People at the supermarket who bug you

In My Humble Opinion
1

Here’s my top ten. Any I missed?

10/ People who park their car right by the door. Yes, you know it says no parking, but you can’t be bothered walking further than 10 feet. Everyone else will just have to squeeze their trolly past your car, cos you’re more important than them and the rules don’t apply to you. Oops, I didn’t scratch it did I?

9/ People who let their child stand in the trolley. Don’t worry that someone else is going to be putting their food where your brat has trampled.

9/ People who abandon their trolley in the middle of the aisle while they browse the shelves. It may get in everyone else’s way, but who cares if it saves you time?

8/ Give that fruit a good going over! Give it a good squeeze. Sniff it. Don’t like it? Then put it back for some other sucker to buy!

7/ Which queue’s the fastest at the checkouts? Don’t know? Then just hedge your bets by straddling two! Don’t pick either until someone else tries to join it, then barge in front with a hurt look on your face.

6/ People who do their shopping at the checkout. It’s ok, we’ll wait while you just nip back and change this. Don’t worry, you’ve forgotten to get milk, everybody who’ve done their shopping in the correct sequence can wait for you.

5/ People who want your place in the queue. Stand too close behind me, won’t ya? Can’t wait until I’ve got my change back from the cashier? Why don’t you just start to push your trolley past me?

4/ People who abandon their trolley at the checkout. It’s ok, I’ll just move the trolley for you, shall I? It’s only blocking the whole queue after all. But why should you be responsible for it now that you don’t need it anymore?

3/ People who are amazed when they’re asked to pay. So you’ve been standing staring into space doing nothing in the queue for the last five minutes. Now they want you to pay!? Why did nobody warn you about this!? Well we’re just going to have to wait while you slowly fish through your handbag looking for your purse.

2/ People who want to talk. It’s ok! We understand! The cashier’s cute and really wants to hear about your day. So do we all, and we’ll stand in this queue all day listening if we have to.

1/ Supermarket staff who lick their fingers to pick plastic bags off the stack. If I wanted spit on my shopping I’d supply my own, ok?

2 
the bases pretty much for who gets on my nerves.

We've got road-rage and air-rage, soon we'll have
supermarket knock-down-drag-outs...
3

That damn produce guy who whistles

the

same

four

notes

over and over and over and over and over.

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

4

People who select an item, decide they don’t want it and then put it back on whatever shelf they happen to be standing near at the time.

5

Heh, heh okay confession time: I’ve done the leave the cart in the aisle and shop thing. In my defense, I really try to leave the cart in an area where it won’t be in the way.

My wife and I ALWAYS forget stuff and then send the other back to get it at the checkout. In our defense, we buy a lot of stuff at one time, so by the time one of us turns back, the order is still being checked, and no one really gets held up.

How about:

**Old women who fish through their purses for the money once the total has been tallied . . instead of using the 15 minutes she’s spent in line getting her money ready?

Children who wander in your way, without looking

People who bump you with their carts at the checkout

When there are more than 5 people in line, and the express line is closed, and you have 5 things to buy

When the deli clerk asks me what I need. I tell her 1/2 a pound of cheese, ham, and baloney. She cuts the ham. she asks “what else?”
i just fucking told you, numbnuts!!!**

I, by the way, HATE those godamn credit card machines. Every one is different, and 1/2 the time the cashier ends up sliding the card for me anyway. What’s the point?

The other night, there was this bitch behind me in line, I guess I was not moving fast enough for her. The cashier checked my groceries. I paid the cashier. The cashier then bagged my 5-6 groceries for me. As I pick up my bag, this whore leans in front of me, and angrily opens a paper bag as the cashier starts checking out.

FUCK YOU TOO, HONEY! Sorry if my bag packing skills suck!

Oh, did I ever mention how much I hate “Stork Parking”? :smiley:

6

  • Blatant express lane violations. Since I usually only buy a half dozen items at a time, these are the biggest for me. If the lane is 10 items or less, squeezing in 11 is okay, but not a half-full cart. And that’s 10 items per party, not per person. If there are three people together, that doesn’t make it okay to bring 30 items to the express lane. Also, 20 cans of cat food count as 20 items, not one. If you’re buying cigarettes, go to the customer service counter where they are kept. Otherwise, the cashier has to go get them for you, holding up the line. They can ring up a few groceries there, too. I wish more cashiers would enforce the limit. some do, but most don’t care (or just don’t want the customers complaining).

