37°: Traumjob: Kassiererin Vom Lächeln am laufenden Band (ZDF)

Writer and Director: Sibylle Trost

Producer: Brigitta Schübeler

Production: Christine Lachmann

Line producer: Anke Meyer

Executive Producer: Hartmut Klenke

Locations: Berlin, Osnabrück

Broadcast:
ZDF 37°, 10:15 PM, June 16, 2009

Length: 30´

 

 

Content:

Up to 350 customers a day and up to 30 items a minute. This is the workload of the ladies we all see a few times a week. When we’ve had a bad day, still need to pick up a few things from the store after work, and have to deal with a crisis on our mobile phones, they have to deal with our bad mood. A cashier named Evi has come up with her own way of reducing the bad vibes which “happy hour” customers especially tend to send her way. She forcefully says a cheerful “good evening” to each new arrival at her register. “If they are still cheeky, then I’m even nicer than usual,” she says, and this has been her tactic for more than 15 years.

In a mega supermarket in Berlin, the cashiers sit next to each other in a long row wearing the classic, correct German cashier uniform. The loudspeakers spit out same feel-good songs again and again, but underscored by the monotonous “beep-beep” of the scanners, a sound that rings in the cashiers’ ears long after quitting time. What counts is the speed with which the cashiers pass the items over the scanner. Don’t let lines back up; otherwise you can’t take your break on time.

37° accompanies the cashiers in their everyday life. It shows how they deal with the growing demands of their job, and what impact being a cashier has on their self-esteem. This film by Sibylle Trost about the hardworking women at the checkout shows not only how they maintain their dignity and sense of humour despite everything, but also their powers of observation when it comes to the customers. This is a glimpse into a world which the rest of us only know from one side of the register.