Grocery Store Blues

[Hitokiri Akins]

To help make ends meet, I work a second job at a grocery store. And since I've been there for two weeks, I've got a short list of types.

Sunday couple

Over the last two Sundays, there has been this elderly couple that comes in and picks up a few things. They walk around and say "It's shameful that they make them work on Sunday."

Now, I'm a Christian, and to an extent, I agree. I don't want to work Sunday, period, even if I'm not as church going as others. But like all of us here, I go to work when I'm scheduled.

So they walk past me today and say that, I stand up from stocking shelves and say, "While I agree with you, ma'am, the store wouldn't schedule us if there wasn't profit to be made. And there wouldn't be profit to be made if people didn't do their shopping on Sunday."

And I go back to stocking.

The Foreign Language speaker

You all know the type. The one who walks around the store, doing their shopping, chatting with someone in a foreign language, thinking they won't be understood by others. This time, it was a pair of what I assume was japanese teenagers, because that's what the language they were speaking. They were walking around, laughing at the "poor saps who had to work today."

I stand up from what I was stocking again, and say, in japanese, "I'm sorry you feel that way, young lady, but if we want to eat, we have to work."

And I go back to stocking.

Can you reach that?

I am six feet tall, so I'm used to reaching objects on high shelves for people. I have for most of my life. What bothers me is when a perfectly ambulatory person asks me to reach for something on the bottom shelf.

I have bad knees. I have to wear a knee brace on both knees in order to crouch down low without pain. And even with the knee braces, doing this too many times still kills my knees at the end of the day.

Now, I understand when the elderly need help. That's a given, and I help when I can, because eventually, I'm going to be in that same boat. But people in their 20s and 30s are asking me to reach something low? I'll do it, but I'm not happy about it.

Yelling at your kid over the phone

Today, I watched a woman walking around the store, yelling into her phone. And I mean yelling. I heard her from across the store when she came in. And you know who she was yelling at? Her teenage daughter. She was yelling at her daughter, over the phone, swearing while she was getting groceries, about her daughter being disrespectful.

Sounds like someone needs a refresher, because no one in the store wanted to hear that.

[Silent-Hunter]

I bet the looks on the Japanese peoples' faces were priceless. The people who do that sort of thing are always shocked when someone understands them.

[CrappyToHelp]

The Foreign Language Speaker reminds me of when I first did my tech desk stint.

Homme Français:"Excusez-moi, young man?"
Moi: "Hello, how can I help?"
HF: "I would like some information about a TV,"
M: "OK, if you could show me the one you want to know about."

He takes me to a TV and begins asking questions. Now, we have a wall with about 70 different TVs on it. I will probably need to think about the answer before I give it, purely because of the mass of facts I have.

So this man asks me questions and about the ninth in, he turns to his wife and says in French "This fat bastard obviously has no clue what he's talking about. I don't know why I fucking bother."

I speak French.

I may have exploded a little.

"You are a horrid, horrid person. I have to know all this information for all of these TVs. Forgive me for having to think. If my customer service isn't to your expectations, perhaps I can go and get a monolingual colleague who wouldn't be able to explain to you "combien prises d'haute définition*" this TV has. Have a fantastic day sir."

And I stormed off.

*It means "how many HD sockets"

[Pixilated]

I always hope people who respond to rude 'other language' speakers as you guys did have management who will back them up ... because there is no excuse at all for customers to be mocking employees literally to their faces like that.

As for the woman who was yelling at her teenage daughter ... can you wonder if the daughter shows her no respect?

[Hitokiri Akins]

As for the woman who was yelling at her teenage daughter ... can you wonder if the daughter shows her no respect?

Considering that's what she was ranting about when she passed me when I was stocking shelves?

I always hope people who respond to rude 'other language' speakers as you guys did have management who will back them up ... because there is no excuse at all for customers to be mocking employees literally to their faces like that.?

When I do that, I'm at least polite in my words and tone. So if I ever get called on that, I'll say just that.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

If your knees are bad, why are they having you do stock work? Stooping and bending to reach bottom shelves is a basic requirement of the job.

Perhaps it might be worth it to see if you can be moved to a job that requires less stooping. You shouldn't have to work in pain.

[Hitokiri Akins]

If your knees are bad, why are they having you do stock work? Stooping and bending to reach bottom shelves is a basic requirement of the job.

Perhaps it might be worth it to see if you can be moved to a job that requires less stooping. You shouldn't have to work in pain.

1. This is the position I applied for. If I can't do the job they hired me for, why should they keep me on?

2. I accepted pain as a part of my life when I fell out of the tree when I was ten. I knew from that point that the rest of my life would be full of minor aches and pain. As such, I am more about the threshold I am willing to deal with, rather than the fact that I am in pain.

3. I need to eat. And to be able to eat, I need to money. And in order to make money, I need to take a job that is available until my small business gets off the ground.

