Innocuous things that make you irrationally angry (a list thread)

in my experience uk cashiers are shit at packing, will fight to do it myself

Do other stores in your area have baggers at every cashier, Stevie? Where I grew up and then where I went to college, everybody bagged their own groceries unless there was a bagger. There was even a special line for self-bagging. But in NC and (so it seems) Chicago that's more frowned upon, at least in big grocery stores. I've started bagging my own groceries and a bagger will RUN over to my lane and "Here, let me get that for you, ma'am" as though they'll get in trouble if somebody sees a customer bagging groceries.

I do bag my own groceries at Trader Joe's, unless there's a bagger, but that's what it seems like I'm supposed to do (paper bags are at the end of the counter, jaymc), but I still worry that I'm stepping on somebody's toes sometimes.

So I guess I'm saying maybe people just don't realize that's a thing they're supposed to do, because it's not a thing they do anywhere else. Or they want to bag, but they feel weird because in other stores with similar register set ups (Walgreens, for example), the clerk does the bagging.

Not to play captain save-a-yuppie-health-food-shopper or anything. They are probably all assholes.

The cashiers also bag at shops here, like the bags are held open in this little cage thing and they just drop the goods in as they scan each one, pull off the full bag, start a new one, its very fluid and prob faster than a second bagger (which seems like an absurdly excess job, to me)

Does that mean you have to put the items on the conveyor belt in a crush-proof order?

A second bagger is also pretty rare in the UK - most shops you bag your own goods, occasionally the cashier does it but I've only seen that when I've only had a few items so I don't know what they do about weight differences

do you not? 8)

i always arrange for heavy stuff that goes in the backpack to be first on belt, lighter, less bulky, crushable stuff in carrier bag (i take my own).

it is a bit ridic to just stand there and wait for cashier but uk supermarkets have gone just a bit too far the other way these days - they scan whilst i pack. but it used to be that i'd then give them my card and they'd run it through the till whilst i finished packing. now i have to chip and pin the card myself, and then finish packing, whilst all they have to do is close the till and get the receipt.

and don't get me started on self-scanning. (tesco now charge you for bags if you self scan but not otherwise so it's more expensive despite YOU doing the work for them. then the receipts say on them 'how did we do?' you did NOTHING, i did it all)

(slight xpost there)

I never bag. Fuck that.

It's hard enough to contain my rage in TJ's. Impossible if I have to bag it up.

Speaking of, I really hate TJ's paper bags. They rip. even double bagged the handles rip off when carrying long distances. I'm going to start taking in my own non-reusable plastic bags.

(xps to koogs) Hm, I rearrange things a bit before they go on the belt but do more rearranging as it piles up in the bagging area. Not always easy to arrange things before scanning because heavy things are probably at the bottom of the basket/trolley and there's probably an assortment of baying hounds behind you waiting for you to finish and put the divider down.

Whereas my way you take longer at bagging and the impatient fuckers just barge into you or roll their eyes while the cashier drums his fingers instead of turning the divider and sending their stuff into the other half of the bagging area.

Don't mind me, I have a cold and my misanthropy gland is swollen

I've mentioned before that I don't bag while the order's being scanned because I'm getting my coupons together, keeping an eye on the kid and watching the computer screen like a hawk to make sure everything's getting priced right. Also it's a big store and another bagger usually shows up halfway through.

Walmart's a different story. The cashier has this little plastic bag carousel next to them that they spin around, bagging items as soon as they've been scanned. And then I take 'em and put them back in the cart.

Nearest Trader Joe's to me is in St. Louis.

When I worked retail and it was a really busy day, I always hate it when people try to be friendly and empathetic and joke about it to you. I know they're just trying to be helpful, but it just reminds you that you have 5 more hours of standing in one spot and hearing that joke over and over while dealing with impatient customers.

When people did that to me at the liquor store on New Year's Eve, I'd say, "So where's your party? Might stop by later."

I mean we are a v small store and we don't even have baggers, ever, period, and I usually will reach past other stuff to scan heavier goods first so they can bag. I mean I fully understand that these people are probz not being malicious and are just like "oh that's how they do things at the store so I guess I'll just wait for him" but uuggghhh.

A lot of this is me taking full use of the I in IA

If I ever come to your score, I'll handled the scanning while you handle the bagging.

Good God, am I having a stroke today?

If I ever come to your store, I'll handle the scanning while you handle the bagging.

Speaking of, I really hate TJ's paper bags. They rip. even double bagged the handles rip off when carrying long distances. I'm going to start taking in my own non-reusable plastic bags.

Don't you have any canvas or other reusable bags? Or have you left them all at my apartment?

I don't use reusable ones most of the time because I need plastic ones for cat shit disposal. And with TJ's I just always forget we have them. Plus I resent them for not having plastic bags.

I only bag at the regional warehouse type place that emphatically tells you that nobody is going to do it for you and sends your groceries down a long-ass conveyer belt that splits into two like one of those bowling ball returns. Your groceries on one side, the next person's on the other, etc. You push a button with your knee to move the belt and collect the rest of your groceries.

