How to grocery shop (Since there seems to be some confusion): A rant

[SticksAndString]

Originally Posted by PandaBear77

Now *this* is an OP that should go viral. Seriously.

One itty bitty nitpick, though ...



Some stores do allow this (none of mine do) and in some cases I think state laws even come into play. It's called overage.

Personally I think all states should allow it. If I buy something for 75 cents at your store with a $1 coupon, you're going to get back $1 PLUS another 8 cents (or so) handling fee when you turn it back in to the manufacturer. The coupon, however, was worth 25 cents more than the item purchased -- which is not the customer's problem. They should get the quarter back, not the store.

That said, before you lynch me -- as a couponer I'm just happy to have so many stores in my area that welcome coupons and don't treat me like a thief when I use them. I live in probably the most coupon-friendly city in the country and we have LOTS of awesome stores: Wal-Mart, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Lowes Foods, Whole Foods, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Kroger and yes, even Piggly Wiggly. I've never had a cashier bat an eye or look at me as if I'm trying to put one over on the store when I show up with my binder full of coupons and end up paying about 50% less than I would have without them.

The potential for overage is rare for me anyway so even without it, I'm still coming out WAY ahead. If keeping the overage makes stores wake up and go "wow, we really should coordinate our sales with coupons, the crazy coupon people show up in droves and throw money at us!" then everyone wins.

Just trying to 'splain the other side's position, that's all.

Tiny little threadjack--I don't mind couponers, as I use them myself from time to time, as long as they're not like those jerks I've seen on Extreme Coupons or whatever it's called. I've only watched one episode but I've been behind people like that before and it's nuts. NOBODY (at least nobody I k now, unless they're shopping for a church pantry or something to that effect) needs eleventyfourthousand boxes of dried pasta. Or a hundred candy bars (no really..the store had them four for a dollar on a particular type of chocolate bar so they swept nearly the entire box into their cart).

Threadjack over.

[Anaamika]

Originally Posted by hermette

Our local supermarket has parent and child spaces, with extra wide room so you can get the carseat/stroller in and out. Great! The only problem is, the nearest cart corral is at least two aisles of spaces away from them. So you get back with a full cart of shopping and your baby, unload it all into the car, then abandon your car with your baby inside while you walk a not insubstantial distance away to return your trolley? Umm, no.

I do try to be as considerate as possible - there's a covered walkway alongside the parent spaces that even when you ditch your trolley there, still has room for another trolley to pass, and yes, the workers seem to patrol it regularly to collect our abandoned carts, but hey, if they'd actually put a corral nearby I wouldn't have to do it in the first place.

There are plenty of parents on the Dope who manage this, even if it means putting the baby in the carseat first or carrying the baby back.

[saje]

Aren't the wide spaces nearest to the store? How about taking the cart back to the store? I don't have kids so maybe I shouldn't comment, but it seems to me that if you don't want to leave your child unattended even for less than 1 minute, then you take the kid with you to return the cart and carry him/her back to your car.

[Mister Rik]

Originally Posted by Sleeps With Butterflies

• You rolled that cart out to the parking lot as a convenient way to transport your groceries. When you're done with it, roll it on back up to the store or put it in the little cart corral thingie if the store has one in the parking lot. Do not just let it hang out in the parking lot on its own.

Those carts can damage cars if the wind blows or someone bumps it or some ghostie comes flying by it causing it to roll. Several years ago I heard a grocery manager say that those carts start at about $150 each so letting them get damaged or stolen is another way to jack up prices. But mostly I don't want it hitting my car.

Heh. I literally "ran into" this at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. I was driving "up" an aisle that had a slight grade to it, and saw the driver in front of me swerve. He/she had swerved around a cart that was rolling right down the middle of the aisle, and then just kept going. I immediately stopped my car and put it in "Park" so that I could jump out and grab the cart, but by that point the cart was rolling faster and I realized I wasn't going to get my seatbelt undone and myself out of the car in time. So, since my car is a beat-up piece of shit anyway, I just stopped the cart by opening my door right into its path. Then I got out and shuffled the cart into the nearest corral.

