OK, you’ve been standing in the line from hell at the supermarket.
You’ve watched as person after person in front of you has presented obscure coupons, tried to cash checks without the store’s check cashing card, argued over the expiration date of 35 expired coupons and on and on and on.
You’re also one of the people who stand idly and stare at the clerk as she scans all of your merchandise, waiting, for what the FUCK reason, I’ll never know, until the order if COMPLETELY rung up, bagged and ready to go out the door before even STARTING to get your frigging checkbook out!!
You obviously shop at this store all the time. You know who the check is going to be made out to. You know it needs your signature, you SHOULD know the date at least!!
BUT NOOOOOO!! You have to spend a minute looking for the damned checkbook, then another minute SLOWLY making the check out, having to ask the clerk THREE TIMES what the total was, then VOIDING THE DAMNED CHECK BECAUSE YOU SCREWED IT UP!!!
It took the clerk about 2 minutes to scan all your stuff and another minute to get it bagged up. It took you a good, solid FIVE MINUTES to write one stinking, fucking check!!!
Meanwhile, I’m stnading behind you (and the 15 other idiots who went before you) with no longer frozen foods and getting closer and closer to being late for work!!
Checks are my enemy. I hate writing them, I hate other people writing them. They are a promise to pay somebody, sometimes it turns out with all the randominity happening with my account that I cant keep that promise. Grr…
Damn that, I can write a check and pay attention to the cashier, at the same time. Where most people get hung up, MHO, is when it comes time to bag, as you cannot get past the other ladies bagging everything most carefully. Whereas I just stuff it in a bag, so that i can get the hell out of there!
good rant.
I’ve given up huffing and looking for other lines at supermarkets. I stand in the longest line, and block out the inevitable FUCKING ABOUT! that is going on further down the line.
I block out the fact that in this rich-and-stupid Island I live on - no one uses cash, everyone uses cheques. everyone stands 4 miiles away from their shopping. everyone ignores the movement of the line. everyone, that’s everyone is interested in sasuage rolls when I’m interested in sausage rolls. only the fat people stand in the ‘traffic’ lanes of stores with incompetent floor planners (so all the channels through stupid displays are just wide enough to fit one fat person and half a normal sized person)… anyway, don’t get me started on supermarkets.
I have the same issue when I get stuck behind a person doing a return at a store, who suddenly realizes that they need to search for a receipt for the item only after it is being rung up by the cashier. What this did not occur to them earlier? They could’t find it before they got to the counter. Now they are just holding everyone else up for an incredible long period of time while they search through a million receipts in their wallet, so that they can argue against merchandise credit when they inevitably cannot find the receipt.
Sorry, a little off topic, but your rant reminded me of this.
That’s ok, Shabadu, it’s no different than the driver who suddenly realizes that they need to dig out the money to pay the toll AFTER they arrive at the toll booth. Did the 25 SIGNS FOR THREE MILES PREVIOUS TO THE TOLL BOOTH NOT NOTIFY YOU TO A GREAT ENOUGH EXTENT THAT YOU NEEDED TO HAVE TOLL MONEY READY!?!?!?
Of course, that brings us around to the people who remain in the lane that’s about to drop, due to a normal lane drop or due to construction, until the last possible, fucking gasp and then dash over into the first slot they can find in traffic. Obviously, the signs posted for the previous two miles warning “RIGHT LANE ENDS 2 MILES” and “RIGHT LANE ENDS 1 MILE” and “RIGHT LANE ENDS 1/2 MILE” and “RIGHT LANE ENDS 1/4 MILE” and “RIGHT LANE ENDS 500 FEET” and finally “RIGHT LANE ENDS” followed by the graphical sign that represents the right lane ending are meant for OTHER people…
But what makes these people worse, in my book, is that they aren’t just doing it absent-mindedly. They’re doing it because they think they’re being cleverer (more clever?) than all you schmucks who so obediently vacated the lane. Or so I imagine.
and what about disorganized coupon users in the supermarket line? The casheir rings up all of her purchases, tells her the total owed, and THEN she says “oh, wait, I have coupons for this, this, this and that. . .just a minute. . .almost got it. . .” while she’ digging through her freakin’ coupon envelope!! And THEN, after she’s wasted 5 minutes of my time, 3 of the 4 coupons she’s looking for have expired (probably while we were standing there), and the other one is for a different brand/size of product than she actually got!!
I’m a great coupon user myself, but try to be as courteous as possible when using them. I have them out and organized by the time I get to the check-out line, have double-checked to make sure I have the right brand/size of everything, and if I have a coupon for a free item, I tell the cashier about it in advance, so she can pay attention to the price of that item (which usually has to be written on the coupon).
