# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/101 "2021-09-25T05:40:42Z")
That’s as may be, and I’m familiar with the smaller cotter pins because most brake jobs involve a few of those, at least on old cars. But those trailer hitch pins I’ve never heard called anything BUT a cotter pin. Left coast thing maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Tarataratara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tarataratara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarataratara)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/102 "2021-09-25T05:44:41Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > I was rather taken aback last month that the young woman stocking at the supermarket had never heard of apple butter. More surprising, she was right. I couldn’t find any in that store. Apple butter has been hard to find for about a year. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/103 "2021-09-25T05:47:35Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Left coast thing maybe? Maybe. I’m from CA and “cotter pin” only brings to mind the hair pin type. While I’ve seen the straight kind, they’re rare enough in my experience that I’m not sure I ever had a name for them. **beowulff** ’s own link lists “Hair Pin Cotter Pins” under “Types of Cotter Pins”. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/104 "2021-09-25T06:10:21Z")
> [@Tarataratara](#): > > Apple butter has been hard to find for about a year. On the plus side, it’s dead easy to make, especially if you can find some really hard, sour apples and use some brown sugar to make it. Comes out ambrosial. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/105 "2021-09-25T06:50:13Z")
What, nobody mentioned matzoh yet (however one might spell that)? Away out here in the yonder boonies (yeah, just a 90 minute drive from San Francisco), just try finding it in any grocery store around here. Or at least, find a clerk who has any idea what that is. With a little searching, one _might_ find it somewhere around Passover time, maybe. The rest of the year, fugeddaboutit. One clerk thought maybe I was asking for masa. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/106 "2021-09-25T08:40:31Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I’ve had to tell the checkout clerk the names of vegetables they’ve never heard of. The only one I can remember right now is a rutabaga (which you Brits call a Swede, I believe), but there have been others. At work I’ve become known as the person your hold up the “weird vegetable” in front of for identification. Some of the young’uns really struggle with that. We also sometimes with an issue with something having two different names, like pak choi/bok choi, or anise/fennel. Then we have folks from abroad who will call a zucchini a “courgette” (which, I believe, is the more common term in Europe) or an eggplant an “aubergine”. This confuses most of my co-workers who have never been out of the US Midwest. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > There is also the possibility that someone under the age of, say, 18, has never seen a vegetable in its original form, including potatoes. French fries, yes. Chips/crisps, yes. But a whole potato before it’s been cut up and fried? Maybe not. That goes for other vegetables, too. Yep, I’ve run into that - young adults who are unfamilar with unprocessed food. When we hire folks we run them through a course that makes sure they have some notion of the more common things we sell (defined as those we sell the most of in our area) but if you have never cooked it can be a struggle. Which is why we also let them know who they can ask if they have a problem. It gets even more fun with items swathed in plastic. At this point I can distinguish between beets and plums most of the time they’re behind plastic, but if a customer used multiple bags I might say “these are beets, right?” just to confirm. Then there is cilantro/coriander (another case of dual terminology!) and Italian/flat-leaf (again!) parsley - those I always doublecheck because even for the experienced they can be confused for each other unless you can get a sniff of them. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Oh, when it comes to root vegetables, it’s a coin toss if the cashier knows the difference between or what one of these is: kohlrabi, parsnip, parsley root, jicama, celery root (celeriac), turnip, rutabaga. [nitpick] Kohlrabi is not a root vegetable. It’s a stem vegetable, although they leaves are also edible [/nitpick] > [@pulykamell](#): > > Peppers can also get confused quite a bit: anaheim vs banana pepper vs cubanelle; fresnos and jalapenos are often mixed up if the jalapenos are red (we get red jalapenos here in season.) It can get quite confusing unless you use these vegetables regularly Peppers is an area where I am weak. It doesn’t help that apparently a lot of our customers who use peppers also don’t know what they’re called, they just grab them at random. I occasionally ask the abeulas coming through my line, but often they only know the Spanish and my look-up table for peppers is only in English. I once had someone say “why don’t you just look at the picture on that thing?” but my check out doesn’t provide pictures - the self checkout does, but they pictures are so tiny that it’s hard to distinguish jalapeños from serranos. I wish I knew my peppers better. The guys who inventory must having fits because I’m sure what they’re getting from the registers isn’t matching what they had in stock. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And how can they possibly tell if I’m buying conventional Honeycrisp apples or organic Honeycrisp apples, assuming of course that they’ve figured out that these are Honeycrisp apples. It’s the little stickers with the four (for conventional) or five (for organic) numbers on them. Some of our organics have different packaging than conventional. As for apple varieties - after awhile the color, size, and scent starts to tip you off though I’m sure some of the customers cheat with the red varieties that look very similar. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/107 "2021-09-25T11:35:20Z")
