Checkout: a Life on the Tills

by Anna Sam

Morag Young (Translator)

Can you scan 800 barcodes an hour? Can you smile and say 'thanks' 500 times a day? Do you never need to go to the toilet? Then working at a supermarket checkout could be just the job for you. Anna Sam spent 8 years as a checkout girl. Checkout - A Life on the Tills is a witty look at what it's really like to work in a supermarket: the relentless grind and less-than-perfect working conditions, along with people-watching and encounters with every kind of customer from the bizarre to the downright rude. Sam's story has won her fans all over Europe, turning Checkout - A Life on the Tills into a huge international bestseller, published in 10 languages.

• ISBN13: 9781906040291
• Publish Date: 15 June 2009
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gallic Books
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 182
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

Checkout: A Life on the Tills is the memoir of Anna Sam, who worked in a French supermarket for 8 years. After a while she decided to start a blog telling people about her working days as a check-out girl. (You can see her blog here, it’s in French though: http://caissierenofutur.over-blog.com/). She gained quite a following and ended up with a book deal. Enter: Checkout: A Life on the Tills.

Checkout is a very short book and an incredibly quick read. I read it in under an hour and a half. It has 174 pages and has incredibly short chapters so is perfect as a book to pick up and put down at will. I decided to read it all in one, as I knew I’d plough through it quickly.

Plough through it I did, and I found it was a very interesting read. While it is a memoir it’s also not a memoir. It’s more a book full of witty observations about being a check-out girl but which are, undoubtedly, true and that Anna Sam has herself experienced.

Right from page one I found it a completely enjoyable read. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and Anna’s writing is very sharp and she definitely has a comedic touch. The book is written as if it’s speaking to you: “Congratulations. You’ve finally managed to get an interview and been hired.” and it works very very well.

It gives an interesting insight into the world of a supermarket worker, the good, the bad, and the ugly! I’ll definitely be looking at check-out girls differently from now on! The translation of the book is brilliant (the original version is in French) and there are no translation errors whatsoever so the book flows quite well.

I know this is a short review but there’s only so much you can say about a non-fiction 174 page book! There’s no characters or plot to discuss so I apologise for the shortness. Checkout is well worth a read and believe me, you will never look at a checkout girl in the same way again.