# Incredibly common products which the store clerk never heard of **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 23, 2021, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225 "2021-09-23T21:29:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/223 "2021-09-27T23:45:22Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Colonist here, pushing 70, been cooking for five decades or so, some of it with ‘root vegetables’… and never knew what a parsnip was. I really really was specific about which country I was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2021, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/224 "2021-09-27T23:54:42Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > They still didn’t know _where_ they were because it’s one of those items that can be shelved in multiple places (which was why I couldn’t find them), so they looked it up on their store computer to find them for me. They turned out to be shelved next to baking items, which isn’t terribly useful for the staff or customers, but they are genuinely hard items to shelve. Some grocery stores here inexplicably don’t stock dried mushrooms (although they have them in their online listings) but the ones that do always have them in the vegetable section near the fresh mushrooms. One of the better stores here has a display with a substantial assortment, usually with most of the 10 varieties I noted upthread. The standard size packages aren’t very big so I usually have about half a dozen of them around, mostly porcinis. A while ago my favourite little Italian boutique grocery used to have large plastic containers of dried porcini mushrooms imported from Italy, both air dried and sun dried, but I haven’t seen those since COVID hit. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/225 "2021-09-28T00:32:33Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I was always wondering why it looked so nice and clean compared to other root vegetables. Daikon has always struck me as ‘too clean’ looking. If I didn’t know better, I’d guess they grew on trees. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/226 "2021-09-28T02:16:42Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > I just came from one of the larger nurseries in the area. Not only did they not have a grass whip, the clerk didn’t know what one was. Nor do they carry one at my local hardware store. I’d probably have to go to a farm supply place to find one. It certainly isn’t an “incredibly common product” around here. I got my current one at either Lowes or Home Depot. Walmart and Ace Hardware both had them too but you had to have it shipped to your house. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/227 "2021-09-28T04:00:21Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I have no idea of the origin of “eggplant”. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mQoNAR1um_c/maxresdefault.jpg "Eggplant vs. Aubergine vs. Brinjal — Why so many names?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQoNAR1um_c&t=471s) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/228 "2021-09-28T06:08:58Z")
I’ve told this story before, but it was years ago, and can be repeated. In a kind of reverse to the OP, I remember visiting Australia in the mid-1990s. I was staying with relatives, and one day, they gave me their car keys, and a shopping list, and sent me off to the supermarket. I had no problem finding most of the items: cans of soup, some tomatoes, milk, coffee, bread and rolls, and so on. But one item had me flummoxed: a “capsicum.” I asked a store clerk, and he, hearing my North American accent directed me to the produce section, where I found “capsicums” to be what I would call “bell peppers.” Another list item was “tomato sauce.” I selected what I thought was a nice Marinara sauce from the pasta aisle. When I got home, my hosts agreed that it was, but what they really wanted was ketchup–which, to many Australians, is simply called “tomato sauce.” ---
**Author:** ![Fir\_na\_tine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fir\_na\_tine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fir_na_tine)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/229 "2021-09-28T12:41:05Z")
I have 3 basin wrenches in my tool bag. Do you need one? Free! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/230 "2021-09-28T14:14:53Z")
After a brief search in the lighting section of Lowe’s yesterday was unsuccessful, I asked a worker where the shop lights were. He looked at me as though I’d asked for a perpetual motion machine. I clarified that I wanted a two-tube T8 fluorescent light fixture. It turns out that Lowe’s is phasing out their T-8s in favor of all-LED fixtures. But the one I eventually got was called a shop light anyway, so it shouldn’t have been a mystery. At supermarket checkouts I’ve occasionally had to explain the identity of vegetables that were unknown to cashiers, for instance okra, which flabbergasted a checker in Ohio. It probably wouldn’t have been a problem in Georgia. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/231 "2021-09-28T14:21:09Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > …for instance okra, which flabbergasted a checker in Ohio. Most (not all) of the okra here is frozen. I get it all the time. And I’m going food shopping today. I’ll see whether I can find dried mushrooms. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/232 "2021-09-28T19:53:30Z")
