Target was actually what brought on that complaint. A few years ago they remodeled my local store, apparently in an effort to make it more “upscale”. As part of the remodel they added big circles (or ovals, really) where some of the main aisles intersect, with displays of clothing or handbags or whatnot in the center. They really do feel like roundabouts. The problem with that is people around them on whichever side is more convenient, making it hard to get around people in those spots.
My work situation is exactly the same. All the amenities, the cafeteria, the coffee bar, the satellite mini-cafeterias and vending machines and so on, are closed.
And I’ve been going in to the office, and I’m pretty much always alone, at least on the floor where my office is.
And when I see someone else in the office, I almost resent them, as if they’re encroaching on my space.
Our only amenity at work is a crappy vending machine. I tried to get a soda, but it’s out of everything. I think there’s one package of crackers in there. It doesn’t work most of the time anyway. Chips get stuck, and it doesn’t like quarters.
This! With the added fact that I am a female with a relatively deep voice, and every time this smarmy rep mentions my name they say “Mister Jerseymule” I seethe. Or when they ask for me by name and I say “This is she” (do people still say it that way? - I am old!). Then throughout the conversation they repeatedly call me “Sir”!
If they only call me “Sir” once or twice, it doesn’t bother me. I’ve had a deep voice since I was a kid. But if every sentence they have to use it, it’s irksome. Once at the very end of the conversation, I said “You don’t have to call me “sir”; I’m a woman.” “OH! I’m so sorry, ma’am!”
This could’ve been avoided if they just talked like a normal person without saying anything that indicated gender. One such caller used “Ma’am-Sir” for the whole conversation! They must have been using a script and didn’t understand how to pick one. It’s not like any of these interactions needed to acknowledge my gender in any way.
Kind of makes me think of the saying “Never assume a woman is pregnant unless you see a baby actually emerging from her body.”
I am one of those old people who rarely uses the self-checkout. If there’s an Express Lane, I probably don’t even notice that it is there (my store was completely reconfigured when COVID hit). And the self-checkout takes me forever because I frequently buy several of the same exact thing (coffee-flavored yogurt) and each time I swipe one, the machine seems to get confused and I have to look over at the one checker who’s in charge of all the self-checkout lanes and have him or her clear the machine somehow so I can swipe another item. It always seems to take me way longer in the self-checkout, and I can’t remember how to use my “rewards” in those lanes, and I’m actually much worse at bagging than the experienced checkers are. I could really go for a “Take A Long Time” store like Biotop mentioned!
I hate the self checkout. I have to bend over to reach the bagging area, and my back doesn’t bend very well anymore. If there was clean carpet, I could do the self-checkout on my knees, but there isn’t clean carpet.
Thought: maybe I should try gardening knee pads.
Where I live I’m literally surrounded by a ring of schools, no matter if I go North South East or West within 2-3 minutes I literally have to drive past a school to leave my house.
The problem with this is that for some reason so many local schools seem to let kids out at 12 noon about once a week, which is right when I’m driving around doing stuff instead of the usual 3-4pm. So when I’m randomly going out to get lunch I’ll inevitably wind up in a massive traffic jam of students crossing the streets and parents trying to pick them up.
Hah! My niece called my landline the other day. I answered (of course, since I don’t have a cellphone and the landline is on my desk) and just said “hello”.
She began a long litany about a motor bike and I really couldn’t follow her as she has a high pitched voice and talks fast.
When she took a breath before continuing I interrupted her to say “You might want to talk to Uncle Mistermage. You’ll have to talk slower because his hearing is going.”
She laughed and apologized for assuming my allergy deep voice was his and promised to slow down.
I handed the phone over, he listened and then advised on which motor to buy for our great-nephew’s motorbike.
And, yeah, I still say “This is she” when it’s (usually) my doc’s office calling. Or folks related to them via med procedures.
Scammer/spammers usually just go “Is this mistymage… blah, blah, blah” and, anymore, are computer generated bits of sentences/text. Those I hang up on. (No, I don’t have the ID stuff on my landline. $3-5 (not sure) a month to see who is calling me? No thanks.
I live directly across the street from an elementary school. Last October, due to pandemic restrictions, they decided to hold a drive-through Halloween party. They pretty clearly didn’t consider all the ramifications, as their party caused a massive traffic jam on all the streets leading into the neighborhood as parents lined up to drive through the parking lot so their kids could show off their costumes, receive some candy, and whatever other activities they had. I was thankfully working from home at the time, but I happened to have a pest control guy coming that day who got stuck in it. He ended up parking a couple of blocks away and just walking the rest of the way. And I’m sure it was hell for anyone who lived in the neighborhood who just happened to be trying to get home at the time.