  • Stores that have 20 checkout lanes, but never have more than 3 open at any one time. Especially if all the express lanes are closed (see above).

  • People who are also buying things for someone else and want their items rung up separately. Can’t you pay for everything at once and use your receipt to divide up the cost later?

  • People who take way too long to clear the line after they pay. I can’t move my cart up to unload because you have to put away your change, get your keys out, sort your coupons, etc… in front of the register. Just take one step forward please, so the line can keep moving.

  • This only happened to me once, but it’s so bad I have to include it here. A few months ago I was next in line when a kid asked if he could cut ahead because he only had a single item. I only had 4 or 5 items myself, but I thought I’d be nice and let him go. He then waved over his mother who was waiting in another line with a full shopping cart. I was like “what the f***, you said you only had one item!” and he laughed and said “yeah, I only had one, but she has more”. I went to a different line and they were still there paying when I left. I’m never letting anyone cut in front of me ever again.

7

I agree. Writing a check in the “speed aisle” is grounds for a supermarket restraining order.

8

I know this is going to sound mean, but it’s just kind of irritating. You walk into the grocery store and several boxboy/girls ask you if need help finding anything. It’s like wandering into a swarm of Mosquitos! Very pesky! I know they’re just trying to be helpful but too much is annoying. I have a strategy now; walk briskly into the store, keep my head down…don’t look 'em in the eye. If they still bother me, I finally have to scream out, “I’VE BEEN SHOPPING HERE FOR 10 YEARS! I KNOW WHERE THE MIDOL IS!!”

9

Sorry, but I was so grateful for stork parking when I was hugely pregnant and carrying around a two year old. Especially on rainy or icy cold days.

When you’re carrying a huge load in front, another clinging to your hip, your feet are killing you, your back’s about to give out and you feel like your uterus is going to fall out of you, parking a little closer to the store can be a lifesaver. Don’t begrudge this little pregnant perk. :slight_smile:

Sheri

10

Well…I don’t know if this happens everywhere…but there is an older woman that shops in my neighborhood grocery store…she looks normal enough…I watched her one day shucking (I guess that’s the correct term) the corn in her carriage…in the middle of the produce aisle…and she was hiding all of her corn husks under the display of bagged potatoes…and she then proceeded to move about the grocery store opening packages and sampling items…I hate watching people open up the bakery containers just to get a cookie…I even saw someone take a bite then put the rest of the cookie back in the container…what the fu…?!

The worst…the people with carriages (baby and grocery) who think it’s their own personal weapon and use it to nudge me out of there way…a simple “excuse me” would suffice…

11

This one doesn’t bother me, mainly because I can remember the times when I’ve been handed a bill to cover a friend’s purchase and know that I won’t be able to make exact change myself. What does bother me is when cashiers take three times longer to ring up purchases this way. Here’s a ten for the beer. The soda and chips are separate. What’s the problem?

Adding my own items to the gripe list:

  1. Healthy people who use handicapped spaces.
  2. People who let their carts roll into someone else’s vehicle.
  3. People who treat parking lots and shopping carts as their personal waste baskets.
  4. People who sing off key to accompany the store’s canned Christmas music.
  5. Customers who sprint to the checkout line just to box out someone else.
  6. Cashiers who demand a customer’s medical history before ringing up a purchase. (Customer with visible disability gets a rude “What’s wrong with you?”)
  7. Cashiers who order a disabled customer to hurry up.
  8. Managers who keep three battery powered carts for the disabled but don’t recharge any of the batteries.
  9. Baggers who disregard customer requests.
  10. People who steal the coupon sections from the Sunday paper.
12

Please, put the buggy back where it’s supposed to go, rather than abandoning it in the parking lot.
The supermarket thankfully provides these “cart corrals” for you to put the cart in after you’ve loaded the groceries into your vehicle.

As I was walking out of the grocery store to my truck the other day, this couple, who were parked beside my truck, with TWO shopping carts had just finished loading their car and they decided that RIGHT BEHIND MY TRUCK was a convenient place to leave their empty buggys. So I’d have to move them in order to leave.

I obliged them by placing their empty buggys behind their minivan before they got a chance to move out.

