I was going to rant about one topic in particular but through the course of my shopping:

(1) People who randomly stop in the middle of asiles and just stand there-- If you see something you want, move to one side, retreive it from the shelf, then continue on. If you're unsure of what you want, either ensure that there's not someone behind you trying to get past or move to one side while examining the shelf to make your selection.

Particularly annoying when the cause of the abrupt stop is someone deciding that they need to send a text message right now, completely oblivious to the people behind them.

These people do the same thing while driving and I'm always tempted to hit them but afraid my insurance will go up. Today I was about this >< far from doing it "accidentally" with my shopping cart.

(2) Families who span the entire width of the asile and just kind of hang out. Kind of like #1 but much worse. While these people don't abruptly stop, they seem to have confused Asile #13 with their living room; despite seeing you coming down the asile they just kind of stand there oblivious to your need to move through their family meeting until the 6th "Pardon Me"

(3) People who use self checkout without knowing how to use self checkout Either the supermarkets need to provide "Beginner" and "Expert" lanes or there needs to be some kind of certification before someone is allowed to use a self checkout lane. The woman in front of me had roughly the same number of items I did but took 15 minutes to check out, again oblivious to the growing line behind her. She seemed to have difficulty with concepts like "The barcode goes on the plastic window", "you can scan the next item as soon as the first item has been accepted, you don't have to wait for it to go all the way to the end of the conveyor belt", and of course "when you're finished, hit the "I'm finished button" and tender payment. The guy behind me was really irritated by the time she was done... and for good reason, it took me less than 4 minutes from the time I scanned my first item to the time I was walking out of the store. (Yes, I checked my watch)

I realized as I was walking out to my car that I spent longer waiting for her to check out than I actually spent gathering my purchases.

Ok, so I'll probably get no sympathy, but I feel better for complaining  

No it is a pretty good rant....one of the better ones in here in a long time

GS

[Edited 2009-04-25 16:52:56]

Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): (1) People who randomly stop in the middle of aisles and just stand there

Don't see that too much here at the regular supermarkets. However, they are more annoying at the Chinese supermarkets. Worse, I'm right behind some slow Asian shopper who all of sudden decides he/she needs to get something in another aisle. So they park their cart in the middle of the one we're on and leave to go to the other aisle knowing that I'm right behind them and will block the aisle. When they leave, I purposely push their cart in their direction and then they start yelling me in their native language. I just give them the FU look   .

Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): (3) People who use self checkout without knowing how to use self checkout

Over here, it's not people not knowing how to use the system, but it's the annoying system where every 10 seconds you hear "PLEASE PLACE THE ITEM IN THE BAG" when it's already in the bag or "PLEASE WAIT FOR AN ATTENDANT". It's like you don't have anything in your hand when you first start and if you step on the wrong tile by the machine it yells "PLEASE WAIT FOR AN ATTENDANT!" Sometimes a bit too sensitive!

Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): (1) People who randomly stop in the middle of asiles and just stand there-- If you see something you want, move to one side, retreive it from the shelf, then continue on. If you're unsure of what you want, either ensure that there's not someone behind you trying to get past or move to one side while examining the shelf to make your selection.

So it happens in USA too.. I hate that. I also hate it when someone gets to the register and decides they've forgotten something - and must go back to get it.  

Or the large queues with only two registers open, and one of them is the 10 items or less lane...

But that's when you conveniently divide up your 30 items between 3 people!  

Try being in an English supermarket, where every person seems to feel it's a game of bumper cars and can feel free to hit you with their carts at any opportunity! The rudest, most oblivious people i've ever known! They'll happily trap your fingers between your shopping cart and theirs and then give you a look of disgust as you yelp in shock and pain. I'd love a cattle prod when i go into a UK supermarket just to say 'here, how does it feel now?'.

Cheers

Stu

Quoting Skysurfer (Reply 4): Try being in an English supermarket, where every person seems to feel it's a game of bumper cars and can feel free to hit you with their carts at any opportunity! The rudest, most oblivious people i've ever known!

The US equivalent ... Costco in Kirkland, WA. The staff are very friendly, the customers ... seriously you have to wonder what when up their arses!!!!! I still can't forget this old grandmother who purposely ran into my cart containing my nieces and nephews all behaving and reading books while she decided to go mental! Good thing people were around and staff escorting her out of the premise and my nieces and nephews unharmed. Their moms were with me so I let them file the report while I continued watching over the kids.

