Sunday, May 31, 2009

Dear Kid At The Grocery Store; Part Two

Reusable bags seem to create their own set of conundrums at the grocery store.

- You can't carry your empty bags around the store to do your shopping because, apparently, when you walk in with them empty, you're sure to fill them and then tell the cashier, "Oh, I had all of this stuff when I got here. I'm only here for this teeny-tiny single serving of cream cheese." So you have to check the empty bags when you walk in. (Don't explain this one to me any of you snotty little shits who feel the need to explain it to me. I get it; I just don't like it.)

-When you empty your handbasket at the register, you have to hand over the oversized hunk of broom-handle that signifies that you have checked stuff. If they gave you a little piece of cardboard with a number on it, I suppose you might steal the little piece of cardboard and just leave the stuff you checked. (Ha, fooled you again, I get a piece of crumpled cardboard and all you get is all the stuff I just bought down the street.)

-The people in line behind you get annoyed while they wait for someone to bring your empty bags and you tell the kid not to load up the plastic bags because you're waiting for the bags the store wouldn't let you walk around the store with. Just wait kid. Wait!

-Then, the kid walks away.

-Then the cashier slides all of your crap to the "paid for" section of the counter and ignores it. As you start loading your own bags (because staring at your groceries doesn't seem to be getting any of them closer to your house), the cashier just starts ringing up the next customer in line and throwing her "paid for" stuff with your "paid for" stuff.

I used to love grocery stores. I thought of them as food-amusement-parks.

I'm growing less amused.

11 comments:

Janiece said...

Hm. My grocery lets me carry my empty bags around the store. Of course, they're always empty when I come in.

Regional difference?

neurondoc said...

Wow. Grocery store run by Nazis? Like Janiece, I mosey around my supermarket with my empty bags and nobody has ever said boo...

That would make me insane.

Random Michelle K said...

Perhaps it's a big city thing. I carry reusable bags around the grocery stores and even the local target.

No one has ever even looked at my sideways for it.

WendyB_09 said...

As I use public transportation, and on any given day I may have a tote bag or two, or small rolling backpack, or suitcase, or a collapsable cart to haul heavy stuff like potting soil or laundry detergent. Usually my empty bags are in my tote bag as well. Call them my grocery-getters.

One store nearby used to try and get me to check the little suitcase. Nothing doing bub, today it is my purse (the holding area was an unsecured rack next to the front door).

Now, I'm sure in that store theft can be a problem, but I'm a middle-aged chik with bad knees and no car...just how far would I get? Escape by taxi?

Anyway, new manager cured a lot of the security problems. Don't have the problem any more.

WendyB_09

Jim Wright said...

I know everybody at my local grocery store. If I showed without reusable bags, they'd probably come to my house and shave my dog or something.

Shit, it's Alaska, I've wondered around the store wearing a gun (on the way to Salmon fishing, had to pick some stuff up) and nobody said shit.

Just another reason I don't live in NYC. :)

Dr. Phil (Physics) said...

"I've wondered around the store wearing a gun..."

Hmmm... "I wonder as I wander..."

Nope. It's June. Still not Christmas.

Thanks for playing the home game, Jim!

We're getting this Self-Check-Out lanes in our grocery stores, so there are fewer manned lines. The other day I had this genius, i.e. a local university student, in a Self-Check lane who kept on having to call the manager over to remove one item from his list, because the bill was over the limit on his VISA Cash Card. Three times.

Sigh.

Dr. Phil

Nathan said...

Jim,

I've gotta admit I always look twice (three times) when I see someone armed in public who's not in a uniform. (Except NYC plainclothes/undercover guys...you can spot them a mile away.)

Phil,

DO NOT USE self checkout. I have a relative who was involved with getting them installed for a chain he works for. The stores know they cause lots and lots of problems for customers, but they can replace four cashiers for the price of each station. You're helping screw yourself. (If nobody will use them, they'll end up dumping them.)

Carol Elaine said...

I only use self-checkout if there's no option (i.e. lines with cashiers are a mile ling, I have one or two items and I'm in a hurry). I figure, if they're not going pay to hire a cashier, they're saving money, right? Then I should be paying at least 10% less on my purchases to do a job someone else could/should be doing.

I go into grocery stores frequently with reusable bags full of products from another store and no one says boo. It must be this honest face of mine. Then again, the two grocery stores I frequent are Ralphs (for the kitty stuff) and Trader Joes (for most everything else). There aren't a lot of products that cross-pollinate between the two.

Nathan said...

If I walked into my grocery store with a solid rocket booster, they'd try to claim I picked it up in Aisle 7. (That'll be $32,000,000.68 sir.)

Dr. Phil (Physics) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dr. Phil (Physics) said...

Nathan -- like you have a choice of using self-check lanes. When they have six self-check and one manned lane open, and I don't have all day to make a point or protest, I do what I have to do. The problem is when the moron in front of you is, well, a moron. (grin)

Truth be told, they'd be a moron with a checker, since they'd probably not know they were over their balance until it was totaled, and once totaled, it probably takes a manager's key to remove an item.

Three times.

Dr. Phil

(stupid no edit Blogger...)