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At the Store, we sell freshly-made salads in the deli department, which the deli clerks put together from scratch in the morning. They're pretty inexpensive at just under $3 for an entrée-sized serving, and they come in all your standard varieties - Caesar, chef salad, Italian salad, Cobb, krab louie, all-veggie, and so forth.
They don't come with dressing, though. We sell dressing packets separately for 38 cents each. Honestly, I prefer this approach to the way most stores package their salads - one packet is never enough to get a good coating of dressing, and this way you have the liberty to decide exactly how much dressing you want, and what kind you want.
Anyway, I'm running the front end this weekend, which is unusually hectic for this late in the month because there's a state high school athletics championship happening at the Big Sports Place just down the road, and all the nearby hotels are packed with teenagers who wind up here in search of snack food. In the midst of this, the self-checkout clerk pages for the store manager. He had just left the building a few minutes ago, and the only other supervisor on duty was on lunch, which meant that at that particular moment I was the person in charge of the Store, so I make my way over to his terminal to ask what he needs.
Me: What's up, SCO?
SCO: This C is upset about the price on the dressing packets and he wants to talk to the manager.
I step over to the terminal where the customer is waiting.
Me: How can I help you?
SC: Are you the manager?
Me: I'm the person in charge right now. The manager has already left for the day.
SC: Oh, how convienient. (You could taste the sarcasm dripping from his mouth at this point.)
Me: Can I help you with something?
SC: Can you tell me why this cashier is demanding I pay for these salad dressing packets?
Me: ...We charge for those, sir. They're 38 cents each.
SC: Well, who the
would ever buy a salad without dressing?
Me: I can't answer that question, sir, but we do charge for the dressing packets.
SC: I've been coming here for years, I buy these salads almost every day, and I've never paid for these! Why do you suddenly want me to pay for them now?
Me: ...Well, you should have been paying for them, sir. This is how it's been since the Store opened. (I actually have worked at this location since opening day, so I can say that with authority.)
SC: Well, YOU JUST LOST A SALAD CUSTOMER! (he drops his bag and walks away, and I have to fight the urge to say "see you tomorrow" as he storms out)
I really don't even. Was this guy just so self-entitled that he believed he ought to have free dressing regardless of the posted price for the packets, or was he just so totally oblivious that he didn't realize he'd been stealing for years and years? I've never been inside a supermarket where it was just assumed that salad dressing was free - either it's a salad bar deal where you pay by weight, or the dressing is included in the package if it's meant to be complimentary. He was just so cavalier in declaring that he'd effectively shoplifted from us hundreds of times that either he never actually realized what he was doing, or he had the biggest balls of any thief I've ever encountered at the Store.
I kinda wish that LP had caught him stealing dressing packets instead of the SCO clerk, but they'd probably just have let him off anyway because researching the number of dressing packets he'd stolen from us over the years would probably take more time and effort than the money we'd be able to recover from him.
They don't come with dressing, though. We sell dressing packets separately for 38 cents each. Honestly, I prefer this approach to the way most stores package their salads - one packet is never enough to get a good coating of dressing, and this way you have the liberty to decide exactly how much dressing you want, and what kind you want.
Anyway, I'm running the front end this weekend, which is unusually hectic for this late in the month because there's a state high school athletics championship happening at the Big Sports Place just down the road, and all the nearby hotels are packed with teenagers who wind up here in search of snack food. In the midst of this, the self-checkout clerk pages for the store manager. He had just left the building a few minutes ago, and the only other supervisor on duty was on lunch, which meant that at that particular moment I was the person in charge of the Store, so I make my way over to his terminal to ask what he needs.
Me: What's up, SCO?
SCO: This C is upset about the price on the dressing packets and he wants to talk to the manager.
I step over to the terminal where the customer is waiting.
Me: How can I help you?
SC: Are you the manager?
Me: I'm the person in charge right now. The manager has already left for the day.
SC: Oh, how convienient. (You could taste the sarcasm dripping from his mouth at this point.)
Me: Can I help you with something?
SC: Can you tell me why this cashier is demanding I pay for these salad dressing packets?
Me: ...We charge for those, sir. They're 38 cents each.
SC: Well, who the
would ever buy a salad without dressing?Me: I can't answer that question, sir, but we do charge for the dressing packets.
SC: I've been coming here for years, I buy these salads almost every day, and I've never paid for these! Why do you suddenly want me to pay for them now?
Me: ...Well, you should have been paying for them, sir. This is how it's been since the Store opened. (I actually have worked at this location since opening day, so I can say that with authority.)
SC: Well, YOU JUST LOST A SALAD CUSTOMER! (he drops his bag and walks away, and I have to fight the urge to say "see you tomorrow" as he storms out)
I really don't even. Was this guy just so self-entitled that he believed he ought to have free dressing regardless of the posted price for the packets, or was he just so totally oblivious that he didn't realize he'd been stealing for years and years? I've never been inside a supermarket where it was just assumed that salad dressing was free - either it's a salad bar deal where you pay by weight, or the dressing is included in the package if it's meant to be complimentary. He was just so cavalier in declaring that he'd effectively shoplifted from us hundreds of times that either he never actually realized what he was doing, or he had the biggest balls of any thief I've ever encountered at the Store.
I kinda wish that LP had caught him stealing dressing packets instead of the SCO clerk, but they'd probably just have let him off anyway because researching the number of dressing packets he'd stolen from us over the years would probably take more time and effort than the money we'd be able to recover from him.
)
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