On a completely different subject, a completely harmless thing that nonetheless makes me seethe is when I see someone riding a bike with the seat adjusted completely wrong. I often see teenagers riding bikes with the seat set in it’s lowest possible position, so they’re riding in basically a sitting position. The correct way to adjust a bike seat is so that you’re almost standing; your leg should be nearly straight when the pedal is in the down position. I don’t know why it bothers me so much. I mean, if they want to ride in a position that makes pedaling more difficult, that’s their business.
Perhaps because they’re showing off, both their youthful ability to bicycle in the “wrong” position, and their teenage disdain for doing things “properly”. Anyway, that’s probably the way I would look at it, if I did.
Me too. In fact, self-checkouts might be one of those entirely benign appropriate things that make me seethe.*
First of all, if I’m buying fresh vegetables or fruit, the machine won’t know what I’m buying. I have to search through like three levels of menus to find it. Assuming it’s there at all, because a lot of produce happens to be what the buyer/manager/whoever got that day, not what’s always in stock.
If I’m buying beer, red lights and bells go off, and someone has to come over and check my ID. Whereas if I go to the regular human-staffed checkout with a six-pack, nobody bothers to check my ID (I’m over sixty and look every minute of it).
If I’m using my own bag, as we’re pretty much required to do here (there are no plastic or paper bags available at the self-checkout), when I put the bag down on the platform so I can put my groceries in it as I scan them, bells go off and a mechanical voice starts shouting stuff like “please scan items placing them in the bagging area,” and a staff person has to come over and verify that it’s my bag, not something I’m shoplifting.
Sure, they’re great for those grabbing one or two items, with bar codes that can be scanned. I get it.
* Although not so benign for those who work in supermarkets, since their whole purpose is to eliminate actual paid human beings. That bugs me too.
I got comfortable with the self-checkouts during the pandemic. I usually only get a few produce items, so I memorize the PLU code for those items (kohlrabi, for instance, is 4628). And I keep my bags off the platform until after the machine has totaled everything. Of course that means crowding it. And where I live, you’re not allowed to use the self checkout at all if you’re buying alcohol.
I use self-checkout a lot, and I put my first bag in the bagging area right at the beginning without any issues. Just used it yesterday, and the only issue was that I hit a wrong button (it asked for help from the checker that I didn’t ask for). I don’t have my “rewards” card anymore, but we have always been able to use our phone number instead. I find it easy and fast.
One of the few positive outcomes of the pandemic (IMO) was that my local Publix put in self-check lanes. There is no item minimum and the staff is on the ball and helpful, always there when my wine needs approval. I am fast at the checkout, my stuff is bagged the way I want it, the automated system rarely yells at me. For veg & fruit I just start to type in corn or whatever, and it brings up the most likely items. And when I need a new bag I scan something and put it in the bag first, then set them both down at the same time. SO, so much better than a cashier lane.
My unreasoning seethe is for the few people on my commute who have Trump paraphernalia out still, some of it new and shiny, and with a 2024 date. They are allowed to be ignorant fools, and it’s no harm to me if they throw their cash away. Well, a small harm maybe - my eye-roll muscles get a workout …
Not benign.
HE is not benign, he is an aggressive and metastatic cancer that needs to be irradiated out. I find his followers just pathetic, though, mostly.
I am an old person who doesn’t use the self checkout, and the reason is as follows:
When I get to the checkouts, one of two things is going on: either they’re busy, or they’re not busy. (Yes, there is some middle ground there; what category I’ll think of it as in depends on my mood at the time.)
If they’re busy, I don’t want to use the self checkout, because I’m going to have to figure out how to use it, which will almost certainly delay things and annoy other people in line behind me.
If they’re not busy, then it won’t take long to use the clerk-checkouts, and so there’s no reason for me to be bothered that day with learning how to use the self-checkouts.
I suppose that some day when they’re not busy and I’m not busy, should those two things happen to coincide which isn’t common, I should try the self checkout out of sheer curiosity. But, while there are lots of things in life that I’m curious enough about to investigate, that doesn’t seem to be one of them. Possibly partly because my experience with computer-involved things leads me to suspect that however the thing works at store A, it works at least somewhat differently at store B, and however it works now at store A, it’ll work differently there next month or next year.
I gotten very comfortable with self checkout, but I worry about the number of people out of work because of it.
On the other hand, I tried to take my grandkids to Red Robin today for lunch and they were closed because they can’t find staff.
So whadda ya gonna do?
I actually refuse to use self checkouts for that reason
I wouldn’t call that benign or appropriate…