"Did you find everything all right?"

(This question is Minnesota-ese for “Were you able to find everything you were shopping for?”–not “Did you find this store to your liking?” Let’s just make that clear now.)

Has anyone else been hearing this phrase (or a similar one) from clerks a lot lately? I sure have. It wouldn’t seem so unusual if someone were to come up and ask me that while I was shopping, but why are they asking this while I am checking out? Is this happening to others, or do I just look perpetually lost or something?

I first noticed this strange phenomenon at Cub Foods about a month ago. Do people often have trouble finding things at Cub Foods? I guess I don’t, but I have been shopping there for over three years, so I am fairly familiar with the layout of the store by now.

I was just about to chalk this phenomenon up to some strange new Cub Foods policy, but then I went into Barnes and Noble yesterday. I went in, found the magazine I was looking for, and came out to pay for it. Sure enough, the clerk who rang me up asked me “Did you find everything all right?” All I could say was, “Yes…uh…this was exactly what I was looking for.”

I’m not sure why I find this question so odd coming from the checkout person, but I do. Perhaps it’s because it has such a strange corporate-policy feel to it. Is this the latest “thing” or something?

Have a nice day.

Seems like the latest thing. They say it at Albertson’s here, too. (Here is California.)

In fact the whole staff at Albertson’s seems to have gone to some kind of niceness bootcamp. As I was leaving yesterday, some guy retrieving shopping carts called across the parking lot to tell me to have a nice day. I didn’t even realize who he was talking to at first.

I’ve been hearing that for a while here in Northern Virginia. It does strike me as odd, because had I not been able to find something I was looking for, I would not wait until I was at the cash register to try to locate it. Once I’m in line, I’ve either found what I want or given up on it.

They do that here (TX) at least at Albertson’s. It annoys me - what am I going to say? “No, I looked all over the damn store for raisins and I couldn’t find them, so go get some for me?” If I can’t find something, either I ask before I get in the checkout line, or I give up. If I’m checking out, I’ve gotten everything I’m going to get in that store. If they want suggestions on what items to stock, they should have comment cards available at the checkstand.

:grumble, grumble:

Of course, what I’d like to see are computerized maps - type in “raisins” and it shows exactly where to find them in the store.

Exactly, Geobabe. I am the same way, especially in a chain store. I’ll ask someone in the store, but once I am at the checkout, I am generally ready to leave, as are the people behind me. If I couldn’t find something that actually was in the store, do they hold up the line while they page someone to find it and bring it up to me, or do I lose my place in line while I go get it myself?

Don’t most people go to the same grocery stores over and over and generally buy the same things? If I can’t find something, it’s very unusual for me. This doesn’t seem to be a phenomenon that demands a mandatory question from the checker every time I shop.

I usually only hear this when I shopping at a store where the clerks work on commission. I always assumed that “Did you find everything all right?” really meant “Did anyone help you out?”

Maybe they’re not asking if you found everything you were looking for, but rather if they carry everything you need? Hmmm, that doesn’t make sense.

I know Albertson’s will order an item you’re looking for if they don’t already stock it. I’m talking about regular items here. They aren’t going to order ostrich eggs, but if you’d rather have a 20 oz. bottle of Pinesol instead of the 12 oz. bottle they carry, they’ll order it.

Thanks Cher I was trying to remember where I’d heard it. I’ve been trying to come up with witty responses as annoying as the question, but so far nothing has sprung to mind.

They say it here (NE FLA) too, at least at Publix. The one time I did say “no” a manager bustled over - after I had paid up - to get more info. I was looking for what used to be called Hydrox cookies, but before they disappeared they became “Droxies” - anyway he said he’d look into it. Been several months, and no Droxies (which, according to the Keebler website, are still being sold).

[diversion]
Haven’t been into the local Albertson’s more than a couple times after they did a major remodel … layout is screwy, used to be drug store/dime store stuff to the right, groceries to the left. Now, everything is all jumbled together, apparently at random (I know, there is marketing ‘science’ to it, but I couldn’t make sense of it). Also, since they were re-doing an old (ca. 1970) store, the new aisle widths don’t match the old column spacing, so you get support columns right in the middle of aisles.
[/diversion]

No. I am always looking for different stuff, and there is usually something or another that I can’t find. Also, I go to at least 5 different stores on a regular basis–they are all within a mile or so of my house. So, I can never find what I’m looking for.

But I have noticed this phenomenon here in NJ. I agree that it’s really stupid.

The reason we say “did you find everything that you were looking for?” is to give us one last opportunity to sell the consumer something. Often in our store (24,000 sq.ft.), customers can’t find certain products and we don’t staff enough personnel to wander the aisles to assist everybody.
But we can ask them at the check-out counter. And if the customer replies: “No, I guess you don’t stock Winsor & Newton Series 7 paintbrushes” we can exclaim “Yes we do! Let me get someone to help you in our glass cases…”

BTW, we never ask the customer “Can I help you?” and we never part with “Have a nice day,” two phrases that have developed into meaningless “rehearsed indifference.” When “did you find everything…” enters the realm of tossed-off comments, we’ll drop that from the vernacular as well.

