I don’t know what the going rate for tampons is, but I can tell you that cigs are really inexpensive in the Carolinas. Oh, and in VA, too. *Especially * when compared to NYC and northern NJ.
Bah…Just got back. I try not to ever go on Saturday, but despite my good intentions there I was.
[ul]
[li]Does grocery shopping HAVE to be an entire family event?[/li][li]I keep my cart to one side damn it. So don’t run my ass over if I want to stop and look at something[/li][li]Have your phucking shopping completed BEFORE you get to the checkout[/li][li]Whoever is responsible for the race car (or other such crap) carts should have their private parts spit roasted in front of the store.[/li][/ul]
Now, I love a good handmade mayonaisse. It’s a pure delight, and it bears no resemblance to the jarred mayo-like substance in the grocery store. So, don’t come around here all snobby with your curdly Hellman’s glop, and look down your nose at Miracle Whip. You only look foolish. Silly absinthe. :rolleyes:
If you’re a shopper who can dash into the Mega-Fodder, jog through the aisles, and grab the same 12 items you grab every week, I’m happy for you and your highly regimented life. I’ll try to stay out of your way; I can see the impatience in your eyes, and I’ll skreek to the side, while I peruse the 20 kinds of mustard, 8 of which weren’t here last time I bought mustard. The wonderful brand I bought last time isn’t here this time, so I have to make a new choice. Lemme see, three kinds of Emeril, four kinds of Jack Daniels mustard, Grey Poupon, Lavender Poupon, 3 honey mustards, and so on. Of course, there’s French’s fluorescent yellow mustard, for the purist. 
When I first started taking big canvas totes to the KroLess to use as grocery bags, all the help were gape-mouthed. I had to explain it every time. Paper or plastic? Canvas, please. Now, the goddamn store SELLS canvas grocery bags, and the baggers are still caught by surprise. While I’m watching the cashier to make sure she doesn’t ring up my head of cabbage as iceberg lettuce, a bagger sneaks up, and he puts my big canvas bags in a plastic bag. As I gently explain eco-friendly shopping to the dimbagger, the cashier totals up my order, forgetting the $10 worth of coupons I handed her. Then I have to go to the :rolleyes: courtesy booth to get the coupon error sorted out. If I’m lucky, I don’t get stuck behind some guy manually filling out the Department of Carpet Cleaner Machine Security form. :smack:
I went early this morning as usual. No crowds. Ahh, so nice.
I will confess that I wrote “Assbitchin’ Pickles” on my list.
Actually, the self-checkouts at the Stop and Shops near me do announce your purchases as they ring up. * Please move your GREEN PEPPERS to the bagging area. Please move your ASSBITCHIN’ PICKLES to the bagging area.* And so on. If you buy items that have a PLU and are sold by quantity rather than weight, it will announce them as well. Please move your TWO CUCUMBERS to the bagging area.
Annoying as shit.
This is my new favorite phrase.
I totally completely agree with any rants concerning the 10-items (or 15-items, or whatever number) lanes. However, I feel I must step up and say that in most stores the cashiers are simply not allowed to tell the idiot with a full cart to go to another lane. So if you wonder why they don’t, it’s because they like having their jobs. Oh, the rants I heard in that Wally World breakroom…
Most of the cashiers I’ve known hated the self-service lanes as much as you and I do, if possibly for some different reasons. Personally, I hated the Kroger ones that told me VERY LOUDLY to swipe my debit card when I went to pay. So it essentially said, 'HEY, THIEVES! LOOK HERE, SHE’S PUTTING IN HER PIN! QUICK, GET IT WHILE YOU CAN!" Or something like that. I really wanted there to be a way to at least turn the volume down, if not completely off. It’s not like it wasn’t completely fucking obvious how to use one’s debit card to pay…
The baggers look at my Ikea bag(a large, wide, open bag) as if it were an alien, too. Put the groceries INTO the bag, please. So, this one bagger did–ALL the groceries. And then she coudn’t lift in into the cart. So, I helped her repack. I’d bitch more about these folks (and sometimes I think they deserve it) but Jewel has a policy of hiring the mentally challenged (what is the PC term for mildly retarded now?) for real. So, I try to be patient. Some people are just mean to these baggers which is not right.