[Cat Whisperer]

Originally Posted by jz78817

<snip>
and yes, lazy assfucks leaving their carts wherever the hell they feel like. the "best" was when I was leaving Meijer; I was in my (running) car with it in reverse, and this whale of a bint who had just finished loading her car a few spaces down decided she only wanted to take 10 steps and left her cart behind my car. My running car with the reverse lights on. I jumped out, grabbed the cart, stormed past her and shoved it in the corral. She pretended not to hear me when I snarled "was that so damn hard?"

She rolled her cart up and left it behind your car, with you in it about to drive away? I can assure you that if I were on your jury, I'd acquit you.

Originally Posted by DrDeth

Ok, but in Safeway, when you put their very own supplied right there paper bag down, it freezes and says "unexpected item in the bagging area". Riiight. A bag, in the bagging area is unexpected.

Originally Posted by LeeshaJoy

And right there on the screen is a button that says "I'm using my own bag."

I have to learn how to put my own bags on the bag thing - maybe today's the day. I'll go when the store is slow and I won't be in too many people's way while I learn.

[billfish678]

Originally Posted by Mister Rik

. So, since my car is a beat-up piece of shit anyway, I just stopped the cart by opening my door right into its path. Then I got out and shuffled the cart into the nearest corral.

Way to go Dallas!

Red October reference

[ClintO]

Why do the shopping centers have 30 checkout registers, yet refuse to open more than 4 at a time? Even on the busiest days of the year, they never have all of them open. Standing in line behind 3 carts full of stuff because they won't open another lane drives me crazy. That and the shopping carts always being jacked up... squeak squeak squeak

[Nava]

Originally Posted by Biotop

Also, no one likes it when a favorite product is discontinued. Stores discontinue items because THEY DO NOT SELL! This is not figured out by guesswork, but by actual computers using real data. 10% or so of the items in a grocery store are new each year. Therefore, unless there is an expansion, 10% of the items from last year had to go. Someone cared about each and every one of those banished items. Some loved them deeply. It's OK to lament the passing of a favorite product. I do it myself. But do not be deluded into thinking that "everyone" loves barbacue -flavored chicken beaks just because you love them and therefore the store is inept in its choosing of items to be discontinued.

Another common misconception is that the store is not ordering enough of Honey Wheat Brand X because there is never enough on the shelf and all the other flavors of Brand X are fully stocked. Actually, we order few cases of that flavor because it does not sell as well as the others. We reorder the popular flavors every day. The slow sellers will get ordered much less often, usually when we are down to only one or two on the shelf. This gives the illusion that Honey Wheat is the most popular flavor of Brand X, when it is not at all. The illusion is compounded if indeed you do love Honey Wheat X. We tend to think others are like us. But, believe me, if everyone and their brother was clamoring for more Honey Wheat Brand X, we'd get it in fast. This is about profit, after all.

Not always. Some products are made and sold in "packs"; you don't get "mixed packs which can not be sold separatedly" (you know, like those mixed yoghurt packs), but when coffee mousse arrives, an equal amount of chocolate mousse and of lemon mousse arrive at the same time. The supermarket cannot order coffee mousse by itself.

I've seen the coffee part of a load of mousses get taken off the pallet before the shelver could put it on the fridge. I've seen women calling their relatives "the supermarket just got mousses, do you want me to buy you a pack? Two? OK!" I've been part of a group of lucky women rationing the mousses based on who got there first, family size and the notion that forcing someone who'd actually seen the fluffy, coffeey goodness arrive go without would have been some sort of sin for sure (cruelty at the very least).

In this case, and yes it was a real example until the company that made it decided to change the mousses (the new ones also get sent in equal-amount packs, but none is as popular as the old coffee mousse was), the reason the coffee mousse was always empty was not that the supermarket ordered less of it than of other varieties, it's that they could not order more of it. Lemon on the other hand stayed in the shelfs until expired; now it's the cookie one which does, the mixed-chocolate and coffee-with-caramel kinds move at normal speeds.

[Musicat]

Originally Posted by ClintO

Why do the shopping centers have 30 checkout registers, yet refuse to open more than 4 at a time? Even on the busiest days of the year, they never have all of them open. Standing in line behind 3 carts full of stuff because they won't open another lane drives me crazy.

Sometimes I think reaching the job of manager involves putting on blinders. A manager will usually open another checkstand if I call it to their attention, but why did I have to tell them in the first place?

