If you are ever in the supermarket and are not sure what line to pick, watch and see which one I pick. Then pick a different one. I always pick the wrong line.
Behaviors that people in front of me on line show with irritating frequency:
1) Paying with a check. Who writes a check every time they buy groceries?? All old people, that's who.
2) Dividing the groceries into two piles, each of which has to be paid for separately. Because if you're one person, it would just be impossible to pay for your groceries all together. No, that's crazy.
3) Using large amounts of coupons. Coupons should not exist. They store already forces you to get a store card that they use to creepily monitor your purchases, so why can't those coupons be programmed into the card? Why are people forced to take a scissors and cut out these stupid coupons, half of which are expired or didn't work they way they thought they did?
Yesterday I was at the supermarket with my baby, and I really just got on the absolute worst check-out line. Worse, I switched lines (always a mistake) and the person behind me and three people after that finished up before I got to the head of the line.
I'm trying to recite zen stuff in my head, and at least the baby was behaving, thank goodness. And then the cashier says to me, "Do you have a {Supermarket] card?"
"No, can you run the store card?"
The guy does, but then he stops running my groceries and launches into this pitch about why I should get the card, but there's a mile-long line behind us and I was so not interested. So I cut him off and said politely (I thought), "No thank you."
And then he got totally pissed off. He started mumbling under his breath, "Everyone's always in a hurry. You know, I can only go so fast. It's not my fault I can't go as fast as people like."
I was livid. Not only did I have to wait forever on line and be subjected to this salespitch ever time I come in, I have to be YELLED at for it???
Amazingly, I was the one who had to apologize and said I just wanted to finish before my baby started crying. And I stood there and let him do the pitch. And I nodded politely. And then he apologized for being rude.
I'm not sure if I'm going to go to that supermarket ever again. Seriously, I don't need to be treated that way while trying to buy groceries with my baby.
It seems like it was a busy day and he was probably working as fast as he could.
ReplyDeleteBoth of you would have benefited from trying to see the situation from the other's perspective.
ALL old people do not pay with a check! I enjoy your blog, but do not enjoy comments like that.
ReplyDeleteOK, you're right, that was unfair. Sometimes they pay with change from their change purses.
Delete:P
lmao
Deletelol
DeleteSheesh, people, it's a whine. She's not asking for advice and she doesn't mean literally every single old person pays with a check. Can we just laugh at the funny story?
ReplyDeleteOuch, I hope you said something to the management. Cashiers are limited in how quickly they pack groceries, yes, but it sounds like he wasn't very helpful or polite.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that I hate is when cashiers try to get you to sign up for a store credit card, going into this rant about how you can save 20% off your purchase today, yadda yadda yadda, and when you politely say "no thank you", they keep pushing the issue. A lady asked me three times, and i kept saying "no thank you", by the third time i was ready to lose my cool. But finally, after i said NO for the third $&%*ing time, she dropped it. But come on, I used to work as a cashier years ago, and NO means NO!
ReplyDeleteI don't mind if they just give you a leaflet with the store card information and application inside. But once I was in a large, busy clothing chain and said yes to the store card- obviously, the pitch was "You'll save 20% of this current purchase and another 15% off your next!!" "Okay," I said, figuring, why not?
ReplyDeleteThe girl at the checkout stopped what she was doing, disappeared for a minute, and came back with a massive application form. She then proceeded to ask me a long list of increasingly uncomfortable questions- "How long have you lived at your current address?" "Where did you live before?" "Roughly how much do you have in savings?" "What do you do as a job?" I felt less and less inclined to answer any of these questions, but apparently they were compulsory!!
What the heck? I don't even like telling these things to my bank! Eventually red-faced and seriously freaked out, I told her to stop halfway through the application, destroy it, let me pay, and let me get the heck out of there!
You do know that the sales people get graded on how many people they get to sign up, right?
ReplyDeleteAnd if they don't do the whole speech they can get written up, right?
You do know they couldn't care less if you sign up or not, but just want to keep their jobs without being yelled at, right?
Do they get a bonus for insulting the customer?