Do you shop in Coronado, Astroboy? I’ll bet you my last name’s worse than yours: I got 4 consonants in a row. They never figure it out.
That’s because they’re both cardboard 
.
d&r
Hoo! That puppy’s in Brighton (right?) and we had to take a special trip to see it when I visited my brother last year. Not only that, several old friends asked if I had been there yet. :rolleyes: Them Ratchistarians are seriously proud of their Wegman’s.
So what is this ‘bagger’ person y’all keep going on about? (kidding - I remember them) Here it’s bag your own at most places. Some checkout clerks will ask if you’d like them to start for you, but most places just grudgingly hand you a few plastic bags and then ignore you and your stuff. Sometimes there’s kids offering to do it for you as a fund raiser for some charity. You have to pay them of course, and they inevitably pile the cat food cans on top of the cream pie. If you tell them ‘no thanks’ you feel like a jerk (the charity is always something like ‘be kind to babies and puppies inc.’) and give them money anyway.
German (and Dutch iirc) markets don’t have bags. Well, they do but you have to pay for them. Most of the markets here are going to the ‘bag for life’ option too. You buy one once and they replace it for free when it wears out. Judging from the number of carrier (plastic grocery) bags littering the highways, byways, and countryside; that’s a fine idea.
The best part about shopping here is that you can hip-check the daft buggers that clog the aisles and they’ll apologize. They don’t apologize if they knock you out of the way though, and they will. ‘Excuse me’ is not in the local vocabulary. I love the English.
I can say, I don’t really have this much vitriol for the clerks, and I shop at WalMart. WalMart! Maybe I’m less observant or I don’t really care. I will say, though, that I hate the fuckers who look at me and laugh like I’m some twelve year old trying out a fake ID to buy some beer. Yeah, I know I look young. Haha, I’ll really appreciate it one day when I’m older! Ain’t that the truth!
Just give me my god damned beer.
Good point. If you’re going to sell alcohol, could there maybe be more than one person that works in the front of the store that old enough to check me out? I really hate those nights when it’s frozen pizza and beer night and I have to hold the line up because nobody as far as the eye can see is over the age of 21 and the only person who is old enough is apparenly busy buidling a life size state of Abraham Lincoln out of pretzel sticks or something and can’t be arsed to come help. I’m buying two things and I’m taking as long as an old lady with an out of state check and 300 cat food coupons.
Yes, but deliciously flavored with salt and vinegar cardboard. 
Just back from the store.
Pepsi twelve packs on sale for $1.99. Piles all over the store.
A space in every fucking display where the Diet Dew is sold out…
If they didn’t also have a 2-pound bag of Ruffles, it wasn’t for the same meal.
I find it to be the ultimate bait and switch that Miracle Whip comes in the identical glass jar as Hellman’s Mayo. Please. It is as if some marketing guru at the Miracle Whip factory thought to himself, " Hey- I know ! I’ll trick unsuspecting Hellman’s Mayo lovers into picking up our jar by mistake and by the time they get home and unscrew the identically textured lid and dip in they won’t be ABLE to return the jar and due to budgetary pressures they will have to eat the entire contents, therefore creating yet another customer by duress. "
Velveeta. Look. You cannot equate Velveeta with Miracle Whip. It’s just not right.
AskNott, we will just have to agree to disagree. Little Wrongy-Wrong Wrongite !
Cartooniverse
For all of you bitching about poor service, idiot cashiers, and understaffing, realize that the stores are only responding to customer demands. In every survey, customers favor lower prices over better service. Why do you think Wal Mart is taking over the world?
So you want smart, union cashiers and fully staffed checkout lanes and zip out of the store. Good for you, but the studies show that you will shop somewhere else if the same item is 20 cents less. That’s why all of the stores hire minimum wage morons and a skeleton crew: You asked for it!!!
Well, it appears that most people aren’t that concerned with customer service. His example of Wal*Mart is spot on. Sure, people complain about customer service–who enjoys bad customer service?–but when it comes down to it, most people just want to save a buck. You see this when people complain about not getting meals on airplanes, but they sure don’t complain about lower flight costs.
I asked for a pony too. Where’s my pony?
I was waiting for this one.
If you are standing in line for twenty minutes, and you must write a check, USE THAT TIME TO FILL OUT YOUR FUCKING CHECK! I’ll even help you spell your damn name if it will speed things up.