[cosmosdan]

Originally Posted by Smapti

I work in a very large (106,000 sq. ft.), very busy, very low-price grocery store. This means that this time of the month is always nonstop, balls-to-the-wall excitement - between the military getting paid on the 1st and food stamps being paid out, we get slammed all day long and most of the night with hordes of people doing their entire month's shopping at once, and this being the week before Easter we have shopping for holiday dinners on top of that. I've been there since we opened almost exactly a year ago, and i've gotten to learn quite a few jobs so far - cashiering, grocery stocking, cleanup, ordering, cart collection, i've even learned how to drive a forklift. I enjoy my job - it pays well, it has the potential to pay a lot more in the future, and the store is part of an employee-owned company that invests its profits back into making sure working stiffs like me get taken care of. This is not a rant about that.


That is all.

Thanks. This rant really made me laugh. Many years in retail and still, some customers just annoy/amaze/amuse/irritate/ and leave me flabergasted at thier lack of thought/preperation/consideration.

I always defer to the elderly and extend my already fairly patient apporach but even I was forced to utter "really?" when this dear lady waited until her very full cart was totaled to begin fishing around in her purse for her checkbook.

Um,....it's here,.........somewhere,.........I just had it the other day,......and ......well I know it's in here,......well that's not it,..........oh,.....here it is.
And who do I make this out to? Okay that 's K........R.....O.......

God love her.

[ZipperJJ]

Originally Posted by Silver Tyger

Speaking of carts, anyone else get vaguely annoyed by the new insistence on there being wet wipes to clean off the cart. Because somehow the germs on the handle of the cart - the same germs that are everywhere else - are going to kill you? (Yes, okay, you touch the cart with someone's germs and then select fruit or something - but you're supposed to WASH your fruit). Frikking germaphobes.

And of course, the end of the wet wipe is just hanging out in the breeze, but is somehow immune to germs in the air. I would assume - reasonably enough, I think - that if you're that immune-deficient that you must disinfect every surface you touch, that you would carry your own frikking wet wipes.

Really? The availability of wipes for people interested in using wipes is somehow an inconvenience to you? People wanting to take 2 seconds to disinfect a grimey cart handle infuriates you to the point of frikken swearing? There's an INSISTENCE to having wet wipes around?

Do you get mad that there are disposable toilet seat covers in restrooms that other people might want to use, or Purell stations in hospital hallways?

Jiminy Christmas, if this is the sort of shit that makes you stew you must be a real fucking peach to be around.

[Silver Tyger]

Originally Posted by ZipperJJ

Really? The availability of wipes for people interested in using wipes is somehow an inconvenience to you? People wanting to take 2 seconds to disinfect a grimey cart handle infuriates you to the point of frikken swearing? There's an INSISTENCE to having wet wipes around?

Do you get mad that there are disposable toilet seat covers in restrooms that other people might want to use, or Purell stations in hospital hallways?

Jiminy Christmas, if this is the sort of shit that makes you stew you must be a real fucking peach to be around.

1. Frikking is not a swear word.
2. I don't limit my swearing to when I'm mad.
3. I didn't say it was an inconvenience. I think it's stupid and pointless. And yes, I also think that ass gaskets are also stupid. Purell in a hospital is smart because it's a fucking hospital.
4. I didn't say I was mad. I said 'vaguely annoyed'. As in, I think it's stupid. Nice reading comprehension, dipshit.

You want to see me mad, get me started about tailgaters.

[Sleeps With Butterflies]

Originally Posted by Silver Tyger

You want to see me mad, get me started about tailgaters.

Or simply answer her questions on how she can get a graphic art job.

[Voyager]

Originally Posted by ClintO

Why do the shopping centers have 30 checkout registers, yet refuse to open more than 4 at a time? Even on the busiest days of the year, they never have all of them open. Standing in line behind 3 carts full of stuff because they won't open another lane drives me crazy. That and the shopping carts always being jacked up... squeak squeak squeak

Another reason to vote with your feet. Our Lucky's has a policy of opening a new lane when there are 3 carts - what they don't say is that every open lane has to have 3 (including self checkout) before they do it. In the Safeway I've been plucked out of line and brought to a newly open stand more times than I can count. And even when shopping I've heard many announcements to the tune of "checkout people, get your asses to the front" - slightly more politely, of course. Slightly more expensive, but well worth it.