> [@Stana\_Claus](#): > > Growing up in the deep south, that’s what we always called a sling blade or swing blade. In fact, there’s a Billy Bob Thornton movie from 1996 by that very name. No, a grass whip is a light tool shaped like a golf club with a serrated straight blade instead of the head, and you swing it more or less the same. A sling blade is much heavier and has a wide blade that sticks straight out the end of a heavier straight handle more like an axe handle. The blade tapers down to a hook pointed off to the side. It’s also known as a ditch bank blade or a kaiser blade. > **[Sling blade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sling_blade)** > > A sling blade or kaiser blade is a heavy, hooked, steel blade at the end of a long (around 100-centimetre (40 in)) handle that is usually made of wood. The blade is double-edged, and both sides are usually kept sharp. It is used to cut brush, briar, and undergrowth. Other common names for the tool are bush knife, ditch bank blade, briar axe, and surveyor's brush axe. On the East Coast of the United States some farmers call it a bush axe. The Plover, Wisconsin dialect refers to it as a ditch wi It... ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/108 "2021-09-25T11:50:34Z")
Lysol Concentrate, in the Brown bottle. They were baffled. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/109 "2021-09-25T11:59:30Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > And then there were the people who asked for things that, to this day, I haven’t encountered, like the man who wanted ‘rabbit repellent’ and was furious that I couldn’t tell him where it was. He insisted he’d bought it here before, but I have no idea what he was looking for. No one else I worked with had heard of it either. He was probably looking for dried blood, sold as deer and rabbit repellant. > [@eburacum45](#): > > Same here. Is a ‘thumb drive’ a specialised type of flash drive? I remember these being called thumb drives: I have one of the early ones and it is the size of my thumb. > [@E-DUB](#): > > A staff person at Meijers didn’t know what longjohns are. “Long johns?” I’m surprised that the person didn’t send you to the bakery. Wikipedia states: “The Long John is a bar-shaped, yeast risen pastry like a doughnut either coated entirely with glaze or top-coated with cake icing. They may be filled with custard or creme. The term Long John is used in the Midwestern U.S. and Canada, and has been used in Texas.” (I wonder if that outlier Texas usage is the result of the internal migration many years ago when the Midwest economy tanked and people there moved to Texas. Texans called the people from Michigan “black tags” because at the time the Michigan license plate had a black background.) ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/110 "2021-09-25T12:22:05Z")
A few years ago my wife sent me to the local Hannaford to get some lard for her Christmas pies. I had assumed it would be refrigerated (it isn’t) and so wasn’t finding it. I saw a kid, late teens maybe early 20s. It went like this: Excuse me. I’m looking for the lard. _Lard? What’s that?_ Pig fat. Used in cooking _[looked grossed out] We don’t sell that_. Yes you do. Get me someone older than 30 [He brings over a manager] _Lard? It’s in aisle such and such._ ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/111 "2021-09-25T12:47:35Z")
Well, I’ve never seen, used, nor heard the names of grass whips and sling blades until reading this thread. I have used a hoe with a somewhat similar design, but it was used by running the blade just below the surface of the ground, cutting off the tops of weeds. And while i know what dried mushrooms are, I’ve never cooked with them (my dad used them when making certain Chinese dishes i don’t make) and wouldn’t know which aisle to look for them in. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/112 "2021-09-25T12:58:59Z")