DeleteActually, I'm sure nobody will get this reference, but there's this scene in the movie Ghost World where the character gets harassed by her boss for not pushing customers to get larger size beverages. So when the next customer orders a medium, she says: "Medium? Why, sir, do you not know that for a mere 25 cents more, you could purchase a large beverage? And you know, I'm only telling you this because we're such good friends. Medium is really only for suckers who don't know the concept of value." And she gets fired, obviously :)
My point is that if you've made the customer so angry that they don't want to ever shop there again, you probably have not accomplished your goal.
This is why I do self checkout. I also hate it when I'm shopping at any store and an employee approaches me to ask if I need assistance finding anything. If I need help, I'll ask for it! You're not being helpful, you're being annoying. I don't want to be bothered every time I walk into a shop...
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your schedule is tight, but I find it helps 100x to go at off-peak times. You can go in the middle of the night, and it's empty, but then they only have 1 cashier for everyone. I think the sweet spot is 7-8pm, after the pre-supper rush, and before all the cashiers go home.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't go on Tuesdays, whatever you do! That's official senior citizen discount day around here.
Yeah, when you have two small children, shopping at 7-8PM is not really a possibility. There's a reason it's empty then.
DeleteFizzy,
ReplyDeleteI know many retail people who have been fired over not getting enough credit card signups. They know you don't want to hear the damn spiel every time. They're tired of having people bite their heads off over it. You don't know how the rest of his day was; maybe he had been screamed at for stuff not his fault and just snapped. He DID apologize.
Well, I *certainly* wasn't signing up after being insulted. I mean, I get abused at work too by patients, and I don't go around saying stuff like that. It's totally inappropriate.
DeleteI recognize that he may have been having a bad day. That's why I didn't call the store to complain about him. But it definitely doesn't make me want to ever shop there again.
I just found a new way to be annoying at the store. I am going to get double coupons, two for ones, but only buy one of each then ask if they will go get the other one for me. From now on I am going to use my out of state check book with my other state drivers license, I will only write the check for the full dollars and then get my change purse to pay the rest. Oh that was the guy in front of me today. Thank God I am retired and can shop at 11 am with the blue hairs.
ReplyDeleteyou're such an grumpy pants in your posts lately. but i understand, as blogging is a way of venting so it only makes sens that you write down your annoyance to vent and im the one choosing to visit your site to see your posts. but still, geez you're a grumpy pant
ReplyDeleteI feel like this blog I'm reading is too whiny. Should I:
Deletea) Stop reading
b) Hypocritically whine about it on a comment on the blog
Thanks for choosing b, but I invite you to choose a instead.
will do.
DeleteAnd thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to inform me of your decision. I truly needed to know.
Deletenot a problem
DeleteLol, oh Fizzy, you always crack me up!
DeleteFizzy, are you even talking about credit cards, or those "loyalty" or "bonus" cards? I've never heard of stores firing or even lecturing people for not getting people to sign up for their loyalty card. I worked as a grocery store cashier the entire 4 years I was in college. They don't track how many people the cashier signs up at all. In fact, we used to send people to customer service because they DO track how long it takes you to ring transactions up, and signing people up for loyalty cards takes a couple of minutes. You guys need to read the post better before you start freaking out at Fizzy. I think it was pretty clear that she doesn't have a loyalty card because she isn't too keen on store marketers tracking her purchases. And if you don't think they do that, read this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&
ReplyDeleteHa, this is hilarious! I regularly:
ReplyDelete1) Pay by check
2) Divide groceries into two piles
*and* 3)Use clipped out coupons.
Sometimes, all at the same check-out! Gosh, didn't realize that 20 was the new 80.
I use clipped out coupons because then, as you pointed out, the store can't as easily track my purchases. And I use coupons because I like saving money. I have good reasons for the other two, but it's your whine....I won't interrupt it with my ranting!
~Jasmine
I'm guilty of 2 and 3 :-)
ReplyDeleteI ALWAYS pick the wrong line too though.
New reader here from Stand and Deliver (rixarixa.blogspot.com) and I just wanted to say how much I already love this blog. I love the mix of medical professional anecdotes and this post about normal daily irritations. I agree with you - customer service is a big part of why I shop at certain stores and avoid others, regardless of price. Thanks again!
ReplyDelete