On a good day, it's a bunch of soccer mom's racing like it's a NASCAR rally. On a busy day, it's Russians reeking of vodka, Indians walking insanely slow and eating all the free samples, Chinese screaming from the clothing section to the food section, Filipinos yelling "PSST, HOY!", and the rednecks cursing under their breath of all these foreigner, especially when all the free samples are taken and can't wait 2min for the next batch! INSANE!

I love going to the Supermarket but there is always a group of people that ruin my experience. I get Supermarket rage quit often.

If i may add.....

people that don't return their carts to the proper place and...
people that park wherever ( in a lane-way idling while their significant other shops inside) and have no regard for others

I love Trader Joe's but I feel it's a do or die scenario in their asiles. If you so much as give anyone an inch - boom, they stand in front of you while they admire the selection of jam.

Overall, I find other places in Seattle fine and enjoyable.Customer Service is certainly a focus. However, I struggle going back to the east coast (Long Island) where you have to bag your own groceries. Yeah, it's awful!. Some stores actually have belts that separate your groceries from the next person so you can take your time to bag.

Quoting AznMadSci (Reply 5): The US equivalent ... Costco

I've found Mon, Tues and Friday after work to be the best time. I can't handle Costco on the weekends (the staff does a great job all the time! the customers, ugh!)

-Kirk

Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): (3) People who use self checkout without knowing how to use self checkout

Im from Long Island New York and I don't think any of the supermarkets here have self checkouts.

Great rant.

Number 3 has my vote. Nothing is more painful than having a senior citizen take 10 minutes to try to navigate a self-service checkout. My favorite is when some random asshole decides to grab a random uniformed employee about their 19 cent off coupon that didn't scan correctly. If you don't know how to use it quickly, or are coupon-obsessive, go to a regular check-out lane! At a Giant supermarket I frequent, I'm usually held up more by the time it takes my credit card to be processed than I am scanning three items.

As for DC-area supermarkets, they all stink aside from Harris Teeter. Giant, Safeway (probably the worst supermarket ever), etc. are all in the stone ages in terms of quality and selection.

My main rant is when you go to buy something like 12 packs of soda, that you have to have a $25 or more purchase to get the 'special price'. Another is when you get stuck behind someone on WIC/Food stamps card and they have to sign off the certificats (for WIC) or they have to pay cash for items not covered by food stamps. Otherwise I have few problems with going to the supermarkets.

Quoting Dragon-wings (Reply 8): Im from Long Island New York and I don't think any of the supermarkets here have self checkouts.

Stop and Shop's website says they have it available at participating stores.

I hate food shopping thank god my partner thinks it is like a trip to Disneyland.

But you missed one that really galls the hell out of me. So often, not in self-check out, a person with a big load of stuff, stands there and talks to the cashier as everything is scanned. This usually reduces the efficiency of the person doing the scanning but that is not my real rant. So Mr/Ms Cashier presses the total button and this is the cue for the shopper to START looking for their debit card / credit card or checkbook. When it's a check it makes me crazy -- HELLO DID YOU NOT THINK YOU WOULD PAY. Were you expecting the coupon printer that gives you coupons for brands of cat food that your freaking cats go on strike before they will eat, did you think the coupon printer would provide some sort of CONGRATULATIONS YOU'VE WON THE COUPON LOTTERY AND EVERYTHING IS FREE.

Then they start to look for a pen. This really toasts my nuts, can you tell?

I'm about to roll out to the Carrefour at Zhongshan Park here in Shanghai. OMG, this is a nightmare unlike anything in the West.

> Aisles too small
> So freaking noisy! Why do all the people hawking specials have to have the loudspeaker shouting the price and details?
> Why does this create a crowd of people watching BUT NOT BUYING?
> Then there is the riot at the veg/fruit weight station. Dammit, when will this country learn about orderly queues?


Anyhow, just a normal desert day.

Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): (1) People who randomly stop in the middle of asiles and just stand there

I think your items 1 and 2 kinda go hand-in-hand. However, I have seen on person take up the whole aisle like there was no one else in the entire store. They just camp out. One person! Instead of acknowledging our "excuse me," they either take a step to block the aisle even more, or whip out their cell phone.

Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): (3) People who use self checkout without knowing how to use self checkout

Then, the get the one person running all the self-check outs to scan their stuff. All the while, leaving the rest of us waiting. Our Fred Meyer (Kroger) and Albertsons both have a total of 8 self-check outs in each of their stores. If someone is purchasing beer or wine, the computer stops and waits until the attendant checks ID. But, if the attendant is scanning someone else's purchases, the person buying beer has to wait. By that time, another person is having problems with their card and the attendant has to push some buttons, and the code for lettuce is not correct, so the attendant has to deal with that, but the person they are scanning stuff for gets upset if the attendant leaves....

