My favorite local grocery store just opened up new two minutes from my house. I am loyal. So loyal, that before the new one opened, I would drive 20 or 30 minutes depending on traffic, to go to the old store and in the process, pass by three other grocery stores. LOYAL. Not only am I loyal, but I spend a LOT of money at my favorite grocery store.
So, the new one opened. It is big. It is beautiful. It has everything my heart (and belly) desire and all in a user-friendly set up throughout the store. The only problem is the grocery sackers. They just need to learn to keep their comments to themselves and their mouths shut.
Just before Christmas, Geoff and I did a "big" shop. Granted, it was for Christmas and Christmas Eve meals, company was coming, and there may have been some items put in the cart to help Santa with the stockings. So, we had two carts loaded. (I remember growing up, this was a normal Saturday shopping trip with my parents - I wonder if my mom got the same hassle?)
As we are checking out, the sackers (there were three of them to help with our 'load') are literally complaining out loud about how much food we were buying! "I should go to your house.", one said. "You all must be rich.", another said. They were huffing and sighing and all annoyed that we were making them do their job. Then as we paid, one of them had the nerve to watch and say to the other: "Man, they paid cash! They must be rich." It was a record bill for us, but still, keep your mouth shut. So, as we pulled our now three (I don't know how it multiplied) shopping carts out of the store (why did none of the three sackers offer to help?) we said, "we're not rich because we spend all our money on groceries." I wonder if they watched to confirm the non-rich status as we piled three shopping carts into a Toyota Corolla (we should have brought the van.....).
The other day, I went in just for the necessities. I got four gallons of milk, some bread and a few other things. As the guy/boy is bagging it, he says: "That sure is a lot of milk!" I rolled my eyes. "Let me guess," he says, "a couple kids at home?" I gave him a snotty smile and said "a few kids."
IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!!!
Another thing I'm annoyed with is that the checkers are apparently having some sort of contest about their IPM's. IPM's, I've learned means Items Per Minute (scanned). So, they won't start scanning until I've loaded my entire cart onto the conveyor belt. So, she stands there waiting and finally the belt is full and I have my produce still to load. She says, "You can hand that to me and then I'll start." I said, "Or you can start so that I can put them on the belt." And she puts her hands out, so I hand her all my produce and not until the final item is on the belt, does she start scanning them.
Okay, fine. Have your incentive contests, this is alright. I understand. However, the problem with this is that now the checker is so quickly scanning my groceries through that the sacker is literally throwing stuff into bags and tossing the bags into the cart in order to keep up with her. So, bread is under milk, cereal bags are under canned goods. It is a mess.
My point is: I spend so much money at that store and am so loyal, that I think I deserve a little better customer service!
So, yes, I am going to write a strongly-worded letter. Except now that I blogged it out, chances are that I will be too lazy to hash it out again. So I will continue to get my bread smashed and hassled about how much milk I buy.
Ho hum.