I mostly like people, but let’s have a little consideration, folks!
Hmmm . . . the line at the cafeteria is about three miles long. How should I spend my time in line? Should I look at the sign and decide what I want to order? Naw, I think while I’m waiting for 40 minutes (like everyone else in the damn line) I’ll blabber nonstop with my little friend. When the slow but steady progress of the line finally brings me to the counter, I will act surprised. What, me? It’s my turn? I’m supposed to order something? Huh? Gee, what do you have? What line is this? Where am I? Who’s president?
My friend still uses checks. When approached by me about this jurassicly antiquated approach to purchasing items, he said “this way I can see what I have in my balance and I wont overspend". What????? "Just enter the amount in your balance log when you get in the car. Keep the receipt so you wont forget”, I said. "Stop wasting everyone elses time with this ridiculous payment method." What could be easier and faster than swipeing the card, tapping in four numbers, and then getting the hell out of there licketty freakin split. Get a grasp!!! People who still use checks bother me.
I’m a cashier. normally I am pretty easy going. A dollar in pennies? No one is behind you, lets go for it. You want to argue about expired coupons in Russian? Ahh, you need to see the manager, next please?
But we have one customer who drives me CRAZY. She does exactly what you describe…only slower…and half the time forgets to bring her ID so we get to the end, I ask for her ID (the number has to be on the check or I get in trouble) and she spends five minutes searching through her bag, taking everything out of it (again, she already did it once looking for the checkbook, and had to put it all back before she would write the check) until she realises that she left it under the cat (or wherever) and she’ll be back for her stuff later.
Now, my store is not horribly busy, we’re just a little drugstore, so for the most part I can keep up with customers without having much of a line (if any). But when she walks in the door I know, KNOW that there will be a line when she leaves. And it will be long and filled with annoyed bored people. I hate that.
It’s Saturday morning at the supermarket.
There’s only one cashier on duty.
Everyone has a full cart.
Not one of the items is priced or has a readable UPC.
There’s a coupon for every item.
It’s the cashier’s first day on the job.
The cashier doesn’t speak English.
And everyone is paying by check.
We accept bill payments at the university bookstore where I would. Unlike the main store, right by campus, we don’t have a dedicated customer service area or person, so whoever’s working the front gets to take bills as well as answer the phone and field questions and ring people up and, if you’re me, work on entering a hundred pages of ISNS into the textbook database.
Bills chap our collective ass to no end. There are few things that annoy me more than seeing someone come up to the counter with three envelopes, saying “I’d like to pay my bills” and then taking out the checkbook.
It’s not as though the amount of the bill changes or the check gets written to anyone else. Can these people not see the lines of irate people forming behind them? Is getting to annoy a store clerk in person an added bonus, like paying a quarter instead of the going rate for a stamp and having the bill paid the next day?
I am beginning to wonder who the hell these people are. Clearly everyone here understands the basic concept of moving things along, what the hell is wrong with the rest of the world. No Matter what I do I will never chose the right lane to get out of a store in any sort of reasonable time.
Unlike the woman in front of me at the U-scan lanes at the grocery store. It clearly says 12 items or less, and she had a fucking cartload. Every item was a problem, and she did not understand how to use the machine. The clerk (working all 5 lanes) stayed with her to do her entire cart, because she did not understand. I cannot comprehend how she thought that she could take all of these items into this lane, or is she just too stupid to read.
You’re right. That’s why I refuse to let the little shitstains merge into the lane, particularly when I’m driving the cab. Let them sit and wait for a break in traffic (BWAHAHAHAHA). I know they won’t learn from it, but at least it makes them as pissed of at my refusing to let them as I am at their assumption that I should after they didn’t bother to slide over for the last mile or so.
I still use checks. I don’t like cards. I found it really too easy to lose track of the account when I was younger, and I’ve not gone back to them.
That being said, I do make sure that by the time the order is rung up (usually before the clerk even starts ringing it up), my ID is out and the check is filled out with everything but the amount. I also fill out the register so I just have to fill in the amount in both places.
If you have a good clerk, and most of the time I do get a good one, (s)he can fill in my DL and SSN # and run the check through the scanner very nearly as quickly as the average customer can swipe the card and figure out what button to press.
It’s not about the method of payment, it’s about being an inconsiderate asshole or not.
FALLEN ANGEL — I respect your ability to have an expedited process, but would it kill you to have your DL number printed on your check?, sheeesh. I may go apoplectic. I hope you never get carpal tunnel. ( insert a plethora of here)
here)