Quoting AznMadSci (Reply 5): Costco in Kirkland, WA

WinCo, pretty much anywhere, is like that. ALWAYS crowded. Hispanics and those from former Soviet states are the overwhelming majorities. The whole family gets involved. Entire herds roaming the aisles. Then, check-out is always 5 or 6 deep with these large families purchasing more than $150 on any given day. They have great prices, but those of us shopping for one or two have to budget an hour or more going there.

Well, take this for what it's worth. I simply refuse to use a self-checkout. The store is not paying me to perform their job functions. They do not offer me a discount for doing the work for them. When you self-checkout, you are putting a person out of work.

A business is supposed to provide CUSTOMER SERVICE. It's become almost impossible in places like Home Depot to actually find a staff member to assist you. The whole store has become self-serve which is fine for some things, but on a project where I'm looking to get some salient advice, there is nobody there.

To add insult to injury, provide no Customer Service, then expect me to Self-Checkout it going too far.

mini-rant over!

Quoting Photopilot (Reply 14): Well, take this for what it's worth. I simply refuse to use a self-checkout. The store is not paying me to perform their job functions. They do not offer me a discount for doing the work for them

That's the attitude I take regarding "eBills" or "eStatements". If anyone was willing to give me a discount reflecting their savings in printing, stuffing, and mailing costs I'd consider it, but if you aren't going to give me a discount you can screw that idea (I don't throw away statements, though -- I have copies going back to the date most of my accounts were opened) -- but in the case of self checkout I do it because it gets me in and out quicker assuming I don't have to wait behind an incompetent.

90% of the time I'm at Home Depot I can walk righ up to a self checkout terminal, the other 10% of the time I rarely have to wait more than 1 person deep. To me the efficiency gained from not having to stand around and make smalltalk with a cashier is worth using self checkout. That and it's proven to a great way to get rid of change (including pennies) during off-peak times.

I've never gotten competent advice at Home Depot, and some of the advice I have gotten has been somewhere between "suspect" and "even I know if I did that I would be violating code"

Quoting Tootallsd (Reply 12): So often, not in self-check out, a person with a big load of stuff, stands there and talks to the cashier as everything is scanned.

Ahhh, yes... BTDT-- last time I was in Self Checkout. Woman scanned everything then realized she didn't have her purse/wallet/cash with her. So then you have to flag down the one employee who's running 12 lanes to figure out what to do about it. Maybe its because I'm paranoid, but when I'm walking into any store I check to make sure I have a form of payment...

I was tempted to just pay for her stuff to get things over with since it was only like $40 and she was kind of cute but decided against getting involved. I was kicking myself afterward for not doing it, especially since nothing in her cart implied a the presence of a significant other but c'est la vie.

Lincoln

[Edited 2009-04-26 13:50:51]

I think one of the biggest problems that I have is people eating from packaged food like candy and drinking bottled soda before checkout. Also a pet peeve is children crying and the parents doing nothing but ignoring and also people blocking the aisle with their cart in the way, it creates a log jam and people singing with the background music.

At the checkout line some of the problems that I have are slow slow lines with people writing checks and pinching pennies and the price check that takes a few minutes. One time I was at a checkout line and the cashier was completely confused I mean really, but more often the cash register breaks down.

What I hate:

The maid that some person that is having a huge party sends to Ralphs to buy food. not only do they talk to the cashier, but then they spend 10 minutes looking at the recipt, item by item, adding it up, and argueing with the cashier. Then its another 5 minutes until they get their truckload of crap onto a cart, while yours truly is waiting. And to crown it all, they walk 2 feet an hour, blocking the exit.

Quoting Photopilot (Reply 14): It's become almost impossible in places like Home Depot to actually find a staff member to assist you.

Portland area Home Depots and Lowes are the exact opposite. Just last week, I saw the first Hispanics hanging out in front of Home Depot here. I have never seen that in Oregon before! The first time I ever saw that was in San Rafael. Before that, I always thougth people were joking; that it never really happened! Also, in San Rafael, no one but no one wearing those orange vests (aka Home Depot employees) will not even make eye contact with anyone. No head nod, no "How you doin'" nothing. Here, we are accosted every few feet with "Are you finding everything?" and "Did you need help with that?" and so forth.

Quoting 2707200X (Reply 16): people singing with the background music.