[Cat Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Silver Tyger

<snip>
3. I didn't say it was an inconvenience. I think it's stupid and pointless. And yes, I also think that ass gaskets are also stupid. Purell in a hospital is smart because it's a fucking hospital.<snip>

How many people do you think go to or from a hospital to a grocery store? Anything that helps us break the chain of pathological bacteria and viruses on people's hands is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

[saje]

Originally Posted by Silver Tyger

I'm willing to give a pass to not returning the cart in the following situations:

1) You're of limited mobility
2) It's raining really really really hard
3) Or other inclement weather of similar suckiness
4) There aren't any cart corrals because the shopping center is stupid, and you're parked really really far away, in which case all the carts should be in the same parking space and not scattered everywhere

But most of the time, if the cart isn't returned it's because the person was just frikking lazy.

Speaking of carts, anyone else get vaguely annoyed by the new insistence on there being wet wipes to clean off the cart. Because somehow the germs on the handle of the cart - the same germs that are everywhere else - are going to kill you? (Yes, okay, you touch the cart with someone's germs and then select fruit or something - but you're supposed to WASH your fruit). Frikking germaphobes.

And of course, the end of the wet wipe is just hanging out in the breeze, but is somehow immune to germs in the air. I would assume - reasonably enough, I think - that if you're that immune-deficient that you must disinfect every surface you touch, that you would carry your own frikking wet wipes.

Try living with a malfunctioning immune system for a while and then see if you still scoff.

[Silver Tyger]

Originally Posted by Cat Whisperer

How many people do you think go to or from a hospital to a grocery store? Anything that helps us break the chain of pathological bacteria and viruses on people's hands is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

I really doubt wiping the cart handle will make any difference in that regard. But different strokes for different folks. I'm still allowed to think it's silly.

[codgerone]

Great thread, and I have to agree that one of the worst things is the family shopping trip. OK, if you're a single mother and can't afford childcare then you have to bring your devil spawn to the supermarket. But if there's two of you then why the hell do you both have to be there, along with your posse of bored offspring. The kids are obviously hating it, the two of you are getting stressed and everyone else in the shop is pissed off.

My theory is that neither partner trusts the other to shop alone. If Wayne is left to do the shopping he'll just come home with twenty pizzas, half a dozen six packs of beer and a bunch of tit magazines. If Waynetta goes on her own she'll come home with eighteen packets of chocolate biscuits, ten litres of White Lightning and a bunch of celebrity magazines. If they go as a family the kids will hopefully point to some real food along the way.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the charity packers. In the UK it's normal for people to pack their own bags. Occasionally there will be a bunch of schoolkids at the checkout offering to pack your bags in return for a donation to whatever charity they are fundraising for. I'm all in favour of this and admire the kids for giving up their time for a good cause.

However: Teachers, supermarkets and anyone else involved in this please spend five fucking minutes explaining basic physics to these kids. They have probably never been shopping on their own and are fundamentally unaware of the consequences of putting eggs, soft fruit, bread etc. into the bottom of a shopping bag and then dropping 10lb of potatoes and a bottle of wine on top.

[Anaamika]

Originally Posted by Silver Tyger

I really doubt wiping the cart handle will make any difference in that regard. But different strokes for different folks. I'm still allowed to think it's silly.

Of course...but on the occasions I use it, I'm not really using it for bacteria. I use it when there's something sticky or yucky on the cart, or maybe just some food. I also use it when I'm picking out worms for my gecko at the pet store. Yes, the worm germs are not going to cause me any trouble, not even if I eat the entire box of mealworms. But it's still powdery dust all over my hands.

[Musicat]

Originally Posted by Anaamika

I also use it when I'm picking out worms for my gecko...

So that's what the kids are calling it these days?

[Anaamika]

Originally Posted by Musicat

So that's what the kids are calling it these days?

Well I do have to make sure they're the appropriate size. Size matters, you know.

[cosmosdan]

Originally Posted by codgerone

Great thread, and I have to agree that one of the worst things is the family shopping trip. OK, if you're a single mother and can't afford childcare then you have to bring your devil spawn to the supermarket. But if there's two of you then why the hell do you both have to be there, along with your posse of bored offspring. The kids are obviously hating it, the two of you are getting stressed and everyone else in the shop is pissed off.

