Standing at the end of the checkout conveyor, I waited for the cashier to finish scanning our groceries the other day so that I could bag them.   While waiting, I watched the parade of people go by on their way out of the store.

One shopper dropped a wrapper on the floor and continued out the door.  Seconds later, an employee walked by the trash heading towards the Customer Service counter when they stopped, turned, went back and picked the trash off the floor.  Depositing the trash in a nearby bin, he went on about his business.

Many times I have been in stores that had trash on the floor. Common sense says that managers shouldn’t have to train employees to pick up trash when they see it. But apparently they do.  Managers need to communicate how important keeping a store neat and clean is as part of customer service and that it takes little time or effort.  In this case, it couldn’t have taken more than 2 seconds.

(The store was WinCo, an employee owned no-frills grocer.)