No kidding! They are at the market, not a kareoke bar. As much as dispise the voices of Celine Dion and Faith Hill, they sang those songs for a reason: so you don't have to!

Quoting Braniff747SP (Reply 17): not only do they talk to the cashier,

We don't want your life story. In fact, we don't care. You paid, now move. Problem? The customer service booth is over there...

Quoting Cpd (Reply 3):

I agree on the people forgetting items; however, I'll ask the person holding his/her spot to see if i may go ahead or ill go to another register.

Heres one: People fighting for parking spaces. On Christmas eve, I nearly got hit three times because some incompetent a$$holes were going the wrong way. How can you not read the arrows. If I got hit, I would have laughed because I felt it coming had I attempted a fourth time.

KH

Quoting Seb146 (Reply 13): Then, the get the one person running all the self-check outs to scan their stuff. All the while, leaving the rest of us waiting. Our Fred Meyer (Kroger) and Albertsons both ... so the attendant has to deal with that, but the person they are scanning stuff for gets upset if the attendant leaves....

+1

Quoting Photopilot (Reply 14): When you self-checkout, you are putting a person out of work.

The reason I almost always do self-checkout because I've always enjoyed the novelty of it. More recently, I begin to realize I am more active in paying attention to what I scan or ring up, especially in this day of watching what I spend! The cashiers tend to miss the extra coupons and what REALLY pisses me off especially of late is that many times I go to Kroger or Randalls (Safeway) the cashiers tend to ring up the more expensive organic fruit or vegetable rather than the non-organic ones. The other day I purchased bananas that were $0.49/lb. The cashier rang it up as organic banana for $1.39/lb. Then the cashier rang up a pack of steaks twice when there was only 1 package! To make it worse and is a common occurrence now, the younger cashiers still wear their bluetooth handsets WHILE AT WORK!!!!! And they talk on the mobiles WHILE AT WORK!!!!! I had to call for the manager because it was unacceptable! I didn't care that they gave me the bananas or steaks for free, I rather had ripped that headset from the cashier's ear and shattered it to pieces and yell at that person to either clock out and go home or take the damn thing off and WORK!

There's one supermarket in Texas, Central Market (HEB), where you can print up your own labels for fruits or vegetables so it lets the customer know what they are getting is within their budget and prevent mistakes at the registers.

Quoting Lincoln (Reply 15): That's the attitude I take regarding "eBills" or "eStatements". If anyone was willing to give me a discount reflecting their savings in printing, stuffing, and mailing costs I'd consider it, but if you aren't going to give me a discount you can screw that idea (I don't throw away statements, though -- I have copies going back to the date most of my accounts were opened)

I'm the exact opposite. I love eBills or eStatements because I already have too much paper clutter and no more space. I love the creation of PDFs and convert those eBills/eStatements to PDFs. For me much more manageable rather than having to shred old ones and taking papers without personal information to the recycling place.

Quoting AznMadSci (Reply 20): There's one supermarket in Texas, Central Market (HEB), where you can print up your own labels for fruits or vegetables so it lets the customer know what they are getting is within their budget and prevent mistakes at the registers

Reminds me of a demeaning experience at the Carrefour in Murcia, Spain 2 1/2 years ago.

Apparently I needed to weigh my tangerines in the produce aisle and print out the sticker and slap it on the plastic bag. The 17 year old girl at the register proceeded to animate and narrate what I needed to do all in spanish. She then put my tangerines to the side and totalled my bill (without them).

I didn't need to speak the language to know what just happened.

-Kirk

Similar to the wide aisle walkers are the multiple fat women walking side by side chatting away to each other walking at 0.025 mph. Their heads are bobbing like those bobble head dolls. They act as if they have never been in the place before.

I use the self check out machines, the software has improved greatly over the years but the check out clerks are still faster. So unless there is a line of 10 people I'll use those humans first.

Another thing that bugs me, are the "grazers" who eat their food as they are walking down the aisle. Then when they finish off the item, they stick the empty package behind some other item (usually canned goods) in the store. This is stealing!

Locally a lot of the stores have the first 10 car park slots in each row dedicated to handicapped parking. Most of the time most of those are empty. A typical store may have over 100 handicapped spots allocated. There is no way in hell that they'd have that many handicapped people in the store at any given time!

Here is another one. The cars that pull up to the front door of the store to let mama and all the kids out first. Sometimes you'll have two or three of these doing this at the same time!
They take their sweet time exiting their car and it holds up traffic behind them!