My theory is that neither partner trusts the other to shop alone. If Wayne is left to do the shopping he'll just come home with twenty pizzas, half a dozen six packs of beer and a bunch of tit magazines. If Waynetta goes on her own she'll come home with eighteen packets of chocolate biscuits, ten litres of White Lightning and a bunch of celebrity magazines. If they go as a family the kids will hopefully point to some real food along the way.
.

I think for some eople they really have no clue. They are so accustomed to the kids they don't think about it. But for crying out loud people, teach your children about respecting property that doesn't belong to them. So many people seem to think that if it's in a store it must be okay for thier kids to play with. I understand the natural desire and curiouslty of children, but it is your responsibility as a parent to treach them to be careful, and not to touch, or to ask permission.

And have some sense, don't let your small children wander the store without you. Seriously, if you simply can't control them, and haven't taught them to mind thier manners in public, don't bring them in.

The other day our very laid back salesman had to tell one family that thier kids could no longer be in the store because the kids were banging on merchandise and the adults seemed oblivious.
And unlike the grocery store, if you or your children break something, you're expected to pay for it.

[Boyo Jim]

Originally Posted by codgerone

Great thread, and I have to agree that one of the worst things is the family shopping trip....

Except for their names being Cletus and Charlene. you nailed it.

[Senegoid]

Originally Posted by OttoDaFe

From my selfish POV (specific to bag-it-yourself stores), one thing I would like to see is a reusable bag that stays open. Or perhaps some sort of rack that will keep it open. It's annoying to try to fill a bag that constantly snaps its mouth shut like a one-year-old faced with strained peas, especially when the line is stacking up behind you.

OdF (the dumpy bald guy with glasses who usually hits the store early Sunday morning)

Just came across this thread (linked by Smapti's newer supermarket customer rant). For whomever may find it useful, here's my strategy:

Those big brown paper bags serve this purpose perfectly well.
(1) Shop as regular, using big brown paper bags. (Of course, stores don't want you double-bagging. That's fine.)
(2) Save these at home, until you have a dozen or so.
(3) NOW, double-bag those. (Once they've served their purpose in life once, I have no moral qualms about this.)
(4) You now have a stash of perfectly good re-usable bags that will fold up nicely in your cart while you shop, and stand up on their own while you bag.

Additional benefit: The conveyor belts are often filthy. I lay out these bags (still folded) on the belt and put my groceries on top of them.

I find that I can re-use these doubled bags anywhere from 20 to 30 times (usually) before they begin to get too frayed to use. (I'm pretty sure that double-bagging them more than doubles the number of good re-uses that I can get before they fall apart.) After that, they can serve one final mission as a garbage bag. Then it's off to the landfill, after a grocery bag's life well spent.

ETA: You may call thee bags, thus used, zombie grocery bags. There. I beat everyone to it.

More ETA: And at many stores around here, you get 5 or 6 cents off, for every re-usable bag you bring. And these bags count for that too!

[Seanette]

Originally Posted by Snowboarder Bo

Okay, let me add one from the the other side of the register tho: I don't need every fucking item to have it's own goddamn bag. If it'll all fit in one bag, just gimme one fucking bag.

And no, I don't care if it's a non-food item in with food items. That roll of paper towels or container of Windex isn't going to contaminate the fucking box of cookies. Just put it all in the bag and lemme get outta there without more of those shitty plastic bags than I need.

(Sorry, but I don't always bring my own bags to the store. Sometimes, but not all the time. And yes I recycle the plastic ones regularly.)

Another from the customer side: if I'm sorting stuff into categories as I put it on the conveyor belt, please assume I wish items bagged by category (e.g., refrigerator products together, cleaning products together, frozen goods together, etc.). Not only does this make my life easier when I'm putting stuff away at home, but if you put cold goods together, they help each other stay at least cooler longer. In summer, this is very helpful to a customer whose car's AC is dubious at best.

[Seanette]

Originally Posted by Living Well Is Best Revenge

Yes, this. I have no idea why nearly every item has to get its own bag. I always tell the bagger to fill up the bag as much as possible, unless it's eggs or bread. Those can be separate.

And PLEASE do not put eggs or bread in the same bag with a 2-liter bottle (yes, this has been done to me). Eggs and bread are OK bagmates.