Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Another Store I can't Go to Cause I Made a Scene
I hate grocery shopping. But more than that, I hate making dinner from nothing. So, I gave in and went grocery shopping. I usually just get what I need to make dinner - once. But I went all out and got a whole cart full of stuff. When I was a kid, and went grocery shopping with my mom, she would remember the price of every item in her cart down to the cents. I was always amazed that she could do that. Still am, she's never wrong. Now I catch myself doing the same thing. Only I am not as good as she is, sometimes if I'm not 100% sure if something rang up wrong, I will wait until I have loaded my car with the bags and then run back in and check, just for my own satisfactions sake. It's a compulsion, the whole paying-the-advertised-price thing. I HATE trying to remember the prices, I just want to grab what I need and go, not think about it, but I can't do that. It's a disease... thanks mom. Back to my story - I loaded the groceries on the belt and before I could finish, the person in front of me finished and the lady started ringing up my groceries. "Ma'am, will you please wait for me to unload my cart so that I can watch the prices?" ..."OK" she said, grumpily, "but it's going to take you awhile"... SO! Where do you have to be? I thought to myself. There was no one in line behind me. It took me less than 30 seconds to finish and I was moving really fast, not slow and annoying, like some people move. As soon as I moved up to where I could see, I said "thank you" and she continued ringing stuff up. "Do you have your shoppers card?" She asked me. "yeah, hang on a sec..." (digging for my keys). All the while she's STILL ringing up my groceries. "Ma'am, I can't watch the screen and look for my shoppers card at the same time, I really want to watch the prices, will you please wait?" Huff and puffs from the lady; I was being very polite, trying my best to be nice, since I usually tend to overreact and then end up feeling bad about it later. I didn't want to be her 'annoying customer' of the day that she goes home and tells her husband or roommate about. Or in her case, her dog or cat 'cause she can't get along with people. Turns out I didn't have my shoppers card, because I brought the spare set of keys instead of my regular ones. So I had to type my phone number into the keypad, which of course took more time, and clearly that was annoying to her. So when I finally gave her my attention, and gave her the go-ahead, she was obviously ticked. I was being the old lady that still writes checks; so what? Give me a break, I forgot my shoppers card but still want the sale prices (that's too much to ask for people). So she starts ringing things up really fast, so fast that stuff is flying everywhere. My frozen pizza that I got, the ones not in a square box, but round and wrapped in cellophane, bounced into the air and back onto the belt spinning like a penny does when it gets dropped on the ground, and then flew off the belt and over the side. Didn't hardly phase her, I think she caught it with her leg against the counter by her feet. But she was scanning stuff so fast, that I couldn't read a single item on the monitor before the following items would push the previous items off the screen. Stuff was flying everywhere, and spinning out of control. She was doing it on purpose so that I couldn't ultimately read the prices, which was the whole reason I asked her to wait! Why do people have to be so stupid? I had just about had it, and then she grabbed the bag of chips, squeezed it in her hand and smashed it down at the other end of the belt. That was the last straw... "look lady, if you're gonna be rough with my groceries because your ticked, I'll go somewhere else to do my shopping." All serious now, but very stern... "I'm just doing my job!" (Yeah right, you're a terrible checker). I was still being nice, just very blunt; she could have saved the sale if she wanted to. I went through all the trouble to get the groceries, the hard part was over. I just wanted to get home. But she forced me to stand my ground, so I walked out. Told her I would shop somewhere else. And tomorrow I will probably speak to her manager. I really do hope she enjoyed putting all that stuff away. Thanks to her I still had to figure something out for dinner, so I just got Chinese. I'm still mad, and I think I'm out of cereal and milk for tomorrow morning which makes me even madder.
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17 comments:
I have SO wanted to do that sometimes, but I never have. You should have asked to speak to the manager right then. Maybe you would have gotten free groceries.
You go girl! Way to stand your ground. ;>)
WOW!! Now that is someone standing her ground!!! Well done ~ not blowing up and just walking away. I am sure it made a bigger impact too. :)
Oh, Nat, I had no idea you had been traumatized in this way! lol. I'm having flashbacks to the time mom was haggling over a 6 cent discrepancy in a return at JCPenney, and I was about 11 or 12 and I wanted to crawl under the rack and hide. I was like, "MOM! It's 6 cents...please, let it go. This is SO embarrassing!" But she was like, "it's the principle of it! If you wanted to buy something and were six cents off, they wouldn't just let it go!" Again...me wanting to crawl and hide!
I have no idea how much my groceries ring up as. I never once thought to double check the price after I put it in my basket!
(But I would have been upset if she'd been smashing and throwing around my groceries too. Sounds like you need a new grocery store.)
I am laughing so hard I am crying. This has got to be a record post for its length on your blog. Was steam still comming out of your ears as you were writing about this? I can TOTALLY see you and hear you as you are telling this story. And, I feel your pain. Now, you have to do it all over again.
Rachael, I think I remember the 6 cents deal, and it was a tax difference. I think she bought something in OK and tried to return it in PA. She is so right though. And like Natalie, I watch everything on the belt as it is checked just like Mom does.
I also try to watch the items being scanned in but I am always still unloading the cart while the checker is scanning. I'll have to try your tactic and ask the checker to wait until I'm done emptyping my card.
You stood your ground. Good for you. You probably should have spoken to the manager right away.
I'd be ticked having my bag of chips slammed down on the conveyor belt.
