I was in the supermarket the other week, with my groceries already on the belt, when a man came up behind me and wanted to go first because he just wanted cash out. What’s with that? Wouldn’t it be easier to go to the ATM which is about three metres away from the door?
There are a couple of cashiers at my local supermarket who are chatty. This is a small town, so a lot of people know each other, but it bugs me to no end when I’m stuck in a line having to listen to a personal conversation between the cashier and a customer.
The Trader Joe’s in DC works like this. The line can be 30+ deep yet it moves unbelievably fast. I don’t know why they don’t all implement this.
Easier, perhaps. But more expensive. Very likely he wanted to use EFTPOS for the fee-free transaction.
However it doesn’t excuse asking you if he could go first when your stuff was already on the conveyor. That’s a dick move. You go to the service desk where they flog cigarettes to do EFTPOS-only transactions.
Ugh, yes. I live in a highly populated suburb and not a Saturday goes by a huuuuge group is hawking something outside the grocery store entrance. Usually it’s a soccer/cheerleading/lacrosse/band group doing a bake sale with every member at once yelling “WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUY SOME BAKED GOOOOOODS?” so you look like an ass if you quietly answer “no thank you”, especially when my 7-year old sees the piles of brownies, rice krispie treats, cookies, etc.
Also can’t stand when people meander down the LEFT side of the aisle with their carts then seem totally and completely surprised when I round the corner and nearly collide with them.
Probably. It surprises me that the store allows it. They’re not getting anything out of it - used to be, you had to at least buy a packet of Lifesavers or chewing gum to be allowed to use EFTPOS.
My favorite Mexican grocery store in Detroit has lines that specifically indicate that WIC coupons aren’t allowed. Since it’s a poor part of the city, lots of women use WIC, and if you get behind even just one of them, it screws up the line speed immensely. The non-WIC lines are great!
The Walmarts in Mexico all have a “unifila” (single line) that works like this. They still have regular lanes, too, but the unifila has about 10 checkouts, an LED display telling you where to go, and often an employee to direct you, too. (Alas the one Walmart I’ve been to in China doesn’t have this, and additionally it was crappy like a Michigan Walmart.)
I really don’t understand this. What ads? I have never gotten a single ad either in the mail or through email from signing up for a loyalty card. Ever. The only things I get from signing up are discounts. But yeah, fuck saving money!
All the US Military Commissaries I have seen have been like this: one line and an employee to tell you which checkout stand to go to next. I think the emplyee directing traffic can be dispensed with, but it is a good system. I would like the bank drive thru to adopt it.
My store sends me coupons, even for free items, like a free pound of butter, a free dozen eggs, etc. Damn them! 
- The charity groups set up outside. Sometimes I wait for somebody to go out ahead of me and follow in their wake; either they stop and buy a box of cookies and I sail on past, or they’re the ones to say no thanks, and I just keep on walking.
- There’s one awful grocery chain I really dread going into because it so cluttered. There are tables full of random crap (like half a dozen different kinds of shampoo and conditioner, all sizes and colors) set up willy-nilly in the front. Half the stuff for sale, there’s no indication of how much it costs - what’s with that?? If there is a price sign, it’s something like “2 for $3.67” or 'buy one, get one half price" - only of course there’s no price listed. The shelves are too high, the aisles too narrow, and there are too many things marked with oddball prices. It’s just poorly laid out, price signs missing, too much clutter, and frankly it makes me headache-y and dizzy.
- The service desk: waiting behind Big Winners buying lottery tickets, or people cashing their paychecks. Shouldn’t they be doing that at a gas station or 7-11?
- I don’t think I’ve ever brought home a peach, tomato, or pear that hasn’t been cruelly gashed and wounded in transit.
They use the purchase data and sell it to marketing firms so they can track the pattern of purchases. The marketing firms use this information to design more effective ads that will compel you to buy more things you would otherwise have avoided. Did you really think the grocery stores were just so benevolent that they’d knock off $0.50 of every item for scanning a plastic card?
You know those free food samples that stores sometimes give out? I hate it when people go up to these free sample stands, take their sample, and then STAND THERE as they eat it.
If there are other customers behind you, then MOVE, people. You don’t need to stand there daintily, especially if you’re going to take your sweet time in consuming the stuff. Some customers want to have their turns at the free samples, and others just want to get through the aisles. Either way, you’re hindering the flow of shopping car traffic, so please MOVE IT.
There’s a supermarket near me that separates the bread by time of day. So the English muffins and other breakfast bread items are together, sandwich and other lunch breads together and then the dinner rolls in a third display. Each is a few feet from the others. But there’s a clear separation. Not a complaint, really. It’s just weird.
Alpha Beta supermarkets had all the stock arranged in alphabetical order.
Here’s one that just occurred to me.
If I’ve only got one or two items I prefer the self checkout if the line is nil. Well one store requires that you scan you loyalty card (gasp!) BEFORE doing anything else. So I have to put my basket down, fumble for my wallet, find my card, scan it, put my wallet back, scan everything, fumble for my wallet again to pay because it fell to the bottom of my purse again…
And invariably I forget that this store requires you scan first (unlike others were you can scan first or at any time during the process right up to the very end) and have to wait for someone who works there to come over, reset the machine and remind me to scan my card.
It’s not just the self scan though, if I’m doing a big shop I have to stop, find my card and give it to them before I can finish unloading my cart and it just hangs things up. Better when I can put everything on the conveyor, they can start scanning, and once I’ve completely offloaded I can get all my cards out to scan the discount and pay before they’re done scanning.
Back when I was shopping in commissaries, they didn’t have the directing employee, just a single line. And Og help the person who tried to break into the line. There are SOME good aspects of military culture. I didn’t like tipping the baggers, though. That was a pain to figure out, whether to tip by weight or number of bags or amount of purchase.
And they’re not even doing that. The non-card prices are artificially higher. I see it all the time: I’ll sometimes go to the tiny, dirty little Kroger to get something (because it’s close) and the price-with-card is the same price (to the penny) that Meijer has it for up the street. There is no discount.
I remember this thread (warning: The Pit) espousing my hatred of the card.
And of pobes! Don’t forget the pobes!
Other shoppers who don’t understand that driving a grocery cart is just like driving a car, but you have no turn indicators or brake lights. This means you need to pay attention to where other people are, not make sudden swerves or come to a complete stop for no reason in front of a line of people, and generally keep up with or get out of the way of the flow of traffic.
Boyfriend now fears the act of grocery shopping with me, because even in my best mood I’m inevitably reduced to a frothing rage by these idiots cutting me off and running into me with their carts. (Also his habit of standing right next to the cart so I can’t see where his feet are when I need to make a turn.)