I spent a good portion of the 1990s working with employers in food retailing. One of the conventional “wisdoms” was that young clerks always worked faster than their older colleagues.
I suspect that that is part of the reason that there has always been such a bias in the industry for hiring young people. Yet the more I stood at the front end of supermarkets and observed what was going on, the more I realized that checking and bagging food was more about outcome than speed.
Younger checkers and baggers moved with haste and productivity, almost seeming to be in a race with the clock. While they would greet each customer, this greeting for most was perfunctory at best. There was almost a production line mentality to it, as if they were getting paid by the number of customers they would process in an hour.
The older checkers were different. Most greeted each customer with eye contact and a smile. A good percentage took the time to kid around for a few seconds or at least make conversation. In a number of instances, I noticed that the customer was obviously familiar with the person behind the check stand and in some cases had chosen that line when purchasing their groceries.
It was obvious that the older checkers were not as productive as their younger brethren, but the quality of contact seemed to make up for that, at least for some customers. Considering that the average family spends somewhere north of $5000 per year on groceries, one has to wonder where the balance should be between speed and outcome.
In these stressful times, with do-it-yourself check stands, there is obviously a portion of the customer base that wants to get in and out of the store with speed and anonymity. At the same time, there is still a good portion of the population that enjoys the contact and personal care that has been normally associated with supermarket checkouts.
This phenomenon, of course, is not limited to food retailing. In many ways, it is not the result of a distinct difference between young and older service providers. But you have to ask how well you understand the desires of your customer base when it comes to the balance between speed and service.