Why don't people use debit cards more often? Sometimes these people who write checks
take their sweet time doing so. Debit cards are a LOT faster!

And finally those super "persons of size" who use the electric shopping carts. Look in their carts and you'll often see tons of junk food and ice cream, etc. Did it ever dawn on them that they might lose some weight walking? I know some people have to use those carts due to true handicaps, but I suspect a lot of them are too lazy to walk!

Quoting Type-Rated (Reply 22): Similar to the wide aisle walkers are the multiple fat women walking side by side chatting away to each other walking at 0.025 mph. Their heads are bobbing like those bobble head dolls. They act as if they have never been in the place before.

This is my shopping mall peeve! They give you a dirty look if you try to overtake them yet I make a cynical laugh when they bitch and complain that nothing in the shops fit them as they devour a chocolate chip cookie sandwich with icing in the middle!

What I don't like is supermarkets which funnel you straight from the door through the maze of deli counters, produce, florist, bakery, meat section, and god only knows what else before you get to the normal food aisles. Shoppers Food Warehouse in Northern VA is notorious for this.

Farm Fresh in VA Beach tries to steer everyone through all the same areas I just mentioned but it is easy to bypass it. BTW Shoppers and Farm Frresh are the same company.

Another rant I have is the nice wide aisle in the back has now become an obstacle course because of all the "islands" placed there such as muffin carts bread tables, etc. In some cases it is only wide enough for one cart at a time to get around them.

Some Shoppers Food Warehouse stores have barricades to keep you from taking the shopping carts into the parking lot. You have to get your car, pull in front of the store then load your car, causing traffic jams in front of the store. More than once I have seen cars double parked.

People blocking the aisle in the parking lot because someone is about to vacate the first parking spot by the door. That someone is Mommy starting to load $200 worth of groceries into the back of her super-duper mega size SUV, then she has to buckle her two babies into their car seats and then get the other three kids into the SUV. In the meantime there is an open parking spot three cars away.

Allow me to add:
SELF-CHECKOUT MACHINES THAT DON'T WORK We've all done it. Swipe a bar code. It's not difficult. It's not complicated. It's not hard.

And yet this time it's impossible. You smoosh the thing against the window. You wave it in all sorts of crazy directions. You watch the laser lights play over it. And yet there is no satisfying *beep!* to tell you that you have paid for this item.

You stand there like an idiot holding this jar of pasta sauce in every which way until finally the assistant comes along and asks "do you need help, sir?" as if you're some sort of inept retard. But you get a moment's secret satisfaction confirming that he can't contort himself to make it scan, either. So he pulls a magic wand out and the machine allows him to punch in the number manually.

But then it happens again... *GRRGH!*

Quoting DocLightning (Reply 25): SELF-CHECKOUT MACHINES THAT DON'T WORK We've all done it. Swipe a bar code. It's not difficult. It's not complicated. It's not hard.

And why does this always seem to happen during the evening rush at Wal*Mart????   

I think living in Texas where we have huge-ass grocery stores, I never really suffered any of these indignities. The only annoying thing at the store for me is when people decide to write checks in the express lanes, therefore nullifying the entire concept of express checkout. I hated that as a grocery store cashier and I hate even more as a customer.

The one that gets me is the people who line up their trolley at the check-out then decide to run off shopping again.

Anyway, I've decided to bring some patience, love and understanding to my life. With he check-out girls consent I push the trolley out of the queue. It gives them longer to shop.

-After some years in North America I did get somewhat used to having someone pack my bags for me. Not that packing your own stuff is hard, but I do get annoyed when the cashier slings half a dozen bags at you, all of which seem to be stuck together. Seriously, a multi million pound/euro supermarket and they don't have those metal bag dispenser things.

-The first time I had my other bags heat sealed shut (applies to Spain and Portugal - no idea if other countries do it) on entering a supermarket I felt that was a bit rude, until I realised EVERYONE get their bags sealed. Cuts down on thefts I assume.

-Cashiers who have no idea how much something costs, and supermarkets that don't have any better system than if the barcode is obscured have to get someone to do out to the aisle and get another one.

-Self check outs. Supermarkets are paying most probably close enough to minimum wage as it is, and they want me to help increase profits further by reducing staff?

-15 items or less is 15 items or less. Not 20. I'd make people queue up again in the non- express lane.

Quoting Photopilot (Reply 14): They do not offer me a discount for doing the work for them

Though you could argue that the saving is passed on across the board. If I have only a few items, why bother queuing up while you wait for the person at the checkout to have a chat with the shop assistant?