4. This is a low stress job. Any other job that is available is either high stress, or not in my area. So until my computer repair business gets off the ground, this is the best I can get, and I am glad to have it.

Besides, this site is for venting. Just because there are aspects of a job I don't like doesn't mean I don't like my job. My coworkers are cool, my bosses are nice, and the place is profitable, but not extremely busy, except around holidays, after bad weather, or before big events. Like yesterday, being the Super Bowl. THAT was busy, but still low stress for a stocker.

[Ben_Who]

I bet the looks on the Japanese peoples' faces were priceless. The people who do that sort of thing are always shocked when someone understands them.

There was a Not Always Right story about a bilinguist who was insulted by a non-English speaker, who responded less-than-apologetically in the non-English speaker's own language. What followed was a very surreal conversation - in the non-English speaker's language - insisting that the bilinguist couldn't possibly know any other language besides English, because he was American and everyone knows that Americans only speak English. The customer simply denied the reality unfolding in front of him.

Multilingual Americans aren't THAT rare.

[drjonah]

Over the last two Sundays, there has been this elderly couple that comes in and picks up a few things. They walk around and say "It's shameful that they make them work on Sunday."

This drives me nuts. These are the same people who would then turn around and complain if the store was CLOSED on sunday.

[Peppergirl]

Hitokiri, I don't think IPF meant his post in the way you perceived it. I'm fairly certain he's being sympathetic and was genuinely trying to offer advice.

That said, we have had to delete a couple of posts. This *is* a venting site, and there is a rule against failing to see the suck. If you cannot tactfully or gently offer advice or an opinion, please keep it to yourself.

Lets move forward and keep the thread going in a polite manner, please.

Thanks!

[Athaelia]

The Japanese-speaking teenagers remind me of some customers I witnessed when I worked at Merkins the breakfast restaurant.

A table of 6 Spanish-speaking folks were dining in Cheerful Smart Girl's (CSG) section, one morning. Now CSG is a very polite, happy server who gives wonderful service. But, she follows the rules...which includes charging the customer for the items they receive, naturally. Well the table got pissed because she rightfully charged them for the extra food they requested, so while she's standing there, they begin to talk about her in Spanish (mean, untrue stuff I won't repeat)

Now CSG is blonde haired and blue eyed..so I guess they figured she wouldn't understand them (?) What they didn't figure was she majored in Spanish in college, and as they were leaving she said to them in flawless Spanish "Thank you everyone, and have a wonderful day!!!"

6 shocked, mortified Cattbutt faces ensued, and I laughed so hard my ribs hurt.

[Hitokiri Akins]

Now CSG is blonde haired and blue eyed..so I guess they figured she wouldn't understand them (?) What they didn't figure was she majored in Spanish in college, and as they were leaving she said to them in flawless Spanish "Thank you everyone, and have a wonderful day!!!"

I think that's what those japanese girls thought; bald headed, six foot tall, slightly overweight (but working on changing that) guy in Ohio wouldn't understand then, and then dropped their shit when I spoke to them in japanese.

I will admit that I can't read japanese. The alphabets they use are WAY too strange to my eyes.

[manybellsdown]

There was a Not Always Right story about a bilinguist who was insulted by a non-English speaker, who responded less-than-apologetically in the non-English speaker's own language. What followed was a very surreal conversation - in the non-English speaker's language - insisting that the bilinguist couldn't possibly know any other language besides English, because he was American and everyone knows that Americans only speak English. The customer simply denied the reality unfolding in front of him.

Multilingual Americans aren't THAT rare.

I lived 30ish years in Los Angeles. Almost everyone knows, at the very least, "Spanglish." But there's a lot of native Spanish speakers who are shocked when a gringa actually understands them. It's practically like Quebec only not official! Nearly everything has a Spanish translation! Everybody knows you're insulting them when you say "puta"!

[CrappyToHelp]

I lived 30ish years in Los Angeles. Almost everyone knows, at the very least, "Spanglish." But there's a lot of native Spanish speakers who are shocked when a gringa actually understands them. It's practically like Quebec only not official! Nearly everything has a Spanish translation! Everybody knows you're insulting them when you say "puta"!

One of my best friends is Colombian so I've picked up so much unpleasant Spanish over the years.

When Spanish customers are asshats, I can pick up "hjbjdfvjle chvrgkfe hrvfcdswj dsxokr bjtvrckxd twat."

[JustaCashier]

Years ago, like probably 30, or 35 or so, there was an article in one of our local newspapers on a bus driver for our local transit agency that was retiring after decades with the system.

When ask about memorable moments on the job, he related one story from many years before, where two ladies sitting near the front, years before, were talking in their native tongue of Danish, or Swedish, or some such about the affair that one of them was having.

They thanked him as they got off the bus, and he said "You're welcome."

In their native language.

Mike