… To shop at the [more] ‘affluent’ grocers.
A travesty in an attempt to be ‘green’, I find myself unwilling to use the supermarket (Food Lion, ugh, I hate it) a mere few blocks away. Instead I either drive 2 or 3 miles to the Ukrops which comes in a quick second on my ‘list of dissapointing grocers to shop at’ due to their closure on Sundays and their choice to not sell any form of alcohol, OR I pay the 35 cent toll, and go the 2 miles across the river to the Kroger (sigh of relief, even the name brings joy to my soul).
On with the story…
a few nights ago, I ventured to the Food Lion which I rarely shop at due to the long lines, lack of clerks, absense of ’self-checkouts’, poor selection of healthy food and produce, akward isle arrangements, and rude and annoying clientelle.
On this particular visit, I was reminded yet again why I choose to shop at grocers in the ‘nicer’ parts of town.
I was looking for a quick fix of beer and ice cream (<– health fanatic here…), and figured Food Lion would be the quickest bet. Boy was I wrong.
I got inside, settled on some Bryers Reduced Fat Oreo Ice Cream and decided to give Hop Hound a try. Well what took me a mere two minutes to pick out, took me over five times that to pay for. I sat in a 3 party line while the family infront of me separated their what must have been 40 or more items into multiple purchases to make their way into the Express line. That all went fine until what I can only assume was the Grandmother couldn’t figure out how to work her card. She didn’t know whether it was debit or credit, didn’t know her pin and after a few minutes of standing around dumfounded swiping away and mashing buttons, she somewhere got the mix right and her purchase was approved.
Infront of me, and up next, was a younger gal who had pulled a Seventeen magazine from somewhere in the store and was browsing through it while shuffling forward in the line and balancing a half-assed conversation on the phone at the same time. When she got up to the clerk, she put the magazine on the counter to the side of the clerk. When the clerk picked it up and attempted to ring her up for it she mubbled “Oh nah… i aint buyinat” and went back to yapping on her cell. Confused the clerk set the magazine aside (for either her or another employee to return to its place in the store at a later time due to this girls lack of regard). Up next was a frozen pizza, two packages of cookies, three bags of chips, and two rolls of tin foil. At this point the young woman finally ended what could barely be considered a conversation with another individual on the other end of the phone line, hung up and watched her items being run up. When the clerk got to the tin foil she blurted out “Nah… how much it?”; “The foil?”, asks the clerk. “Bof um” responds the refined young patron. And after running a price check and selecting the Food Lion Brand Foil over the Reynolds (suprise, Food Lions was cheaper, what did you honestly think?), the clerk had to remove the Reynolds from the order and set it aside with the Seventeen which was tossed aside.
When the total came to just over $12.00 the girl pulled out one of many credit cards from her wallet and swiped away. “Please see manager for assistance” read the machine [a polite way to tell you your card was declined]. At this point the clerk suggests to try debit and the young woman goes that route… Still declined. Now one by one items are removed from the order and the card swiped EVERY TIME an item is removed. Guess what? Still declined. When we get just under $5.00 and the only item left being the pizza, the card is still declined. The girl gets snappy, picks up the phone “PPPppppsssshhhhhh” and walks away and out the door without saying a word.
The poor clerk, still dumfounded at what just happened puts the items all aside to ‘re-shop’ and return to their rightful places in the store at a later time.
By this time I can’t believe I’ve actually made it up to the front. I’m like the boy in “A Christmas Story” who gets on Santa’s lap and freezes up, can’t remember what he came for or what to do.
I finalize my transaction and go home to enjoy a beer and some ice cream.
Down on hard financial times? Thats understandable, and I feel for you. But to walk around and go through life like your the only one that matters? Jeez, get off your high horse. Be polite, say please and thank you, and have some respect for others and their jobs.
Sadly incidents like this are not uncommon, which again, is why I chose to make that extra trip to go spend my money where the polite people are.
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.