Some of y’all need to reconfigure what you consider “incredibly common.” Anyway, I bought a ‘grass whip’ yesterday because of this thread. Google knew what that meant and so did the Lowe’s website, but the Home Depot website did not. Lowe’s was out of stock so I bought one at Ace. FYI, it is labeled on the handle “weed cutter.” ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/233 "2021-09-28T20:11:27Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > ketchup–which, to many Australians, is simply called “tomato sauce.” I wonder what they call a can of tomato sauce then. And I wouldn’t call a plain ol’ can of tomato sauce “marinara.” ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/234 "2021-09-28T20:36:15Z")
There’s a town in central California (near Modesto) called Manteca. Just sayin’. And Atascadero. In SoCal, there’s Brea. They sound so much better in Spanish! ---
**Author:** ![Esturionette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9d8465/32.png) [@Esturionette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esturionette)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/235 "2021-09-28T21:52:43Z")
On the other side of this coin, I had a nice experience with a customer at my stationery shop the other day. He was buying lever-arch files and while I was scanning them he said, sheepishly: “I also wanted some of those… _waves hand_ …little plastic thingies, but I couldn’t find them”. At that moment, my mind also went blank as to the word, but I instantly knew what he meant, so I said: “Little plastic thingies? Of course, that’s what we call them here”. And I went and got him a packet of punched pockets, and we had a good laugh. I should have gotten him to fill a review card. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/236 "2021-09-28T22:21:10Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > There’s a town in central California (near Modesto) called Manteca. Just sayin’. > > And Atascadero. > > In SoCal, there’s Brea. Don’t forget Los Banos. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/237 "2021-09-28T22:24:00Z")
Well, that’s because of the hot springs – not bathtubs. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/238 "2021-09-28T22:25:59Z")
Yeah I know. That fact still hasn’t stopped generations of adolescents from calling it “the bathrooms”. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/239 "2021-09-28T22:41:46Z")
This isn’t really about “a product” that the clerk never heard of, but I’m reminded of an event that fits with the general theme of retail stupidity. On one of my visits to California at some tender age of 21 or 22, I dropped in to a grocery store and picked up a pack of beer. The cashier, a typical California valley girl of about 18, demanded to see ID. I showed her my driver’s license. “Oh, wow, what’s that?” says Valley Girl, “that’s not a California driver’s license”. Correct, Valley Girl. It is a driver’s license from the Province of Ontario, Canada, issued by the Government of Ontario. “That’s no good here, sorry, no beer for you.” I walked across the street and got my beer there. Valley Girl saves California from the curse of underage drinking by Canadian foreigners (in her own mind, anyway)! ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ukulele_ike1/32/4613_2.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike1)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2021, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/240 "2021-09-28T22:53:18Z")
Back in my hippie days we called hair elastics (for making ponytails) “green things.” Because you never bought them, just always found them lying around somewhere, and they were ALWAYS GREEN. I think people bought packages at the drug store and threw away all the green ones for some reason. Anyway, if you had a red one or a yellow one, you called it a “red green thing” or a “yellow green thing.” I wonder what reaction I’d get if I went into a shop and asked for some yellow green things. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2021, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/241 "2021-09-29T00:02:41Z")
Not sure if I can blame that valley girl too much for this. She is looking to spot fake IDs, and while she might or might not believe Canada is a real place, the ID is definitely unfamiliar to her, so she couldn’t judge whether it was valid or not. Nothing so bad as the time I was buying cigarettes at the age of 45 or so, and the clerk demanded my ID. It turned out my license was expired, and he wouldn’t sell me smokes! Outraged, I was. All the same, glad it was him who spotted the problem and not Mr. friendly policeman. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2021, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/242 "2021-09-29T02:10:15Z")
I had the exact same thing happen to me two years ago. My driver’s license was expired but I had already sent the paperwork in for a renewed one. Went to buy beer from a convenience store and the clerk told me because it was expired he couldn’t sell me alcohol which made no sense, you’re checking my age not checking my driver’s license status. I’m not suddenly UNDER 21 if my license expires. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225.md?page=13)