewhere else anyway. As long as you're generally numerate then it's not an issue.

Asking for experience is usually more to do with being used to dealing with customers and so on - these are the sorts of skills that develop over time. Many stores know that people who've not worked in a shop before tend not to be especially good at it, so they ask for people with experience.

I don't call that laziness, as long as it's accompanied by good training - employers are perfectly entitled to choose who they think is best for the job, and there's absolutely no moral or ethical reason why they shouldn't. Of course this means that getting experience can sometimes be difficult, but plenty of places will still employ people without experience, it just takes a bit of perseverence.
Reply 3
Every till system varies slightly anyway, so i guess you'd stil need some refresher type training if you had already had till experience. Working a till is really easy, i got shown all tesco's till functions in an hour or two and then was supervised whilst using one for another hour. After that i was on my own, its relativley easy to pick up.
Reply 4
It's pretty easy to pick up, I promise you after about two shifts it will become as easy as ABC.
I work at a newsagents, and my training consisted of "Right. If you can work on Saturday (aka busiest day of the week) you can shadow Julie and she'll teach you the ropes" and basically just learning as I went along. I'm still learning how to do new stuff sometimes (although not with the tills!).
Because every till is different, at my interview, Jim just said "The fact that you haven't worked in retail before makes it easier as you'll be able to learn from scratch our way."
Most businesses should provide you with some form of training, at different levels of formality.
I had a 15min training session...they arent that hard the machine does most of the work 4 u
Reply 6
Still apply to those companies that demand retail experience. They are trying to make themselves look better than what they are

A till is actually very easy to operate and I was quickly off within about 5 minutes.

Really you use 5% of a tills functions 99% of the time. Only when a customer wants to cancel something that you scanned through at the start or requests something rare is when the fun really starts

Nowadays it is very simple with most till operators only dealing with card, cash and vouchers (with Cheques getting the boot).

Oh and if a place sells alcohol, many dont like under 18's on the till (Morrisons demands that you are 17 and if you are, you have to have the confirmation of another operator who is 18 plus)
Reply 7
in co op it teaches you pratically!!!

and age related sales need an older operator to confirm it.
Reply 8
till workings is straight forward, at my current job i had 3hours till training and thats it, its pretty straightforward.

but retail experience is needed coz if its a company with reputation they want people who they know can sell. most places say it is "desirable" so as to not infringe on any equal opps laws, but usually the most expeirenced will get the job.
Reply 9
Even if you had worked a till before you would still need to be trained because different shops have different till systems. They are quite easy to get the hang of, I could work one in my sleep now so please don't worry!
they should give you training! although i worked for a place which gave me no training, and there was a bunch of scary customers looking to me to assist them. it wast terrifying. lol. :frown: so i quit...

i'm applying at mcdonalds now(kill me) but they should give me training hopefully and it will be, um, okay.
Reply 11
Every till is different, so experience with tills shouldn't really matter, you would need to be trained anyway....
well i started at asda properly on saturday and i was shown how to work the till for like 45 minutes then i had to go it alone....including REFUNDS which if anyone has work at asda you will no how complicated they are with all the cancel , enter , cancel and price overide buttons that u have to press for each item!!

it seems so hard when someone first shows you but 2 hours in i was fine doing normal transctions and doing o.k with refunds but i still needed a bit of help.

second day today ...hopefully i get to use the tills as i hate putting stock out...its boring lol!

My advise is just say how quickly and willing you are to learn etc etc, :smile:
You were doing refunds on your first day? As in people bringing stuff back after theyve bought it and then you taking money out the till?
Reply 14
1hundredreasons
You were doing refunds on your first day? As in people bringing stuff back after theyve bought it and then you taking money out the till?

you make it sound like a big thing. At Selfridges i did cashing up on my own on my first day and i'm only a sales assistant haha!
i didnt even get any till-training. i just watched someone else do it for an hour. lol.
Reply 16
thing is, all tills are different. i work in Morrisons on the kiosk, & have covered shifts in the petrol station a couple of times (did one tonight actually!) & the 2 systems are totally different & thats within the same store!

basically the only reason they want experience is cos they want people who're used to dealing with customers, which is definitely something that takes a while to build up. in my first week working, i was practically in tears on 2 separate occasions due to customers being downright rude to me (ok, i made a mistake - but hey, i was new, & i had a sign on my checkout stating that!). now i've developed a bit of a "screw you" type attitude, there's no way i'd let a customer get me to that stage these days!