I haven’t worked there since August '99. It’s an okay chain store, the only benefit I got from it (other than the $$) was now I know when the trucks come in.
If you think that imagery is frightening, you don’t want to be around when I describe what should happen to people who wait until you’ve stacked and fronted the baby food and then reach all the way to the back of the shelf for that special jar they just had to have, knocking over every other jar on the shelf as they do so. Special place in hell, I tells ya.
I would call it something like unintentional vandalism as I don’t think most of these excuses for people purposely try to ruin the goods, they’re either just that stupid or don’t care… and unfortunately stupidity ain’t a crime, although if I were an owner and I saw someone hiding a crossrib roast behind the crackers I’d like to have a “chat” with them.
I guess when you get these “super grocerystores” which is of the type I mentioned in the OP, if even only 1 percent of the “shoppers” are guilty of putting stuff where it doesn’t belong, out of thousand people a day (which is probably quite conservative) thats still 10 people.
Ah, okay, my apologies and special dispensation to people shopping with hand baskets.
Me, I put off the grocery runs until there’s practically nothing in the house even a rat would eat, so I’m always the one in the regular lines with the overflowing cart, and I was only picturing my fellow cart-users.
It’s really so simple for us. There’s this cart right in front of us, after all, and the handle/seat area is at exactly the right height for writing. Set your purse onto it, grope through for the checkbook & pen, rest the checkbook on top of your purse and start writing. If the line advances as you write, just shove the cart ahead a foot or so and keep writing. Simple!
So simple almost no one does it.
You want to hear another of my grocery-related peeves? (Too bad, you’re going to hear it anyway.)
Cashiers who haven’t been fully taught how to use the cash register. I always pay by check, and I always round my check up to some multiple-of-ten-dollars amount. This makes it easier to balance my checkbook and gives me a bit of cash for whatever.
At least 3 out of 4 times the cashier stares at the check for a bit, and then starts trying to guess how much to enter as ‘requested cash back’ so the amount the cash reqister shows as owing equals what I wrote the check for. Almost half the time the amount they enter is wrong, leaving them staring more blankly at the register, often leading to summoning of a front end supervisor.
Uh, people…all you have to do is enter the amount the check is for, and the nice cash register will show you how much change is due the customer. It’s completely analogous to what happens when someone hands you a twenty to pay for a $3.56 order – but they just don’t seem to get it.
At the store I used to work, you could never get anyone to come and get the ice cream before it became a puddle of goo. (They’d never answer a call for a price check, either, but that’s another thread.)
I remember working one evening when a customer changed their mind about a bag of frozen chicken filets. I called over the intercom for grocery about six times during the course of the evening, but my shift ended before they ever came. The next day, I was assigned to the same register, and the filets were STILL in the bin, now melted and leaking juice all over the other items. Ruined were a book, a sweater, and several dry-goods grocery items. (Probably at least $50 in total.)
Hehe!! That’s alright. The store is on the way home, so most of the time I do shopping only one or two days at a time.
As to the “change back” thing? Oh, that’s a huge pet peeve of mine. I remember being a teen working at Mickey D’s and being required to know how to count change back. And even I could do it and I’m terrible at math!
Last time I informed an employee of a perishable item in a perishing location, I was told that they have to throw it out – they have no way of telling how long it’s been there, so it goes in the garbage.
Some of the “misplaced” goods are put there on purpose. I admit to doing it myself! After buying muffins and having them go moldy the next day, two weeks in a row, I wrote a nice polite letter of concern to the grocer. I never heard back from them. After a few more incidents of spoiled foods and overcharges at the register it was time to take action. The stores don’t care about their customers and the union help doesn’t care either. Let them try to raise prices due to loss and customers will find another store to shop at. Piss on the grocers and their disrespect for customers.
Sorry to hear that you shop at SuperStankHoMart, Linguini.
The people at my local stores are all quite nice. My only source of upset is the asshats who cannot fathom the purpose of an express lane. About 15 items could be fudged to 17 or maybe 20 if no body else is in the line, but 15raised to a higher damn power is not what the grocery framing fathers had in mind.
A pox on these monkeys, and a curse be upon their moustaches!
:eek:
To the OP: Are you shopping at Wal-Mart? It sounds like it.
