Tweet
So I'm at the local grocery store to get the few items required for dinner. We're talking about 5 items and certainly less than the maximum amount allowed for most check-out lines.
Now in this tale of woe, half of my displeasure about the situation comes from the cashiers and half from the customer in the story and her child.
Coming up to the registers I decide to forgo the express lines as they are rather packed and there are two standard lines open with only one customer ahead of me and they have not that many items left on the belt. So I gravitate to them. The cashier waves me off informing me that she and the other cashier are closing their lanes.
Gee! Closing two lanes when every other lane is packed 6 deep at least (express had 10 deep)...not an endearing business philosophy to those who really do not like waiting in store lines longer than they have to.
So I grin and bare it and head to the express lane with the least amount of people. At the register was a woman with a full cart. Full as in more than 12 items.
To make matters worse, she was breaking her cart into groups of 12 items and running them separately paying with them indifferent ways. Three debit cards, one food assistance card, cash twice, and more interestingly four payroll checks.
The payroll checks were really annoying to me as she would bay for that particular batch by cashing the check and taking the cash, minus the processing fee and the cost of the items. Four times. And not in a roll either. This was part of the whole baffling performance since the cash, the checks, and the cards had no rhyme or reason to the order they came out in.
Now, each payroll check required a manager to come out and approve (I'm sure he didn't enjoy the randomness of his summonses either), ID's to be scanned (we have barcodes on our state ID's and Drivers Licenses), a thumbprint, and a current check cashing card. This process naturally takes time.
What also took time was the fact that she couldn't remember the PIN's on the cards and would have to run teh card several times trying the cadre of PIN's until she lucked upon the correct one for her card.
Thankfully the cash transactions were simple and quick.
While all of this is going on, her child is a typical bored 4 year-old toddler and as such is starting to find things to do. Things like ramming the cart into other carts and eventually people (of which the mother did little more than tall him to stop in a *slightly* raised voice.
The child also decided on two accounts to take the cart and run off through the store forcing the mother to leave the line (but leaving her purse on the counter) to chase her son down and return him to the line. A third escape attempt involved the child running the cart out the door and into the parking lot. Something that really panicked the mother.
Another set of delays was caused when the child discovered that he could fit his fingers through the wire mesh of the cart and then stumbled and fell, hanging himself by his fingers which are ill equipped to support weight at those angles. Further damage to the fingers was caused by the swinging of the back gate of the cart (the bit that lifts up to allow card stacking) and allowing it to fall upon the fingers. Both of these were worth a 5 minute wait until the crying (understandably so given how much fingers can hurt at that age) stopped.
All the while, the line was getting longer and longer, the store had closed yet another register during this 30 minute ordeal, and even though it was no longer physically possible to go down the bakery aisle (from register to the meat department), the store did nothing to suggest that the woman go to a slow lane or keep aisles open or in fact anything to make it easier for the rest of us who just wanted to get a quick dinner.
I said nothing to management. It wasn't worth it. There were several who were stating that this had been the last straw and that they were shopping elsewhere. I'd say that myself, but they do have good prices on meats once per month for their big sales and I'll come back for that, but for the rest of the time I think I too will seek my foodstuffs elsewhere.
Now in this tale of woe, half of my displeasure about the situation comes from the cashiers and half from the customer in the story and her child.
Coming up to the registers I decide to forgo the express lines as they are rather packed and there are two standard lines open with only one customer ahead of me and they have not that many items left on the belt. So I gravitate to them. The cashier waves me off informing me that she and the other cashier are closing their lanes.
Gee! Closing two lanes when every other lane is packed 6 deep at least (express had 10 deep)...not an endearing business philosophy to those who really do not like waiting in store lines longer than they have to.
So I grin and bare it and head to the express lane with the least amount of people. At the register was a woman with a full cart. Full as in more than 12 items.
To make matters worse, she was breaking her cart into groups of 12 items and running them separately paying with them indifferent ways. Three debit cards, one food assistance card, cash twice, and more interestingly four payroll checks.
The payroll checks were really annoying to me as she would bay for that particular batch by cashing the check and taking the cash, minus the processing fee and the cost of the items. Four times. And not in a roll either. This was part of the whole baffling performance since the cash, the checks, and the cards had no rhyme or reason to the order they came out in.
Now, each payroll check required a manager to come out and approve (I'm sure he didn't enjoy the randomness of his summonses either), ID's to be scanned (we have barcodes on our state ID's and Drivers Licenses), a thumbprint, and a current check cashing card. This process naturally takes time.
What also took time was the fact that she couldn't remember the PIN's on the cards and would have to run teh card several times trying the cadre of PIN's until she lucked upon the correct one for her card.
Thankfully the cash transactions were simple and quick.
While all of this is going on, her child is a typical bored 4 year-old toddler and as such is starting to find things to do. Things like ramming the cart into other carts and eventually people (of which the mother did little more than tall him to stop in a *slightly* raised voice.
The child also decided on two accounts to take the cart and run off through the store forcing the mother to leave the line (but leaving her purse on the counter) to chase her son down and return him to the line. A third escape attempt involved the child running the cart out the door and into the parking lot. Something that really panicked the mother.
Another set of delays was caused when the child discovered that he could fit his fingers through the wire mesh of the cart and then stumbled and fell, hanging himself by his fingers which are ill equipped to support weight at those angles. Further damage to the fingers was caused by the swinging of the back gate of the cart (the bit that lifts up to allow card stacking) and allowing it to fall upon the fingers. Both of these were worth a 5 minute wait until the crying (understandably so given how much fingers can hurt at that age) stopped.
All the while, the line was getting longer and longer, the store had closed yet another register during this 30 minute ordeal, and even though it was no longer physically possible to go down the bakery aisle (from register to the meat department), the store did nothing to suggest that the woman go to a slow lane or keep aisles open or in fact anything to make it easier for the rest of us who just wanted to get a quick dinner.
I said nothing to management. It wasn't worth it. There were several who were stating that this had been the last straw and that they were shopping elsewhere. I'd say that myself, but they do have good prices on meats once per month for their big sales and I'll come back for that, but for the rest of the time I think I too will seek my foodstuffs elsewhere.
Comment