After they ordered and the girl was making the subs, another worker showed up and I payed for the order, then went to wander and look for a snack to buy for the rest of the trip. I picked something and went to the other register (not the one in the subway) and didn't see anyone there, then realized I hadn't seen a non-subway employee the entire 10 minutes we'd been in there. I saw a sign that read "Please pay at subway register" and assumed they were on a break or had gone home, then went to pay at the subway.
I handed her my chips and she gave me a look and informed me she couldn't ring me out here. I asked about the other register and she offered to try to find someone, but I didn't want to wait at the moment (I wanted to eat with my family) so I said no thanks and put the chips back and went to eat.
After I finished, I noticed a guy was sitting behind the other register talking on the phone. I got excited about my chips again, and decided to run out to my car and grab my coffee mug to fill that up too. So I grab my mug, fill it, grab the chips, and head to the register. They guy is still on the phone. He is not speaking english, so I can't understand him, but his tone doesn't suggest a business call (even though it is the store phone). I stand for a minute to give him time to wrap it up, but he keeps talking. I say "excuse me" and he rolls his eyes, says something to the person on the phone, and puts it on the counter to ring me out. If I hadn't had coffee in my cup, I think I would have just walked out of there.
The guy on the phone reminded me of the time I went into a cooking store with my boyfriend to buy knives. We were looking and saw that some were on sale and had some questions. Nobody had offered to help, but there were only two people, and one was at the register so I didn't expect him to leave. There was another girl, though, and she was standing behind the register area in an apron and name tag (clearly an employee) but was just to busy to help us as she was LICKING AN ICE CREAM CONE. I have been working retail since high school and I have never worked somewhere that allowed you to have food on the sales floor, even a bottle of water. I had thought this unfair then until I realized how disgusting and unprofessional this was, not to mention possibility of ruining merchandise. If she was on break, she should take off her name tag and sit out on the benches outside the store or go to a break room. You don't stay on the floor! If we are too dumb to remove our name tag while on break, its our too bad and we have to help the customer.
I went back to the same store later to buy a present and was at the register being helped when the guy ringing me out had his cell go off. Whoops! I thought he would turn it off, apologize, and continue, but what did he do? "Hey dude whats up?!? Naw, just hangin' at work, you know...." I never go into that store anymore.