when you're in the grocery store...

[hudster]

<rant>
...why is it that when people stop to look at something, they always take up the whole friggin aisle?!?!? The aisle could be 50-feet wide, and yet somehow, they manage to block the entire width of the aisle when stopping to look at something. The wife will be looking at something on the right-hand side of the aisle, while they left the cart sit broadsides in the middle, and the husband is daydreaming over on the left side of the aisle.

it just totally amazes me, really. I think most people probably don't even realize they're doing it, but I just think it's very incosiderate. I really think the need to paint roadlines on the floor in the grocery store, so that there's a slow lane, and a passing lane. Of course, you know they'll be slowpokes casually meandering down the passing lane.
</rant>


ok, I feel a little better now.


-hudster

 

[deftron]

Just plow them with your cart...

Then say..oh I'm sorry...I wan't paying attention.


Hopefully, they'll understand...

 

[amdskip]

I work retail so I know exactly what you mean!

 

[Amused]

I've designed rocket launchers for grocery carts, but the stores wont buy them for some reason.

 

[deftron]

Or just get one of those air horns people take to basketball games....



Laugh your ass off as they crap their pants and jump back knocking over the whole cereal aisle

 

[Pundit]

I've always found that saying "excuse me" to them works in that situation.

 

[Frosty3799]

Huge rant by a maintenance/cashier and a big grocery store chain:

try sweeping the aisles when they are all strewn (i dunno if thats really a word) around them and wont move for anything.

or... being a cashier and those people that have you scan all thier groceries through, and then are like "oh i dont have enough money. hmm i am going to have to put some stuff back." so they take their sweet time sorting through all these bags of groceries i just packed up and stacked up in their cart to find those items they need the least. -- please dont do this to your local cashiers... they may pretend not to hate you, but they do on the inside.


and how about the 40 year old ladies who are sooo rude to their children that you can even tell their children are going to be screwed up. it is even worse when one of the ladies who falls under this category is a lunch monitor at an elementary school... i just wanna yell at them, and tell them how rude they are, but that in turn would be rude of me, and i would probably get scolded badly.


and my last rant is to all those people who see your line is empty for cashing out and come in and say "oh you must be bored, here i will give you something to do." i just want to say "no, no thanks i was fine just standing here. please leave so i will get paid to do nothing again" i purposely take longer to cash these people out, so they must suffer more with me.

ok, there ya go all. hope you learn something from that (besides that i am crazy)

Josh

 

[agnitrate]

<< and my last rant is to all those people who see your line is empty for cashing out and come in and say "oh you must be bored, here i will give you something to do." i just want to say "no, no thanks i was fine just standing here. please leave so i will get paid to do nothing again" i purposely take longer to cash these people out, so they must suffer more with me. >>



Haha, I thought I was the only person who gets things like this [Customer Service Rep.]. I get at least 10 people telling me that a day. If you're a jerk to your cashier, mostly ALL of them will take longer. I know I purposely move slower and take longer to do everything if you're a real jerk about it.

Think of it this way, I remember all the really nice customers and I remember all the a**holes that make my job more difficult. I WILL remember you. If I like you, you get the benefit of the doubt, cheaper prices sometimes if there is a question over the price, and a nice warm cashier. If I know you were a pain in the past, I am not very nice, will give you a hard time if you try to return something that wasn't obviously bad, and there's no way I am going to let you get out of there in a hurry.

Lesson to be learned : I am ALWAYS nice to cashiers or whoever is checking me out, I make w/ some small talk because it seems to be more friendly, and I smile when I talk to them. This is good advice for any place of business you attend. Trust me, it will get you a long way.

-silver

 

[deftron]

LOL Frosty...


I was a cashier at a grocery store and I hated that...

People having to take stuff off after you rang it up...asking "how much is the total" after every item you ring"...sayin "hold on a second, i gotta get something else" and taking 10 minutes to come back to the line as other people are waiting...bringin a full grocery cart into the express lane...instead of choosing paper or plastic, they want you to bag in paper then put the paper bag in plastic...accusing you of double-ringing or overcharging them for no reason....trying to use food stamps for crap liked steamed lobster when they know they can't buy cooked food with food stamps (not to mention they shouldn't be buying lobster) ...people getting the wrong chesse or milk for WIC (even though they have the brochure on them with big pictures of what they can get)


The worst customer ever was this lady that came in about once a week that refused to allow you to scan her groceries.
She said the scanner will give you cancer cause it gave out radiation, and she made us ring all her groceries by hand..
You know how hard it is to punch in individual UPC numbers for a cart full of groceries?
Screw the cancer..I was about to kill her myself.

 

[Static911]

I first ask them "excuse me, could I get through." That has worked 100% for me.

Static911

 

[agnitrate]

<< The worst customer ever was this lady that came in about once a week that refused to allow you to scan her groceries.
She said the scanner will give you cancer cause it gave out radiation, and she made us ring all her groceries by hand..
You know how hard it is to punch in individual UPC numbers for a cart full of groceries?
Screw the cancer..I was about to kill her myself.
>>



Haha! We have people that do that too! I work at Whole Foods, an organic store where your worst dreams come true about people who are a little over-zealous when it comes to food. This one woman wears a hospital mask into our store and refuses to let us scan her groceries as well. Saying that the radiation of the scanner gets into the food and it gives cancer. Ironically, she lets us scan stuff like soap and anything she won't eat. Topical stuff doesn't matter apparently. She even made us cover the scanners w/ paper bags.