Also we only use cloth bags mostly because I got tired of having a huge stockpile of old paper or plastic ones around and a sense of shame instilled by the co-op where we shop.

Is this place...WINCO???

There is this grocery store in the Northwestern U.S. called WinCo, which is cheap and great and I <3 and miss it. You bag your own groceries, though, to keep your groceries ¢heap. I had applied for a job there when I was 17, and a few days later, I found a WinCo uniform polo shirt for sale at a thrift store. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea, to dress in it and go to the WinCo and start bagging people's groceries to show I was a "highly motivated self starter," as they say in the classifieds. This did not go over well. I got a manager called on my immediately, and they threatened to ban me from the store forever if I didn't leave right away. Didn't get the job. This is the anecdote I tell to cashiers when I stand around bagging groceries for myself.

― Publicidad de Sexo (Abbbottt), Monday, March 28, 2011 6:02 PM (1 year ago)

They had the bowling lane belts at Food 4 Less too.

Also we only use cloth bags mostly because I got tired of having a huge stockpile of old paper or plastic ones around and a sense of shame instilled by the co-op where we shop.

Mail me the plastic ones, ease your mind.

Sometimes I have to go to jewel and just cram a bag full of plastic ones just to have enough to throw out cat poop.

Looool, Abbott you are amazing.

Mail me the plastic ones, ease your mind.

I saw this episode of Hoarders. Terrifying.

for a while tescos thought it'd be a good idea to have biodegradable bags. only they tended to biodegrade in the kitchen cupboard before i got around to reusing them. they'd literally crumble into dust if you left them a month or three.

All good Stevie was just pointing out here we barely bag our own :)

I don't use reusable ones most of the time because I need plastic ones for cat shit disposal. And with TJ's I just always forget we have them. Plus I resent them for not having plastic bags.

Our TJ has plastic bags! You just have to ask for them.

This is good news.

for a while tescos thought it'd be a good idea to have biodegradable bags. only they tended to biodegrade in the kitchen cupboard before i got around to reusing them. they'd literally crumble into dust if you left them a month or three.

I have a bag in the kitchen in which I store any plastic bags ready for use as bin liners or whatever. I can't remember why I had a Tesco bag because I never normally shop there, but I did have one and it did this. I still haven't managed to get rid of all of the bag dust in there.

I'm so used to bagging my own groceries that I just do it automatically even if there is a bagger there but at WF they've recently started randomly asking you to remove the stuff from the basket first as well - it's this tiny express lane where there's no room for a basket AND groceries so by the time you've emptied your stuff out and moved the basket somewhere out of the way, they've already scanned the stuff and are waiting for you to bag it (also on a tiny area where there is no room for groceries) and swipe your card etc. I find this quite weird.

Abbbottt - it's absolutely WinCo. It's such a crazy place, like it feels weird there not buying $500 worth of crazy junk food because that's what everyone else seems to be doing.

The WinCo in Redding was the main "goin' down to town to get supplies" store for the wild-eyed mountain folk up living in the Cascade foothills.

Yeah ours draws out the crazies from the Idaho wilderness east of here. I've actually seen people with Ron Paul shirts buying tons of stuff with food stamps with no display of cognitive dissonance whatsoever. Also the parking lot is full of pickup trucks with hilarious bumper stickers about how everyone should kill more wolves.

As my wife's colleague who grew up in the Bay Area and moved here from Connecticut sort of snobbishly put it "WinCo reminds you that you're in Idaho" as the town its in is a university bubble and not really representative of North Idaho as a whole.

I felt like no matter how many groceries you put in your cart it was $42 at the end. So awesome. What is their price on bananas for the 2012 year? I just paid 58¢ a pound for some with a sniffle, thinking WinCo would've had them much better.

It is true every time you go there someone has a shopping cart with like 5 cases of Powerade in it and a million flamin' hot Cheetos.

They have WinCos in Utah now, it would be great if in five-ten years they migrate down to AZ.

It is true every time you go there someone has a shopping cart with like 5 cases of Powerade in it and a million flamin' hot Cheetos.

shelf-stable for armageddon!

we don't have wincos out in l.a., but we do have a 7-11 on pretty much every block. skater kids buying energy drinks and taquitos!

WinCo was also notable for being the only place in Idaho that sold Faygo. Draw in the juggalos.

I feel like WinCo + Faygo is like some sort Juggalo beacon, or like what future historians would point to as the beginning point for their current dystopia. I haven't seen it here but I grew up in Michigan so I'd be kind of excited to get Rock & Rye once a year.

I don't know what bananas are now but they have signs above lots of things in the store showing what the local store and Safeway charge for things and then bragging about how much more awesome WinCo is.

I saw a woman in TJ's go to the bagged salad section and buy like 15 bags of salad. WTH. I can't even eat one of those without part of it going bad.

looking at the website, california does have some wincos -- around fresno, which seems right.

they have signs above lots of things in the store showing what the local store and Safeway charge for things and then bragging about how much more awesome WinCo is

those signs OTM

Any discussion about the price of bananas requires:

http://www.mamapop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/lucille-bluth-jessica-walter-arrested-development.jpg

52¢ yesterday.