Quoting Photopilot (Reply 14): A business is supposed to provide CUSTOMER SERVICE. It's become almost impossible in places like Home Depot to actually find a staff member to assist you. The whole store has become self-serve which is fine for some things, but on a project where I'm looking to get some salient advice, there is nobody there.

In a supermarket or warehouse-style store, you don't expect this kind of assistance.

What irritates me is when people openly rate as zero the amount they are willing to pay for good customer service. I used to work part-time in a UK high street store. You go to a lot of technology shops on the high street and get ridiculously bad service; even many of the stores in the chain which used to employ me. I'll be bold here and say that our store was not like that - we had a wealth of experience and a customer attitude that had earned our particular branch a good reputation. We weren't paid commission - and yet worked for the most part on minimum wage for weeks sometimes beyond the limits set by the EU working time directive; since there was no incentive in it for us, we genuinely did try to recommend the most appropriate product to customers.
However, were I a more unpleasant individual, I'd probably have taken revenge on some of the customers with attitude.
If I have spent two hours on an evening shift around Christmas demonstrating a product to a customer and giving them the sort of experience of the product they're about to buy, I find it a little insulting when they ask you me why our price is a few quid more than the internet.
One person came in, armed with his Which? guides and asked me questions about each of the products the magazine had recommended (all but one of which had been out of production for almost a year); I duly answered them, and it seemed impossible for me to slip up. He eventually bought a bundle which I discounted for him. The whole sale took just under two hours.
He was back the next week, furious that we had ripped him off. The crime? An internet site was offering one of the accessories for about £5 cheaper. He had it refunded, and stormed out muttering about how we dared charge him so much more for nothing.

Quoting Offloaded (Reply 29): -15 items or less is 15 items or less. Not 20. I'd make people queue up again in the non- express lane.

As long as the express lane sign is clear I wouldn't mind, but there are store where the "express 8 or less/16 or less/20 or less" signs masquerade a tiny little store logos. Sobey's at some stores i've been to is bad for this. Other times the big Express sign seems to self migrate while waiting in line... or isnt on the sign holder at all but sitting BEHIND the chip bags on display...

Quoting Bohica (Reply 24): People blocking the aisle in the parking lot because someone is about to vacate the first parking spot by the door. That someone is Mommy starting to load $200 worth of groceries into the back of her super-duper mega size SUV, then she has to buckle her two babies into their car seats and then get the other three kids into the SUV. In the meantime there is an open parking spot three cars away.

Oh well round here sitting at the curb is quite common and stupid. People are soooo lazy they cant park and walk an extra 50' so they leave someone in the car while they "just run in for one thing!".

And don't get me started on the $200 grocery moms, the only one worse than the SUV soccer moms are the ancient astrovan bargain store moms who have 5-6 kids all running around and block everything all the time, yet when you get in their way they just start slagging off at you and complaining. Then argue over their 5 cent coupons at the cashier, refuse to pay 5.45 for their box of laundry detergent instead of the 5.25 in the flyer (for another brand/size/etc), bag stuff sooo slowly they have 5 or 6 people waiting on them to finish, and then manage to get their cart stuck in the exit and are to stupid to simply back up instead of shoving it over and over again into the same too narrow spot.

Oh yes they are the same ones who practically run you down in their 1989 Ford Windstar while you are walking to your car!

And my new favorite: The ones who insist on buying a cup of coffee on their way out but leave their cart blocking the exit for everyone while they stand in line... right in front of the signs saying not to leave your cart unattended! OH boy and don't you dare touch "their" cart, I saw someone get forcibly removed from the store on Saturday for throwing a tantrum over that, early 40s woman went totally hysterical when a guy moved her cart 4 inches while she was in line at Timmies... yeesh, police and everything, quite the scene, and of course I had to wait with heavy bags cutting into my hands for this to all go down...
 

My biggest bitch is a grammatical one.

It's "10 items or FEWER" not less!!!!

Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): (1) People who randomly stop in the middle of asiles and just stand there

Good rant. This one almost drove me insane just yesterday.

Don't ever go shopping in Norway, you have nothing to complain about, think yourself lucky, you will be scared to death by the prices and shocked to find that they don't have selfservice or even express checkouts.

Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): (3) People who use self checkout without knowing how to use self checkout

IMHO, self-checkouts should have a MAXIMUM number of items to be checked out. I can not tell you the number of times (at the Aldan, PA Giant) I've seen people with a cart FULL of groceries head to the self-checkout registers which takes them about 20 to 30 minutes to go through.