Our local Stop & Shop has Pea Pod where you order online and they deliver and only charge around $5. I haven't used it but my friend does.
I can't believe you did that. Too funny. I like to check the prices too, but like you, can never really remember, so I just hope they are right.
Your checker sounds like a real B*. I wonder what kind of excuse she gave for you walking out. She probably said you didn't have any money with you.
And I agree with Shannon, I knew this would be an interesting post, just by the length, you never write this much!
Where I shop the cashiers are on a timed system. If they fall below scanning so many items in a certain time they get in trouble. Anything that slows them down or causes them to stop scanning hurts their productivity.
STILL, Customer Service should be Top-most in any retailer's list of importance re: their customers. Your sucky experience was just awful! I'd speak to the manager, seriously.
I can't keep up with the scanning either, but because I coupon shop...that's what I really pay attention to, whether they take all my coupons off or skip over a few....grrrr. That makes me very angry. I always check my receipt when I get home, so I guess I remember the prices, as well as what coupons I had matched up. If I find a mistake I take the receipt and get an adjustment at the service desk on my next trip. Last time that happened I had over $6.00 coming back to me, as they had scanned several items 1.59 instead of 1.00, the sale price. hee...you hit on a subject I can really relate to.
~ PattiLynn
Wow Natalie, what a little tiger you are. I want you to do my shopping for me, I never check the price when they ring it up, I just check the price before I put it in my cart. But then again, I only cook on weekends so I really don't do that much shopping. I will have to pay attention at the check out.
Smashing chips, that is crossing the line!
oh. my. goodness! this made me laugh so hard! i seriously laughed out loud. i'm sorry she was such a jerk but i'm glad you didn't stick around and take it! i hope you got her name and def call her manager! i did that once at meijer and got a 50$ gift card because the checker was really rude...but not even CLOSE to what yours was!!
Natalie, I totally relate! I am the same way and actually had something very similar happen to me once but I didn't have enough guts to walk out. I wish I had.
After that horrid incident I have always chosen a lane where there is at least one person in front of me with enough things in their basket to give me time to get my things on the belt so I can watch the prices.
I can't tell you how many times they ring up wrong and I have to say something. The manager is then called to come and fix it. It pays to watch the prices because they don't always get the sale prices in the scanner.
I sure hope you never have such an awful experience again.
This story is so funny. I can't remember which child was with me when we ran to the grocery store in Hamburg to pick up three items. The store policy was that if the item rang up wrong you got the item free. I think I got laundry soap, a big bag of dog food and I can't remember the other item, probably bread - anyway, all three items rang up wrong and the manager was called every time and he went back and personally checked the price on the shelf - and I got all three items free! At Walmart in California, they had a policy if the item rang up wrong you got the first one free up to $3.00 - so when I questioned the price of one of my items, the checker told me that she would adjust the price which was a few cents - I pointed to the sign and she called the manager who wasn't too happy in giving me the $3.00 - but it was on a sign hanging above the registers! I don't think they have those signs hanging there anymore.
Call the manager. They can't afford to lose customers in this economy, I am betting!
This is great. I'm laughing hard. Good for you for walking out. It's not worth it.
I'm going to politely disagree with part of the situation. I worked as a cashier back in the day (Lindsay and I worked together unbeknownst to us). You had to ring up a certain amount of items within a certain period of time or you could lose your job. Once you started the transaction the clock started ticking so having to stop in the middle or slow down was detrimental to your time and could affect your job, raise, etc. That's where I can understand where the cashier was coming from. I had a little old lady get mad at me for going too fast because she too wanted to see the prices. Unlike your cashier, I did slow down because frankly, it was just a part time job while I was in school and I knew that my “record” wouldn’t be damaged by one slow transaction.
I don't however agree with the attitude that she took with you. Whether or not your frustration with her may have caused you to elaborate the details or not no one will ever know, but in this day and age where the business motto is "the customer is always right", her reaction wasn't appropriate.
I know that you already talked to the manager and because of the bad attitude, she will probably be disciplined - I honestly doubt that she will be in trouble for trying to check you out quickly since that really is what she is paid to do.
Overall, if you shop at a store that consistently doesn't post the correct prices to their computer and it causes you such frustration that you have a horrid experience like the one you described in your blog, I would choose another grocery store.
Wow! You made me laugh! And commiserate! I couldn't believe my eyes when you wrote about asking for the cart to be unloaded before she started to ring up... Here it's a FREAKIN' MAD DASH to WOOOSH unload the cart and magically get to the other side to bag it up before it falls over the edge/there isn't enough space for anything more to be scanned. I have to magically unload/bag/load all at the same time. You're completely SOL if you don't have the discount card, too -- no way to look it up, have to wait WEEKS to get a replacement, after filling out LOTS of paperwork. And if something is spoiled/bad? Forget returning it.
Oh, and no sales anything like in the USA. Two for ones? Ah, the thought brings American tears to my eyes. You'd have paid double here, at least...
As much as that s*cked, you're still so lucky to be shopping in America. Bet it wasn't hard to find a parking space for the car either :-)
Good thing about the USA is that you usually have a bunch of options for your shopping; hope there's a place you can where the people are nicer :-) You sure were polite to her; her behavior was so uncalled for...
You really crack me up! I love it when you fight back! Just think of the stories YOUR kids will one day tell about "Mom's" embarrassing behavior! Tee hee :-)
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