I had the last laugh though. One time when she went to get something, I took off the bag and ran about 20 of her items through the scanner Haha, that was sweet justice. She never once did complain about getting radiation to from it. Maybe I'll do it to her face next time. I really question if we live in an enlightened age at certain points in time.

Stay away from that scanner! It shoots out wavelengths < 300 nm, that's what the ALIENS use!

-silver

 

[HappyPuppy]

Gee. All you people who are a$$holes to the customers are really getting back at them. What about the good people behind them who are waiting to be checked out. You must be very proud of yourselves for driving away the store's customers. You must all work at Ralphs.

 

[tops2]

when i see carts with stuff in them in the middle of the aisle with the owner not in site, i just push it somewhere else

 

[agnitrate]

Nope, I don't do it when there are people waiting. If there are people behind them and I know they're jerks, I just work very quickly and ignore them. That is more than enough for me. We get into the fun tactics when there is not long lines/people waiting/kids crying.

And quite frankly, the only reason I try to get people out of there quickly is because I know how much it sucks to be waiting in line. I could care less how much business the store gets. I get paid by the hour, not per customer. You want to see some fast-a$$ cashiering? Pay me per customer. No cashier would ever be trying to fight over who has to take the customer. If you're working as a cashier and are worried about 'company productivity', you've got problems far greater than dealing w/ a few off the wall customers.

-silver

[edited for grammar. that's the reason for every one of my edits so far i believe. i should pay more attention next time]

 

[DaveSimmons]

<< Saying that the radiation of the scanner gets into the food and it gives cancer. >>

You guys need to print up a flyer "It's an OPTICAL scanner you stupid dolt!," with kindergarten text and easy-to-follow pictures, to hand out to the morons who think they'll get radiation burns from a light beam with less power than a 70 watt bulb.

 

[Geekbabe]

<< I've designed rocket launchers for grocery carts, but the stores wont buy them for some reason. >>




Lmao at the thought of using the RL in the supermarket

 

[hudster]

wow, I see this thread triggered some cashier/retail-types wanting to vent too. Hey, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel!

and yes, I sympathize with you, I used to work for 2 grocery store chains as well, as a cashier/bagger/stocker/produce/you-name-it. and yes, it sucked: the wic check crap, the people holding up the line, people writing out a check and you need to see their driver's license and they realize that it's out in their car and they run out to get it while the whole line waits, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Interestingly, though, I never had any "radiation freaks". And the thought of radiation from the scanner honestly never even occurred to me.

as for my original rant, and the common sense suggestions by some fine folks here to use the tried-and-true "excuse me" method, yes, I agree, that is highly effective. My point though, is that if people wouldn't magically block the entire aisle every time to begin with, then I wouldn't even have to bother saying "excuse me", and wouldn't have to bother them to get out of my way. I wouldn't be bothered, they wouldn't be bothered, nobody would be bothered. See, isn't that much nicer?




-hudster

 

[Freejack2]

Most supermarkets pay their employess the same amount they did in the 60's. In the 60's $6 an hour was probably pretty good. Now $6 is a joke. You can't expect good service from someone who gets paid $6 an hour.

 

[RSMemphis]

And yet you still get (rather) good service. For just $6...

The best thing is - I often bag my own stuff when I am bored waiting for them to ring up everything anyway.
The cashiers are always very thankful thereafter, but it's not like it's a big deal for me (in Europe I had to do it myself, too)

 

[Frosty3799]

Hmmm.. i havent ever seen/had/heard of any radiation cases in the store i work at.

and HappyPuppy: i do the same as agnitrate in the case of having a line of people. i just get through everyone as fast as possible. i am like in the top 10 for fast scanning in my store (out of probably 150 cashiers... its a huge store) so pelase dont tell me i am holding anyone up.

 

[BooneRebel]

/Customer rant/ - It seems like the local Super WM has their stock delivered on Saturday. So at the busiest possible time of the day (Saturday afternoon), they add to the confusion with stockers running up and down the aisles piling boxes and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Why, in a store that is open 24/7, can't they restock the shelves when the store isn't as busy?

 

[amdskip]

Walmart's get trucks every single day and they do get stocked at night mainly. Vendors like Pepsi, Coke, Frito Lay, Wonder Bread, etc. stock during the day hours. What is stocked during the day is just stuff to fill empty shelfs so customers don't biatch.

 

[GooberPHX420]

<< Or just get one of those air horns people take to basketball games....
Laugh your ass off as they crap their pants and jump back knocking over the whole cereal aisle >>




LOL! I second this notion...

 

[Kadarin]

<<

<< Saying that the radiation of the scanner gets into the food and it gives cancer. >>

You guys need to print up a flyer "It's an OPTICAL scanner you stupid dolt!," with kindergarten text and easy-to-follow pictures, to hand out to the morons who think they'll get radiation burns from a light beam with less power than a 70 watt bulb. >>



Picturing Dr. Evil talking to stupid customer while making quotation marks with his fingers: I'm going to scan you now with my "la-ser"..

 

[Lucky]

i almost always shop for groceries at like 1-2 AM, and the same cashier, daniel, is always there at my local kroger. I think the guy is a phychopath, he always looks at me really really strange. Also, when he give me the total of my groceries he doesnt say "that will be one hundred fifty dollars and ninety seven cents", he says "that will be fifteen thousand and thirty seven pennies".

what a freak. good service though, in fact i dont think I've ever had a bad casheier at my krogers.