Another rank for self-checkouts are the times one wants to use the self-checkouts for expediency only to find out that either some or all of them are closed or one of the only working/open ones is not accepting cash (machine's out of change).

Quoting Offloaded (Reply 29): After some years in North America I did get somewhat used to having someone pack my bags for me. Not that packing your own stuff is hard, but I do get annoyed when the cashier slings half a dozen bags at you, all of which seem to be stuck together.

One real doozy is when the customer in front is checking out their items (at a cashier-attended register), the fore-mentioned employee that did the bagging is gone.

Quoting DocLightning (Reply 25): this jar of pasta sauce

Solution: make your own pasta sauce. I do  

There are so many goings-on in a supermarket that are - very temporarily - extremely detrimental to my blood pressure and can bring on acute bouts of misogyny.

The needless blocking of an aisle with a strategically placed shopping trolley appears to be universal. I regularly shop in the UK and the Netherlands and the Dutch win hands down.

Supermarket shelves being rendered inaccessible by shopping trolley, attendant children and Mum standing vacantly looking around, while all I want is a jar of Calvé low-fat peanut butter.

Most supermarkets here have a tourniquet to be negotiated before entering the supermarket proper. Much gnashing of teeth this very afternoon when one lady having got through the tourniquet stopped dead in her tracks in order to get her bearings.

Shoppers totally oblivious to all around them, with a cell phone (surgically?) attached to one ear yakking away about nothing-in-particular - mostly inane.

Check outs: she's unloaded her groceries on to the moving belt, she's omitted to greet the charming Moroccan-Dutch cashier, she's looked on while her groceries are checked. "Oh my, now I have to pack my stuff." "Oh my, now I have to pay." The purse must now be fished out of a voluminous handbag .........   

I could go on, but it makes me mad just thinking about it. I try to shop 'off-peak' as much as possible, for example early Sunday mornings.

Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): (3) People who use self checkout without knowing how to use self checkout

Great rant.. as an ex-manager of a Grocery store, I can spend DAY'S telling stories, but let me expand on your item number 3.

Not only do people that have no clue insist on using the self checkouts, what really gets me are the ones that either (1) let their kids use it as a toy, they hand them the items, and the kids can't scan them, push buttons, etc.. or even worse (2) refuse to tell the kids to STOP when the kids are attempting to "help," and what I mean by that is while the parents are scanning items, the kids reach into the shopping cart and start randomly scanning items before the parent can put their item into the bag, thus causing a weight error and shutting the machine down until the attendant can clear the machine for more scanning.

I could NEVER run one of those self checkout units as an employee. I wouldn't last 5 minutes before being fired.

[Edited 2009-04-27 16:10:29]

Quoting Type-Rated (Reply 22): The cars that pull up to the front door of the store to let mama and all the kids out first. Sometimes you'll have two or three of these doing this at the same time! They take their sweet time exiting their car and it holds up traffic behind them!

That brings up another rant of mine: I don't know about other parts of the world, but in the Pacific Northwest, EVERY store has a red or yellow curb in front that CLEARLY says "No Parking Fire Lane" all the way down the red or yellow curb. In addition, some stores have reflective signs that say "No Parking." WinCo even has signs posted to the effect of "Children are in danger if cars park here." Yet, what happens? People park there. "Just getting one or two things" or "I'm just waiting; s/he will be out in a sec." So, that gives you the right to ignore the signs?

Quoting RobertNL070 (Reply 36): Shoppers totally oblivious to all around them, with a cell phone (surgically?) attached to one ear yakking away about nothing-in-particular - mostly inane.

Oh well-written, sir! VERY well-written!

  

Quoting Seb146 (Reply 13): WinCo, pretty much anywhere, is like that. ALWAYS crowded. Hispanics and those from former Soviet states are the overwhelming majorities. The whole family gets involved. Entire herds roaming the aisles. Then, check-out is always 5 or 6 deep with these large families purchasing more than $150 on any given day. They have great prices, but those of us shopping for one or two have to budget an hour or more going there.

I know this WinCo. That's got to be the one on E Burnside and Powell. The Russian gives it away.

My least favorite part of WinCo is watching the children climb all over the bulk food section. I'm just trying to fill a bag with cashews, but I can't reach the bin because someone's misbehaving kidlet is trying to dive headfirst into the bin of Tootsie Rolls and is blocking my path. The parents find it to be adorable.  

