Customers reveal their lives while filing through a cashier’s check-out line

Kimberley McGee

Wednesday, April 12, 2000 | 9:45 a.m.

They may know more about you than your neighbors.

Grocery store clerks spend their days at work tallying grocery bills and also taking account of the customers who push their food-laden cart through the check-out stands on a regular basis.

Through the purchases people make, cashiers know when a spouse is out of town or if a baby is on the way. They know a family's eating habits, when someone has the flu, if they're depressed or celebrating a special event.

Adelina Saiz has been ringing up canned goods and fresh produce and placing them into grocery bags at Las Vegas Smith's Food & Drug Centers for 22 years.

Over the years Saiz has worked in three of Las Vegas' Smith's grocery stores, doling out advice to new mothers, sharing recipe secrets, listening to thousands of Las Vegans gab a bit about their days and witnessing her regular customers' babies grow into adulthood and begin to buy their groceries for their own families.

"I like people so I love my job," Saiz said. "Some people just like to tell me about something that happened or something about their kids. It's nice."

The petite mother of three, who turns 60 this year, has seen many changes from behind the Formica check-out stands -- from technology to the maturation of society.

"It's interesting to see what people buy, how they feel," Saiz said.

She started her career at Smith's in August of 1978 when the youngest of her three children began classes at an elementary school.

She proudly points out her two gold rings, one for each decade with the company. The Smith's logo is engraved in bold letters on a black background. One diamond is nestled in the thick ring on her pinky and two diamonds are mounted on the larger ring she wears on the middle finger of her left hand. She has them positioned so that the logo faces the customer as she hands them their bags or takes their money.

A day in the life

Most mornings the store near Nellis and Charleston boulevards is lively with early shoppers -- mothers with children in tow and elderly shoppers who use the store's one-stop-shopping amenities common to most large grocery chains: the pharmacy, dry cleaning and banking.

"It's nice because you don't have to drive to all the different places, get out of your car ... It's all in one place," Saiz said.

The pace picks up again around 3 p.m., she said, when the 9-to-5'ers gather their last-minute dinner items or the fully cooked meal from the deli, which has become a trend in the last 10 years.

"A lot of times you'll check someone out and they will be back, sometimes more than once, because they forgot something for that night's dinner," Saiz said.

The weather dictates what people buy. In the winter it's comfort foods and in the summer something quick and easy. "In the winter you notice, especially when it's cold and when it rains, people buy ice cream," Saiz said, shaking her head. "I don't know why."

The beginning of January also brings a succession of Slim Fast cans, Lean Cuisine frozen entrees and many healthy foods through the check-out line as consumers gear up to fulfill lofty New Year's diet resolutions.

Now that spring has arrived, seasonal fruits such as watermelon and strawberries pack her check-out stand. It's a sign of warmer weather and a change in the customers' buying habits.

"When it's hot people buy easy things like meat to barbecue so they don't have to cook over a hot stove," she said.

Then there are the odd purchases.

Many times a day Saiz rings up themed purchases, such as a myriad of snacks, maybe a cake and some cookies or, for the grown-ups, alcohol, cigarettes and appetizers.

"You wonder about that too, and I always ask 'Are you having a birthday or a movie night?' because people buy food (for) that," Saiz said. "You get to know people like that."

She can tell a man is home alone when he loads his shopping cart with frozen foods or microwave dinners, she said.

"I comment 'Is the wife away?' or 'Are you bacheloring it?' " Saiz said. "They say where the wife or family has gone, how long, why and what they are going to do with their time."

Customers will load their carts with supplies for certain dishes and many times ask for cooking tips from the last person they encounter -- the cashier.

"Being that I'm Hispanic a lot of customers ask me how to cook enchiladas or chicken tacos," Saiz said. She always obliges.

The people factor

Over the years Saiz has noticed that customers' attitudes evolve from complacent to complaining. When she first started in the grocery business she was greeted warmly by customers.

"I can't say people aren't nicer but they are a little cooler," Saiz said. "They just want to get going. You can tell by people's faces and you just say 'Hi! How are you?' and send them on their way, thank them. You look to see what kind of mood they are in. They give vibes."

For instance, Saiz understands when a harried woman with children needs comforting; a man tapping his pencil against his checkbook needs to get home; a young woman with few groceries may just want to talk about her day before going home to the routine of dinner, television and laundry.

"I ask them, if I think I should, how they are doing, what they are making," Saiz said.

The annoyed, irate or impatient customers are given the same shy smile Saiz gives all her customers. But she does marvel at what there is to be so upset about -- it's just food shopping.

"I always wonder what happened," she said. "They must have had a bad day."

Saiz acts as a cheerful guide as customers wind -- or whine -- their way through her check-out stand, prodding them to smile or calming them when they complain.

"It gets hairy at times," Saiz sighs.

A big point of contention is the express lanes with a limited number of items and/or payment options. Although intended to ease the customers' shopping inconveniences such as long lines, they can create tension along the line of shoppers when the system is abused.

"It doesn't really bother me if they have more than 12 (items)," Saiz said. "I know it bothers the customers behind them and that's why I move a little faster."

Although she doesn't point it out, someone behind the miscreant more than likely will huff and puff and blow their top.

"The other customers say something," Saiz said.

People usually profusely apologize and promise they will never do it again, she said. Optimist that she is, Saiz takes their word for it. But she knows there are some who just like to bend the rules (and you know who you are).

Although the window of time Saiz has to talk with her customers is small, she knows all the regulars' family squabbles, triumphs and grievances -- and they know hers.

"It makes it feel like they know I am here, they know I exist," Saiz said.

Through her small role in people's lives, Saiz has witnessed life and death.

A homeless man at the Las Vegas Boulevard and Civic Center Drive Smith's location needed medical assistance when he collapsed in the store. Another man, after lining his food selections on the conveyer belt, fell to the floor at Saiz's station, apparently from lack of insulin.

"We help when we can," Saiz said. "It's a job where you see a lot of different people."

A few years ago a regular customer made morning trips to the Smith's store at Jones Boulevard and U.S. 95 with his 2-year-old grandson. "He always used to get a half-gallon of juice and some sweet rolls for the grandkids because he was sending them off to school," Saiz said.

One morning, he collapsed in an aisle, unbeknownst to anyone in the store. "Who knew how long he was there until somebody went by and saw this person lying there?" she said.

By the time the paramedics arrived it was too late. The grandchild did not make a peep and was taken care of after the family was alerted.

Becoming familiar with the comings and goings of the regular customers makes it all worthwhile, Saiz said.

"There have been a lot of instances when young ladies are expecting and you ask them when they are due and they tell me and then next time (you see them) they have the baby and then (the baby is) 2 or 3 years old and then they are walking and you think 'Oh my God, is this the baby you just had?' " she said. "Time flies!"

Saiz has run into repeat customers from years ago at other Smith's locations. "They find me and say, 'This is where you went to!' " Saiz said. "It's nice they recognize me."

Saiz plans to stay with Smith's until she can no longer ring up, bag groceries and chat the day away with customers.

"As long as I'm healthy I'll keep working," she said. "After that I don't know."

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