Malt powder. I told the store clerk “it’s a sweet powdered milk product that you put in ice cream to make milk shakes” and she shook her head slowly like I was trying to summon demons. Same thing with capers. I don’t mind people not knowing stuff, but for chrissakes, _ask a manager_. It can’t be that often that people will waste their own time schlepping to the grocery store for an item that can’t possibly in a million be found in a grocery store. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/113 "2021-09-25T13:06:42Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > On the first day when Mission Impossible (the TV show) became available on DVD, we went into Best Buy to get a copy. The 18 year old blue shirter didn’t even know what we were talking about. He kept insisting we wanted the movies because it was NEVER a TV show. Took a manger to find it. Clerk probably still thinks we were delusional. Yeah, I have found that sometimes when the [usually young] store employee never heard of the item I’m looking for they get this self-righteous attitude of if they never heard of it then it cannot possibly exist. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/114 "2021-09-25T13:12:26Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > I’m surprised that the person didn’t send you to the bakery. Wikipedia states: “The Long John is a bar-shaped, yeast risen pastry like a doughnut either coated entirely with glaze or top-coated with cake icing. They may be filled with custard or creme. The term Long John is used in the Midwestern U.S. and Canada, and has been used in Texas.” I’m not surprised - when there are multiple names for a product ( that article says they are also called “eclairs” and “bar doughnuts” in other areas) or multiple products with the same name (“long johns” to me would be long underwear ) , you can’t really know if the person has never heard of the product ( I’ve never heard of or seen a “grass whip” or “sling blade” by any name) or if they know the product by a different name/know a different product by that name and that’s why they can’t tell you where to find the “long johns” ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/115 "2021-09-25T13:41:42Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > A staff person at Meijers didn’t know what longjohns are. “Long johns?” Underwear or doughnuts? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/116 "2021-09-25T14:10:52Z")
Whoa! My hat is off to you! 🎩 This post will self-destruct in 5…4…3…2… sssss 💥 * * * > [@Broomstick](#): > > Peppers is an area where I am weak. It doesn’t help that apparently a lot of our customers who use peppers also don’t know what they’re called, they just grab them at random. I occasionally ask the abeulas coming through my line, but often they only know the Spanish and my look-up table for peppers is only in English. I once had someone say “why don’t you just look at the picture on that thing?” but my check out doesn’t provide pictures - the self checkout does, but they pictures are so tiny that it’s hard to distinguish jalapeños from serranos. I wish I knew my peppers better. It’s practically impossible to get a handle on all the peppers there are. I watch a lot of cooking shows, and the TV chef will say, “Chop up a chili pepper,” and won’t specify what kind. There are a ZILLION different kinds! In my south Texas neighborhood grocery store alone there are a dozen different _fresh_ ones and about the same number of _dried_ ones. Even so, Rachael Ray used to talk about “Italian frying peppers” that her mom used in upstate New York. I could never find anything by that name around here. Did she mean _cubanelles_? I dunno. Pati Jinich is pretty good about naming the specific peppers she is using, and so is Chris Kimball. Jamie Oliver is not-- apparently, to him a chili is a chili is a chili. BTW, jalapenos turn red when they’re ripe. > **[The Ultimate Guide to Peppers](https://powerfoodhealth.com/buzzfeed/the-ultimate-guide-to-peppers/)** > > This is a partial field guide to peppers. With upwards of 2,000 kinds of chile peppers in the world, it’s hard to catch ’em all, but we delved in and picked ---
**Author:** ![Mikkel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikkel/32/13151_2.png) [@Mikkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikkel)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/117 "2021-09-25T14:19:56Z")
Or [bicycle](https://www.bilka.dk/produkter/sco-long-john/100539861/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwkbuKBhDRARIsAALysV6sE8DQdNEeXDf8CSn3S8bhnpFiaTiEKcZ7qOi3r4DUTelzANgV_-YaAhEMEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/118 "2021-09-25T16:03:05Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Even so, Rachael Ray used to talk about “Italian frying peppers” that her mom used in upstate New York. I could never find anything by that name around here. Did she mean _cubanelles_ ? I dunno. Pati Jinich is pretty good about naming the specific peppers she is using, and so is Chris Kimball. Jamie Oliver is not-- apparently, to him a chili is a chili is a chili. Try a search on “corno di capra”, AKA goathorn peppers. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2021, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/119 "2021-09-25T16:22:18Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > It’s practically impossible to get a handle on all the peppers there are. The grocery store we shop at categorizes bulk peppers as “miscellaneous hot peppers” all the same price per pound. Makes it easy. ---
**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 25, 2021, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225/120 "2021-09-25T16:38:16Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > I was rather taken aback last month that the young woman stocking at the supermarket had never heard of apple butter. More surprising, she was right. I couldn’t find any in that store. Though her suggestion to look next to the regular butter was not all that helpful. Did you look near the peanut butter? That’s where I’ve seen it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incredibly-common-products-which-the-store-clerk-never-heard-of/951225.md?page=7)