How about the people that walk ridiculously slow in front of you AFTEr the check out when all you want to do is get the hell out of that god forsaken supermarket!! I could gladly punch them all in the back of the head as hard as I possibly can!

Quoting Lincoln (Thread starter): The woman in front of me had roughly the same number of items I did but took 15 minutes to check out, again oblivious to the growing line behind her.

Quoting PHLBOS (Reply 35): IMHO, self-checkouts should have a MAXIMUM number of items to be checked out.

This would solve a lot I think. Honestly, the way those systems work, there is no way a person with a full cart will be faster at the self checker than at the normal checker. It must be some mind thing, that you do not realize the time you are spending because you are actively involved in the scanning and bagging. They should put a timer clock on the screen to let people know how long they have been there.

A couple of other supermarket pet peeves:

1- Blatantly ignoring the limit in the express lane. I made this mistake once, took 15 or so to an express lane with a limit of 10. In my defense, the sign hung from the rafters, and I never thought to look up their for it. I apologized as best I could to the checker and the person behind me.

2- At one local grocer chain, the cashiers screen shows an actual picture of the cash drawer, with numbers over each slot showing how many of each bill and coin is the appropriate change. The problem is, it does not take into account that if you run out of quarters, you can give two dimes and a nickel, and the moron running the register has not learned to make change on his own in ten years of education, but is probably a facebook and twitter expert.

Surprised to hear so many horror stories about grocery stores.
Eventually things are going to get to a boiling point and break out in to a food-fight.

I used to just think it was American society as a whole is getting dumber and more ignorant....surprised to hear it is actually the human race.

A friend of mine and I were discussing this...it seems as if less-educated people have far more kids than educated people...you do the math.

And for my final thought...where in the he!! is Darwin when you need him? What ever happened to Darwin's theory?

Quoting Alias1024 (Reply 40): I know this WinCo. That's got to be the one on E Burnside and Powell. The Russian gives it away.

Well, yes, but I have also seen a lot of Russians at Gateway WinCo, Menlo Park WinCo and Beaverton WinCo.

Quoting Alias1024 (Reply 40): My least favorite part of WinCo is watching the children climb all over the bulk food section.

The bulk food section is just scary. People running around opening the bins and sticking their hands in. EEEWWW!!!

Quoting Dragon6172 (Reply 42): the moron running the register has not learned to make change on his own in ten years of education, but is probably a facebook and twitter expert.

This happens everywhere. I have seen people running cash registers for years that still don't know what to do if they run out of dimes or nickles. They get the "deer in headlights" look.

Quoting AVION826 (Reply 44): I used to just think it was American society as a whole is getting dumber and more ignorant....surprised to hear it is actually the human race. A friend of mine and I were discussing this...it seems as if less-educated people have far more kids than educated people...you do the math.

You are partly right there. Society as a whole does indeed seem to be getting dumber. Plain common sense seems to be in short supply.

However, this lack of mental agility is not confined to the less well-educated.

Quoting Seb146 (Reply 45): This happens everywhere. I have seen people running cash registers for years that still don't know what to do if they run out of dimes or nickles. They get the "deer in headlights" look.

In their defense, do you rally want $0.69 worth of pennies???  

Quoting AVION826 (Reply 44): And for my final thought...where in the he!! is Darwin when you need him? What ever happened to Darwin's theory?

As soon as social welfare was introduced, it went bye-bye. See, Darwinian evolution requires that individuals who are unfit die before they can reproduce. We don't allow that to happen, so they wind up reproducing.

As Mark Twain said, "Stupidity, when protected, breeds."

So many of these remind me of my job at Target. For the last time people, NEVER try and have me shove a gas grill into a Honda Civic while you have two kids in carseats in the back. Had I been able to, I would've put the damn thing on the roof of your car so it caves in and teach you a lesson, but the masses to the asses.

I only use the self-checkout lanes late at night. Other times my local Meijers is a total zoo, and the Costco is like any other Costco you'd normally expect.

Quoting Slider (Reply 32): It's "10 items or FEWER" not less!!!!

They really need to re-word it to "10 item limit" I have seen way too many people abuse the concept of the Express lane.

Quoting Type-Rated (Reply 22): And finally those super "persons of size" who use the electric shopping carts. Look in their carts and you'll often see tons of junk food and ice cream, etc. Did it ever dawn on them that they might lose some weight walking? I know some people have to use those carts due to true handicaps, but I suspect a lot of them are too lazy to walk!

They're hypocrites!!!

I swear there are days I feel we need some sort of concept in grocery stores identical to airport security.