crazy lady

[pltkcelestial18]

So I work at a grocery store and there's this eccentric lady *roughly in her 60s* that comes in quite often, maybe every week. She's always has something to return or exchange and if she did an exchange, she makes sure to let you know at the checkout and tells you who let her. She won't let you scan anything until she hands you her savings/loyalty card because she HAS to make sure everything is the price it's supposed to be and if it's not she'll argue with you until the end of time or try to get it free. She always buys all produce and hardly anything else.

Her groceries have to be bagged a certain way. She wants paper bags inside plastic bags and one item per bag. Baggers hate bagging for her because of this. When she's done she goes through all her stuff and makes sure it's ALL there before going out to her car. Also, the chain I work at, you're not required to carry groceries out to customers' cars but you're supposed to ask. Most customers do it themselves unless they have a basket FULL or even 2 baskets(sometimes even then they do it themselves) This woman though always requires someone to go out with her even though she never has that much.

Generally the floor supervisors (FS) stick close by to make make sure things go smoothly with her. The first time I had to deal with her, she wasn't too bad, but she did ask me how I liked her hair. She then went on to make a comment about how she thought the way she had it might've made her look too slutty (she's always coming in with really tight low cut jeans and small shirts; nothing revealing). I lost my bagger almost as soon as he saw her standing in my line and so I didn't have anyone to help me bag. Generally if I don't have a bagger, I want until I'm done taking their payment before bagging, but she wanted her groceries sacked before paying me and even then she was slowly counting her $1 bills to me. >.<

Another time, she went through a checkout behind me and had some sort of melon that the cashier couldn't identify so he asked me. In all honesty it looked like some sort of really big squash of some sort but wasn't sure what it was. I told him what I thought it was. She didn't try to correct me until he rung it up and said that wasn't the price it was supposed to be so he voided it off and was trying a few different codes. Finally, he just called a FS over and asked him what it was. Ms Crazy argued that she should get it for free even though when finally rung up right was the right price and the FS told her he wasn't going to allow that.

We joke that she's sort of an induction for the new cashiers and baggers cause she's so crazy.

[Laund-o-rama Mama]

Routine returns and exchanges in grocery stores? I never even knew that was possible, barring perhaps spoiled food or something broken. The only time I ever returned something was when I **WARNING GROSS** found worms in my newly-purchased cod.

[mharbourgirl]

Routine returns and exchanges in grocery stores? I never even knew that was possible, barring perhaps spoiled food or something broken. The only time I ever returned something was when I **WARNING GROSS** found worms in my newly-purchased cod.

That's nasty. Good on the store to replace it for you, but don't blame them or their food-handling practices. You can get wormy fish even if you're buying it straight off the boat the minute it hits the wharf. Ask any salt-water fisher, they could tell you some gross stories about the condition of fish they catch.

[BrenDAnn]

Forgive me, but when you said produce, one item per bag, I started picturing big grocery bags with, say, one apple a piece in them. Please tell me my imagination is going overboard here!

[pltkcelestial18]

Forgive me, but when you said produce, one item per bag, I started picturing big grocery bags with, say, one apple a piece in them. Please tell me my imagination is going overboard here!

Well she gets like honeydew melons and a bunch of bananas and squash. Generally though if she has several apples or zucchini or yellow squash, all the apples together in one bag, all zucchini in one bag, etc. If it's something like a honeydew melon though, that's only one melon per bag. >.<

And yes this lady is returning/exchanging produce regularly. The supervisors know she can be difficult and so generally when she's returning/exchanging something they just do it for her.

[sirwired]

Routine returns and exchanges in grocery stores? I never even knew that was possible, barring perhaps spoiled food or something broken. The only time I ever returned something was when I **WARNING GROSS** found worms in my newly-purchased cod.

I return items all the time... bought the wrong thing, produce or meats that are off (i.e. a completely unrripe melon, pork that smells off, etc.), things that spoil unreasonably quick (strawberries growing mold the next morning), despite proper storage, store brand not as good as the name brand, etc.

Of course when I bought the wrong thing I return it unopened and resalable. For the other things my store explicitly guarantees those items; I interpret that as a signal they want me to return them if not satisfied. (You get double your money back for meat and produce, and your money back + the name brand free for store brand returns.) They do require you to scan your loyalty card, so you can't go turning into a constant money-maker, but I have taken advantage of their guarantee a number of times on a variety of items. (Maybe $60 or so a year, out of the thousands I spend there.)

Is this not standard grocery store policy? Am I being sucky?

[pltkcelestial18]

I return items all the time... bought the wrong thing, produce or meats that are off (i.e. a completely unrripe melon, pork that smells off, etc.), things that spoil unreasonably quick (strawberries growing mold the next morning), despite proper storage, store brand not as good as the name brand, etc.

Of course when I bought the wrong thing I return it unopened and resalable. For the other things my store explicitly guarantees those items; I interpret that as a signal they want me to return them if not satisfied. (You get double your money back for meat and produce, and your money back + the name brand free for store brand returns.) They do require you to scan your loyalty card, so you can't go turning into a constant money-maker, but I have taken advantage of their guarantee a number of times on a variety of items. (Maybe $60 or so a year, out of the thousands I spend there.)

Is this not standard grocery store policy? Am I being sucky?

I don't think you're being sucky, as long as you're nice and polite about it. People do make mistakes and accidentally grab the wrong thing or sometimes stuff smells off or goes bad really quickly. Once, my dad sent me to the store to buy a filter for one of our vents in the house and I probably ended up in there 2 or 3 times trying to get the right size. I felt bad about it, but I also used to work there, so I was nice about it and they were fine with it. The store I work at now also scans your loyalty card when you return stuff, I guess for the same reason, to make sure you're not doing it too often.

This particular lady though always seems to be returning stuff. I've never actually dealt with her returns or exchanges, so I'm not sure the reasons behind it.

[manybellsdown]

I returned some meat once that had come from the butcher counter. It was labeled as one thing, and priced as that thing, but when we unwrapped it at home they'd given us a totally different kind of meat that we couldn't use for the recipe.

I felt awful returning it - it was a good $30 worth of meat that they were going to have to throw out.

[Legal Eagle]

store brand not as good as the name brand,

I don't understand why you return an item for this reason? Surely this is a case of, buying a cheaper product means the quality is lower?

[BuryMe]

I don't understand why you return an item for this reason? Surely this is a case of, buying a cheaper product means the quality is lower?

I know a couple store around here do this. They want you to try the store brand because the profit margin is higher, but they still want your business even if you don't like it, so they have that replacement policy just to get you in the store.

It came in handy on some rice crispy squares once. The store brand tasted like they were dipped in honey.

[Ironclad Alibi]

It came in handy on some rice crispy squares once. The store brand tasted like they were dipped in honey.

And this was a bad thing?

Disclaimer: I like both rice crispy squares and honey, but have never sampled them together, so it might not be a good combination.