I like grocery shopping, but only when I’m at a nice, clean store. I refuse to shop at stores like Giant Eagle and Wal-Mart (aka Dante’s 57th circle of Hell) because they are so filthy. Both of those stores are disgusting. You never know what produce was dropped on the floor, kicked around, and picked up and put back on the pile. There were flies everywhere, dirt everywhere. Green meats in the butcher section, open packages in the cereals and cookie aisles. Dirty bathrooms–literally shit on the walls and other nasties. I know that most stores can’t afford to have someone standing around and watching over everything, but they can make efforts to ensure that their products are fresh. What really pissed me off about those stores was not any of that (even the best of stores can sometimes get a bad apple or two) but the customers. These customers would block the aisles, run over things then put them on the shelves, pick through everything and taste and smell stuff then put it back. And I’m a very vocal person. If I see something that bugs me, I say something. I’ve nudged people if I say excuse me and they don’t make an effort to move. And my personal favorite thing–the cashier bagging my stuff putting my fresh chicken on top of my lettuce, basically ruining my fresh produce with salmonella and other icky bacteria (they of course do this after I’ve unloaded my cart completely on the conveyor belt before they even turn to acknowledge me). I’ve voted with my wallet and shop elsewhere. I will not go to those stores, not even if I’m out of toilet paper and they have the last roll in the state on their shelf. I’ll use sandpaper, thanks. (And yes, I have written letters to headquarters of both stores listed and included copies of receipts showing exactly how much money I’m spending with another grocery store–Martins, where I can go shopping blindfolded and still get great products…and cheap, if I use coupons and watch their sale ads in the paper.)
Let me be the first to take this rant outside - the same ahem adults that can’t figure out how to behave IN the store seem to have the same problems outside. If the sign says “Handicapped Parking”, that FRIGGIN’ MEANS DON’T PARK THERE IF YOU’RE NOT HANDICAPPED!!! And having no social conscience doesn’t count as handicapped, either. And I don’t friggin’ care if you’re “Just running in for a few things.”
Remember when you got out of your car and walked across the parking lot to the store and back? Well, other people are trying to do that now, and you turning the parking lot into DeathRace 2003 isn’t helping. Please drive IN THE FRIGGIN’ LANES, AT A REASONABLE SPEED. It’s a parking lot, not a friggin’ freeway.
And you know those pretty, straight yellow lines painted all over the parking lot? Well, they put them there to guide you where to put your car so that we can all get maximum enjoyment out of our parking experience. If your driving skills are at such a level that you can’t manage to park a 6 foot wide car between two lines that are about 10 feet apart, then I strongly suggest that you look into taking some remedial driving lessons. Oh, and the space where the carts are returned? That isn’t a spot specially reserved just for you. Next time I see this, I’m parking my friggin’ cart on their friggin’ hood. And they can keep the quarter.
How about the woman whose six year old kid was bouncing a rubber ball as high as he could around the store and then running after it (and into me)? I mean, it’s not a daycare, if you’re going to bring your kids, keep them under control!
I was kicked in the chest recently by a little girl turning cartwheels in the dairy aisle of my grocery store. Shocked, I said something to the effect of “Behave yourself!” to her and stumbled away. (Not exactly succinct, but I was stunned, and in pain.)
The mother, who was eyeing the cheeses, barked “Wonder what the fuck HER problem was!” As if she hadn’t just seen her little acrobat nearly send me flying with a kick between the breasts.
Oh, yes, the children in the stores. We just about nailed a wayward child last weekend - ineffectual mom calling “Come over here. Come over here.” while the child ran around the place. The child ran in front of our cart as we were pushing it down the aisle - nearly got a bullseye. Then a lady coming the other way just about nailed the kid. This is not a playground, people. I don’t want to look like the bad guy because I knocked your kid over when he ran in front of my cart.
Another reason to wash fruit - I’ve seen snotty nosed kids sitting in the child seat in the cart, fondling everything they could get their germy little hands on as the parent is blissfully unaware. Blecch.
(One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in a grocery store was a woman who was letting her little brat run rampant in the store, then knocked the kid over with her own cart. Dumbass.)
Kinda, but not really. It’s called the Real Canadian Superstore, or just Superstore for short.
Kinda like a Super Wal-Mart but it has somewhat less of the department store stuff.
Its not like the store is a dirty slum either. It’s pertty clean. The floors are quite clean and mopped, the cashiers are friendly. I get treated quite well. It really is the dumbfuck customers that piss me off. I just can’t stand seeing such frivilous waste. It drives me batty.
Kids in stores… now thats a whole other rant. Kids=OK
Shitty kids = Stay the fuck home. Terrorize the house and color the walls or something… although of course nobody thinks their kids are bad.
I get seriously frustrated when people don’t put carts back. I know carts don’t spoil, but when I see a row of parking spots free at Sam’s Club and pull into one, only to hastily punch my brakes so that I don’t hit the FUCKING CART THAT’S TAKING UP FOUR DIFFERENT PARKING SPOTS, I get a little pissed. I’ve actually asked people if they’re just too damn lazy to walk ten feel to the cart corral. It’s shamed several of them into actually taking their carts. And I tend to grab a cart or two to shove in the corral on my way.
I do shop at one grocery store that hangs onto their old ways - they have baggers and people who take your groceries out to your car. There’s no tipping allowed, and it’s always a pleasant, clean place to shop. Sure, it costs a little more, but I’ll pay a little more for a better experience.
