I’m currently working. I got a caller who I thought spoke Spanish. They habla solimente un poco Espanol. They actually speak Mam- a mixture os Spanish and Mayan spoken in parts of Guatemala. It’s fascinating to listen to the translator (Thank G-d the interpretation company new what Mam was!) and the caller. But I have to go the restroom. I had two minutes to my break. Now I will be on for hours because language line calls take so very long. I had time to type and post this during a segment that takes 30 seconds or less on normal calls
Thanks for this—I hadn’t heard of the language, and looked it up. Very interesting!
At all the stores by me, it takes approximately 5 seconds to punch “Search by Name”, type "RED O " and Red Onions pops up. Click, done. But then I’m not a big puppy baby.
Yeah, as far as produce is concerned, the places I shop have a little PLU sticker or tag on pretty much everything. Set your item on the scale built into the scanner, type in the code, and on to the next item. One place even has printer-equipped scales in the produce section, so you can make your own label.
The damn bag scales, on the other hand… 
Wegmans recently ‘upgraded’ theirs, so if you as so much as shift a scallion in your bag, it sets off a sensor and alerts staff. 
It may take only a few seconds if you know that. Not having been to Cashier School, I didn’t, and still don’t, because these machines may work differently. Next time when I’m not in a hurry I’ll probably figure it out. I did figure out how to check out produce that has a sticker with a PLU code, but these didn’t.
The real issue is that there’s no excuse for a normal full-service retailer with regular prices to not have adequate staff. For a large supermarket to have only one lane open is unconscionable. I resent being forced to be an unpaid cashier and bagger. It wasn’t that long ago that one of the supermarkets around here used to advertise that, on weekends at least, every checkout lane would be open. Those days are no more. Being a cashier may not be a high-paying job, but it’s a job, and many of those jobs are now gone because of this bullshit.
Somehow, no matter how long the checkout lines are, or how mystifying the self-scanners are for a fully grown adult, I’ve never said to myself, “I think I’ll just walk out with this item without paying”.
But I spent 7 years assigning community service to teens picked up for shoplifting, and have heard every excuse. And almost all of them were more mature than “I was forced to use the self-checkout machines and it was hard! And the store should have had more checkers!”
The store is offloading its labour costs onto customers by expecting them to work for free. If it takes you five minutes to ring up & bag your groceries, you’re saving the store $1–2. How much is an onion?
You (the generic “you”) have the choice not to shop there. You don’t have the right to steal the merchandise in protest.
Great. I’ll just toodle on down to the supermarket that has adequate staffing then. I hear there’s a sale on unicorn meat this week.
You’re making a much bigger deal than is warranted out of what was supposed to be a frivolous semi-humourous rant. FTR, it was two potatoes and a very small red onion and I was in a hurry. The total value could not have been much more than a dollar.
If you’re getting off on some sort of morality kick, I have a pretty good track record on honesty. Some time ago I was at the vet’s with my dog and picked up a big bag of specialty dog food that cost nearly $100. The girl at the desk totaled up the charges for the visit and various medications but forgot to charge me for the dog food, which I didn’t even notice until I got home because the other charges were pretty high – this vet isn’t cheap. I went back the next day and paid for it.
As you well know, they’re all the same way. You’re a good poster and I don’t want to get into a nasty argument over this silliness. Incidentally, the total grocery bill was around $130 and I didn’t even buy all that much. Would it make you feel better if I went back to the supermarket tomorrow and gave them a dollar?
After you do that, post here and let us know if it made you feel better.
I can tell you that it definitely made me feel better when I went back and paid for that dog food. Good people who run a small business caring for animals should not be screwed out of $100, even if it was totally accidental and their own fault.
If I actually went back to the supermarket tomorrow to give them a dollar, I’d feel like an idiot and they would probably feel like they were dealing with an extreme eccentric who might potentially be dangerous. 
I feel like I’m in Crazy Town. You’re right. Help yourself to the produce.
Veterinarians aren’t cheap. They cost a lot. I had a lot of cats, and I’m sure that I paid the vet clinic’s rent monthly, with all their visits.
Thinking about getting more cats. And I know what kind of vet bills I’m getting into.
I have tremendous respect for veterinarians. Their patients can’t tell them what hurts or what ails them, they have to figure it out themselves. They are doing God’s work in the service of what we rather arrogantly think of as “lesser creatures” than ourselves. But these “lesser” creatures are sentient beings that feel pain, fear, joy, and sadness just as we do, and veterinarians are there for them.
After my dog died, his vet sent me a sympathy card with a long handwritten note expressing appreciation for how well I had cared for him. He knew that in his final days I had taken him to the foremost veterinary research institute in Canada to see if there was any possible new leading-edge treatment that could save him. Cost was no object – I was already armed with hundreds of MRI images that had been ordered by a veterinary neurology specialist. They concluded that surgery would be complicated and had virtually no chance of success. 
ETA: That conclusion came in the form of a letter I received weeks afterward, based on what I gathered was a considerable amount of analysis of the MRI images.
@wolfpup —you and I may be of two different minds when it comes to domestic animals—you, dogs; me, cats—but it appears that we both love dogs and cats. We can disagree, but let’s look after our animal friends as best we can, shall we? Dogs or cats, they deserve our love and care.
I’m definitely a dog person – hell, let’s face it, on this board I’m kind of an honorary dog myself. I only pretend to dislike cats – in my youth there were several that owned me. My current canine-centric attitude to cats was best expressed by my beloved Bernie the Bernese Mountain Dog. When we went on our walks, neighbourhood cats would emerge from the bushes and hiss at him. Bernie just cheerfully ignored them as if they didn’t even exist, continuing to trot along and sniff at things.
I tell that story as a factual anecdote. Anyone who wants to use it to make a case about the difference between dogs and cats may feel free to do so. I don’t.
I will also say that in our walks, Bernie encountered miniature mosquito-sized dogs who were yapping their tails off and trying to attack while Bernie maintained his dignified composure. So maybe it’s not so much about dogs vs cats as about genetic makeup.
A very good point: one doesn’t own a cat. The cat owns oneself. The cat selects you. I well remember the day at Calgary Humane when a little Tuxedo kitten jumped into my arms. She became our Fiona. Annie was looking for any port in a storm, and I was it, and she was mine everafter. Denver was always glad to meet me. Hope, who was always looking to be in my arms. These were my friends.
Cats, yes, and over time, I’ve had to say goodbye. It’s not fun. It’s not pleasant, but I have attended when the vet has done “the kind thing.” Not pleasant. I think I’ll shut up now.
I just got an email asking me if I wanted to buy a ‘Lead the Charge’: Trump 2024 Coin.
“It’s a slug…”
“Well, so’s Trump.”
This would be a good discussion to take to the How do you feel about self-checkout now? thread.