OOhhhh, such LANGUAGE I heard from them! Whoof!

13

I prefer to go early in the morning or late in the evening. Hardly any people then, which is exactly how I like it.

But I hate it when I go in the evening and some mom has her obviously-tired todder, who screams the entire time they’re there. And yes, lady - it really helps to slap and scream at the kid to shut up. :rolleyes:

Sheri

14

Old, retired people who shop on Saturday and Sunday rather than on Tuesday or Wednesday norning when I am at work.

15

Yes! For crying out loud, thats what CHECK CARDS were invented for!

“Now, who should I make this out to? Oops, I dated it last month…”.

Funk checks.

16

Parking Lot Woes

You’re backing out or pulling out of your spot, but can’t go anywhere because there’s three or four other vehicles wanting either your space or someone elses. This also applies when you’re going into a parking aisle.

People who dart out in front of you. I had someone do this to me once. When I almost hit them, they gave me a rude look. Right back at ya sweetheart.

Now That I’ve Made it Into the Store…

People who hold parties in the middle of the aisles. “I haven’t seen you in ten years! Oh look, it’s Bob! C’mon over here, Bob!”

I also hate when people dump products they don’t want in the wrong place. My mom does this. Argh! In fact, my mom is half of these complaints. She acts like she owns the fucking store. That’s why I hardly ever go with her to the store.

People who rush around with the carts and almost run into other carts or run over people. Slow down there partner…geez.

Screaming kids. I know that sometimes this isn’t the parent’s fault (sometimes it is) but this still irks me.

The unlucky cart with the wobbly wheel. “Squeak squeak”.

When stores don’t sell Pepsi One. What the hell is wrong with you?!

You Can Check Out, But You Can Never Leave

I too hate those credit card machines. I’m such an idiot that I usually have the cashier show me how to face the card.

The “old lady with the jar of pennies” symdrome. Before you come to the store, make sure you have enough cash or money, please!

Price checks.

17

Actually Sheri, just to nip it in the bud so this thread doesn’t get totally hijacked, this was a little reference to a thread where I started a shitstorm over this issue.

Advice: don’t drink caffeine before reading it! :smiley:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=85277

18

Parents who make a reasonable effort to control their children earn no complaints from me.

I’m starting a personal campaign to revive shushing for the parents who do nothing when their kids shriek and run.

Used to be when I lived in Virginia I’d encounter some parents beating their children in the grocery aisle. I was just a teenager myself then and didn’t know what to do besides shoot dirty looks. If I ever see something like that again I’ll copy their license plate numbers and report them to CPS.

19

HATE a couple things about supermarkets myself.

1~~ People who smack their kids around at the grocery store. It’s like, he just wants a candy bar! Did you think that THIS trip to the grocery store he wouldn’t want one? He always wants one! BUT NO! The parent has to make a bigger scene than the child. I HATE that.

2~~ The checkers who aren’t 18, and can’t check out my beer. If I was in charge, I wouldn’t LET anyone under 18 work at the cash registers on Friday and Saturday night! Duh! It makes no sense!

3~~ ABSOLUTELY can NOT stand it when BOYS sack my groceries. They put my soap in the same sack with my raw chicken, and all of it on top of my bread. Not to mention that when it’s a guy who sacked my groceries at LEAST half of the bags break on my way into the house. GRRRR

4~~ Can’t stand it when the people at the registers are asking you to donate money.

I once had a young checker hint that I SHOULD be donating my $1 to the cancer society (or what ever cancer research center was up for the donation) because I was purchasing a pack of ciggarettes (SP?). HOW RUDE!

grrrrrrrrrrr

Okay, my rant is over, I believe. :slight_smile:

20

They have all pretty much gone over, except…

I am just a bachelor so when I go to the store I am usually using one of those hand carry totes. Well y’know some of the stuff I put in there can be heavy and sometimes I can be carrying that and something in my other hand. So why is it that some folks insist on putting all of their items on that conveyer belt at the very end, instead of moving it up. Or why must they spread all their items out to take up the whole conveyer belt, when all I want is a tiny sliver to put at least some of the heavier items on. It’s not overwhelmingly heavy, but c’mon!

Also, I hate the "shopping carts go anywhere but the cart corrals’ philosophy. Honestly I think people are just so damn lazy sometimes.