Yes IB, I discovered this at a Waitrose in South Kensington, London, while visiting my sister-in-law.Innocent Bystander wrote:Okay youse guys: if you ever find yourself in the UK just be prepared for there being nobody but you to put your stuff in bags. This is in the fine tradition of British Service (there is none).
Oh yes. They can be aggravating. Especially if you bring a weird teenager who, just for kicks, sticks his hand under the lasers just as your Kix cereal is going under the bridge. Freaks the machine out, it does, and it screeches into reverse and sends your Kix right back to you, and voids the item.susnfx wrote:I loathe those do-it-yourself lanes...you do their job but get no discount for doing it. I have used them on occasion when there was nobody there and the other lines were long, but I get so angry at the talking machine I can hardly be trusted not to do it bodily harm.
Around here the platforms they fill the plastic bags on are the right size for paper, too.Doug_Tipple wrote:Most modern grocery checkout lanes are not designed for using paper bags. There is usually a revolving plastic bag holder that allows the checkout person to bag the groceries immediately after they have been scanned. I was at my store this week, and the woman in front of me asked for paper bags. The store had them, but the checkout person had to go get them. It was a time-consuming process because there was no good place to sit the paper bag in order to fill it. The customer ended up having to fill the bags herself, sitting the bag in her shopping cart. Why, I ask, do I have to choose these lines to wait in?
One of my first jobs was produce clerk in a supermarket. I've smartened up since then.Cranberry wrote:People who work in grocery stores are underpaid and often times not the most educated people in the world. Try to remain kind in all your dealings with them. It'll help you both.
We had an attempted robbery of a convenience store here in Indianapolis this last week. The robber reached for his gun and accidently shot himself in the testicle and groin. Ouch!!! He later was arrested at a nearby hospital.dwinterfield wrote:One of my first jobs was produce clerk in a supermarket. I've smartened up since then.Cranberry wrote:People who work in grocery stores are underpaid and often times not the most educated people in the world. Try to remain kind in all your dealings with them. It'll help you both.
Later I was a night clerk in a convenience store. The store shamelessly exploited the elderly folks in senior housing across the street. It also attracted some of the dumbest customers o ne can imagine. I'm reminder of the comment that criminals should have to pass a test to be criminals and the the ones who ripped off convenience stores flun ked the test.
Mr Izz likes to use the self check out to learn Spanish. He's convinced that if he hit's the Spanish button rather than having it just tell you how much you've saved in English, that somehow that will teach him how to speak Spanish fluently. If anything, he'll be able to tell someone to check the bottom of their grocery cart before checking out the next time he's in Barcelonaemmline wrote:But I still have this compulsion to master the system. I'm weird that way, so I keep at it. I like to try to get my stuff through really fast, so that the voice doesn't have time to say "...savings: 53¢" Then, at the end, it has to spit all that stuff out, and as you walk off, it may still be saying "savings: 34¢, savings: 12¢, savings: $1.25," as the next person is standing there waiting for it to let him/her start.
You can do that here...with I think my P&C card and my Price Chopper card. It's loads of fun to go through the line and give them the card for the other store, and assure them that it really will work. It's even funnier to see their faces when it doeschas wrote: I've been wanting to try my Giant savings card at Stop and Shop, where I go a few times a year, but haven't been in the right mood yet.
I have never been unkind to a grocery-store checker; as far as I can remember I've never been unkind to anyone in a service position unless that person has been nasty to me first. My post is more about the policies of the specific grocery store and potentially the training or lack thereof they give to their employees.Cranberry wrote:People who work in grocery stores are underpaid and often times not the most educated people in the world. Try to remain kind in all your dealings with them. It'll help you both.
The greenhouse company I order from is starting to offer plastic pots that are biodegradable. Wasn't there something about biodegradable plastic being used in the food industry but there turned out to be some problems with it? It sounds like a good idea though.sbfluter wrote:... more layers when you stored the leftovers, more layers when you threw it away. And it's all still out there somewhere because it never biodegrades. It's horrifying when you think of all the plastic.
I actually recently bought some doggie cleanup bags that are biodegradable.Caroluna wrote:The greenhouse company I order from is starting to offer plastic pots that are biodegradable. Wasn't there something about biodegradable plastic being used in the food industry but there turned out to be some problems with it? It sounds like a good idea though.sbfluter wrote:... more layers when you stored the leftovers, more layers when you threw it away. And it's all still out there somewhere because it never biodegrades. It's horrifying when you think of all the plastic.
I only wish I'd brought a few more, but I figured everybody'd have at least one, since at least two of the guidebooks I read before going recommended them!