Here in Tucson, they’ve been asking me that at the checkout counter for months.

I have a theory.

This relates directly to my theory on Carl’s Junior, and their bizarre new mentod of Ketchup Distribution.

I think that the retail outlets of the nation have become convinced that someday, somehow, the American consumer base will come to realize the inherent ridiculousness of all advertising. We will think to ourselves “You know, I doubt that that Tube 'O Muffins will actually make my spouse love me again, now that I think of it.” We will think “What the heck is in those Toaster Pastries that gets teenage boys so damned excited, anyway?” We will realize “No-one has ever been that happy about toothpaste. No-one. Ever. Except, possibly, SPOOFE.” And we will, as one, stop buying things.

Needless to say, this event, however unlikely, would be tragic for a nation built on Jiffy Pop and Hot Pockets. And so, the manufacturers of such things decided that the world just isn’t surreal enough to keep up with advertising. And they began to plan. And scheme. And laugh evilly, while twisting their hands together and/or fondling pets of various descriptions.

What they came up with was a plan to insert an increasing level of weirdness into everybody’s life. Stage One involves the Asking of Non-Sequiturs. The clerk at the local Albertson’s may not know it, but by acceeding to their employer’s demands and asking you “Did you find everyting all right?”, they are contributing to the oncoming tide of weirdness in which we are about to be engulfed. After all, what possible answer can there be to that question that doesn’t end up escalating the level of absurdity in the world? Answering with “Um, no, what aisle is Jesus in?” Or “Why, are you hiding something?” Or “Yeah, and do you know how tough it is to find powdered yak’s brains these days?” hardly seem to do much to help life revert to normalcy.

Listen closely to your local grocery store’s Muzak system in the oncoming months, and I believe you’ll begin to hear weirdness creep in there as well. It will begin with the juxtaposition of songs which belong nowhere near each other, like a segue between Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight” and Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life”. Later, subtle retooling of the lyrics to popular songs may begin to turn up, changing sweet standards like the Carpenter’s “Close To You” into nightmarish trips through the human subconscious, or John Denver’s “Sunshine On My Shoulders” into a rabid indictment of postmodernism.

I believe the next stage will involve impromptu performance art on the part of the cashiers and stockboys, designed to shake the average grocery shopper out of their daily stupor, and make them come to realize the absurdity inherent in living, so that commercials seem normal in comparison.

If the producers of American consumer products have their way, life is about to get a lot more surreal.

I, for one, look forward to it.

Kroger did that many years ago - they even told you how close you were to the item - but gave up on it because people were destroying them.

:shrugs:

Is Carl’s Jr. related to Hardee’s? Last time I was there, they employed the same basic system–and we ended up with dozens of ketchup and horseradish sauce packets! I don’t think they came out of the employee’s pocket, though. I hope not.

Oh, no. It’s not going to be like Joe’s Crab Shack, is it, where all work completely stops for ten minutes so that the waiters/waitresses can lip-synch and dance? Or will they just make strange comments about your groceries? (I’ve noticed that lately, too. Hey–my food is my business.)

If supermarkets want to know which products to order, they should have comment cards or something. They shouldn’t torture their employees by making them ask a strange question that’s just going to invite “witty” comments.

Jesus is in the Mexican food aisle. I think he’s on at least one of those candles, anyway.

I’ve been hearing it in Saskatchewan for a long time.

[q]Is Carl’s Jr. related to Hardee’s?[/q]

They are Carl’s Jr. in the west, and Hardee’s everywhere else.

Although whilst driving through Nebraska, i stopped at a Hardee’s and ordered what I usually order from CJr, and it wasn’t nearly as good.

MrVisible, I must thank you for taking the time to type out your inane and ludicrous, yet seemingly right-on-target theory. Had me in stitches :slight_smile:

This question came to our area (suburban Boston) along with Trader Joe’s. The cashiers there have been asking that question at the checkout since it opened. At first I thought it was because they were a new (and somewhat different) store and truly thought that people might not be able to locate specific items. When they continued, I thought that perhaps they were looking for information on products that they didn’t carry but which might be good things to think about adding to their stock. They’ve been there 2 or 3 years now and haven’t given up the practice, and now I’m hearing it from cashiers in all different types of stores.

At Trader Joe’s they ask you this at the register, and if there was something you didn’t find, they’d either know right away (“Yeah, chili-flour tortillas are going to be in tomorrow”) or they’ll try to get it for you. Right then and there.

Wonderful place, that Joe’s…

Oh, no. It’s going to be much worse than that. Once things get going, there are going to be Busby Berkely-style musical numbers going on in the parking lot, with cashiers and stockers streaming out of the automatic doors and making huge, mobile geometric musical patterns among the cars with large chains of shopping carts.

And the strange comments about your groceries are simply to prepare you for the strange comments to your groceries. What’ll be really strange is when entire conversations between the cashier and your groceries become a commonplace part of the checkout experience.

“What’s that, Mr. T-Bone? You’re afraid of fire?”

“Gee, Mr. Cucumber, why so nervous?”

It’s going to be a weird, weird world.

How about:

“Did you find everything all right?”

“No, some things were on the left.”