tales-from-grocery

[tales-from-grocery]

Tales from the Grocery $8

I made a comment to a manager about the excessive amount of angry and aggressive customers last Wednesday, and she responded, "well yeah, it's Wednesday". When I asked for clarification she told my that on Wednesdays, the local retirement home release their elderly to have a day of independence. The buses drop them off at the shopping center early in the day, and pick them up after noon. So every Wednesday we get an influx of bitter, evil old people who use their day of freedom to spew their venom on the teenage cashiers at a grocery store. What a charmed life.

[tales-from-grocery]

Tales from the Grocery #7

I worked on Mother's day, during the hours surrounding noon, because my mother was going to lunch with my dad, and I thought I would work a few hours, and then buy fresh flowers from our floral department for her after I clock out, and spend the rest of the day with her. A completely normal and understandable plan, right?

But during my shift, a man comes in, looks at me, and immediately begins berating me. "Why are you here today, you should be spending your time with your mother! Your generation has no respect for their parents, you just want to make a quick buck, huh? So ungrateful!"

I say nothing and he leaves with a huff. What astounded me about this is that he as no idea who I am. I could be an orphan, or my mother could have died and I'm working to distract myself from the pain, I could have two gay dads, but he immediately assumed I was a greedy ingrate who needed to be scolded.

[tales-from-grocery]

Tales from the Grocery #6

A woman pulls out a wallet with the pattern of Starry Night on it. I'm a big Van Gogh fan so I say, "Oh that's a cool wallet, I love Van Gogh." She then replies with, "Thanks, this is called Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh, an old painter. Did you know that?😀"

All of this said in an over enunciated, condescending, slow tone, as if she was talking to a preschooler. I just said that I did know, and finished the transaction feeling incredibly patronized.

[tales-from-grocery]

Tales from the Grocery #5

A little old Brazilian woman comes through the self checkout, buying a couple of large tomatoes. She scans their barcode, and is incensed when the option to choose quantity comes up. She waves me over, and very matter-of-factly declares that she "pays per pound". I explain that these specific tomatoes are priced by quantity, not weight. "I pay per pound😐". I tell her that we can't turn on the scale on the machines unless a bar code of an item that is priced by weight is scanned. And these tomatoes, are priced by quantity. "I pay per pound, I pay per POUND😠." I try to explain that I physically cannot make the self checkout machine weigh them, and even if I did, there's no set price for weight, and I can't just make one up. "I pay per pound".

Eventually my manager comes over and just gives her a large discount.

[tales-from-grocery]

Tales from the Grocery #4

An old lady comes through my lane buying some produce, and two big bottles of vitamins. After I scan her items I ask her if she has our loyalty card. She says no. I ask her if she would like to sign up for one. She says no. I even ask her if she wants me to scan one anyways, telling her there's a large discount on the vitamins. She, now annoyed, says no. She pays, look at the receipt and says, angry "why is the bill so high, why didn't my discounts come off!?!?" I remind her deals only come off with the loyalty card, but she can go to the service desk if she'd like them to refund her. She stares at me for a good ten seconds, and says "last time", before hurrying off to the service desk with a huff.

I'm still not sure what was meant by "last time". Hopefully it meant this was her last time shopping here.

[tales-from-grocery]

Tales from the Grocery #3

It was later in the night, and I was supervising the self checkouts. A woman comes through, maybe in her sixties, seeming completely cognizant and normal, I even help her with a coupon that didn't go through, and she seems completely average.

After she finishes checking out, she begins to walk out, pauses, and shakes her pant leg. Two turds fall out. She leaves, and panicked, I shut down the self checkout and run to my manager for help. This moment is now referred to as the "incident" by the front end workers.

[tales-from-grocery]

Tales from the Grocery #2

A middle aged man come in, immediately walks to me and begins with "My wife is gone for the week, so I need some help." Already a bad start. He continues, "What aisle can I find bread, milk, frozen pizzas, pineapple-" and he continues to list about ten more things, as if they would all be in the same aisle. Keep in mind this is a massive chain store. Eventually I think he noticed the blank look on my face as he continues listing things, and finally says, "They're probably in different aisles, huh" and leaves.

Has this man never been grocery shopping before in his life? Is that why his wife is gone?

[tales-from-grocery]

Tales from the Grocery #1

An older man came through my lane, so I said hello, and he immediately says, "I can tell you're a good Christian girl 'cause you're smilin' and you don't have that victim look in your eyes."

How consistently are you seeing women with a "victim look" in their eyes, what are you doing to them?!?!