A cashier is the name of a person who works at the cash register or POS terminal of a retail store, sometimes called the "checkout" or "till". Customers bring any merchandise they wish to buy to the cashier, who will then enter each item into the cash register. In the past, the cashier had to press some keys on a keyboard to do this, but in recent days he or she simply scans a barcode on the product itself using a laser scanner. The cash register then looks up the item in a database stored in a computer to get its price, and add it to the customer's purchase.