GROCERY SHOPPING Checkout con't

8.  This one, again, is probably a popular Peeve, for lack of a better way to put it....

The shopper who slows down the whole process of checking out because he/she is, well let's say, inconsiderate of the others in line.

This can be in a variety of ways...

The Coupon Cutter, the Check Writer-Outer, the Food Stamp User (and then pays for the stuff not covered by the stamps with a check!), the "I've got nothing but Change" payer, the Social Shopper who carries on a long-winded conversation with the cashier when the line is long, the Cart is Full Customer who doesn't let the person with a couple of items go before them, and there are probably more you have encountered and I can't think of right now....

People, please be considerate of the other shoppers waiting to be checked out!

Have your stuff ready to go, don't wait 'til it's all wrung up and then start looking for your pen!

Get it together while you're still waiting in line...

Heck, you probably have been there a long time because of the shoppers mentioned above...

Don't be one of them, please.

GROCERY SHOPPING Checkout

7.  OK, let's leave the cart issues (unless I can think of another Peeve) and now we want to checkout.


An obvious Peeve I'll mention, but won't go in to detail because I think it's just about everyone's Peeve is not having enough cashiers for the number of people checking out. Mine too... 'Nuff said...


This one is a particular Peeve of mine and yet, I've never heard any one complain about it...


I do most of my grocery shopping late at night at a 24 hour store, that's when I'm off of work.  We're talking Midnight or so... You'd think stores at that hour wouldn't be crowded or more specifically, you'd wouldn't have a long wait in line...


Generally, that's not the case.  Also, there usually is only one cashier, which means the wait in line can be long if it's crowded...


If there is a long line forming, the cashier will page one of the stock persons to come up and open another lane.


Great! I appreciate the added cashier, and this will happen 99% of the time, they open a lane right next to the original cashier...


Big deal, you say?


Well, here's what happens...  After paying for your stuff, it's time to bag.  And at this hour, you bag it yourself -- No one extra to spare...


So, I'm at the end of the aisle bagging, but so is the person in the lane right next to me and we are almost doing a dance so as not to get in each other's way!


Hate that!


The solution is so simple.  With many more lanes than cashiers (some stores have 10 - 15 lanes), why doesn't the helping cashier just go down one more lane and open?  Obviously, that would leave the lane between the two empty and customers wouldn't be climbing over each other!


Sorry, this has to be my biggest Pet Peeve ever!

GROCERY CARTS - The Brains Behind the Machine con't

6.  Another in the line of cart Pet Peeves is when you grab a cart from the Cart Corral and find a plethora of paper items, like coupon inserts, newspapers, and yes, even used Kleenex, cluttering the same space you're going to be putting your food items in!


At best, you have to find a garbage can and dispose of the paper items.  Not a biggy, but still a waste of time.


And disposing of the used Kleenex is something I'd rather not think about, but has to be done!


Oh yeah, let's not forget about the sticky handle because Mom let Junior eat a candy bar in the basket...


It's so easy for people for clean their cart before they leave.  You can find garbage cans inside the store as well as outside .


And it's not fair to expect the employees of the store to clean up after you.  That would take an enormous amount of time...time that would cost store owners a fair amount of money....passed on to the customer.

GROCERY CARTS - The Brains Behind the Machine con't

5.  There are lots of variations to number 4 above...


One that comes to mind can be called the "Friend Encounter" and it almost always goes like this:


Some one shopping with their cart sees a friend who is also shopping with a cart and the two strike up a conversation.  You say, "Nothing wrong with that", right?  Well... Not exactly...


The two slowly make their way down an aisle until they get to the end.  By now, they are both so engrossed in their talk, they don't even realize they are completely blocking any one from entering or exiting.


Remember, two carts -- No easy way, in fact, no way around them at all.


All you can do is hope that they see you and the others that want to get through and give every one some room.


This scenario has Pet Peeve written all over it!


What should they have done?


I say work their way down the aisle in to an open, non-aisle location in the store.  Maybe next to a wall or seating benches, if the store has them -- You get the idea!

GROCERY CARTS - The Brains Behind the Machine

4.  OK - So we've seen some of the more mechanical types of peeves with shopping carts, but how about the way people use them when they are shopping.


The setting is your average grocery store with a moderate number of people in it.


You're going from aisle to aisle, things are going well... Until...


You turn the corner to go down the next aisle and, lo and behold, there is a shopper who stopped right in the middle of the aisle with their cart.


They're preoccupied with coupons or reading the latest texts they got on their phone, so obviously they don't notice you and your cart wanting to shop a little further down that aisle.


"Maybe I can go around one side or the other", I thought, "But wait -- There isn't enough room either because the aisle is too narrow or the store has items in those cardboard kiosks next to the shelves..."


Well, the only thing to do is push my cart close to theirs and hope he/she will move over and let me pass.


This almost always works, but usually comes with a snear of their face probably because I had the audacity to bother them while they are "busy".


What I try to do when stopped in an aisle is to at least push my cart over to the side, leaving plenty of room for others to get past me.


The best option is to not only push the cart over to the side, but find an area in that aisle that has products that are seldom bought, for example, mops and brooms in the Household Cleaning aisle.


Easy to do and prevents one more peeve.

GROCERY CARTS con't

3.  Luckily, this one doesn't happen too often, but enough for me to include it.


You're going down the Pet Food aisle and wanting to be a thrifty shopper, get the economy-sized bag of, say, dog food.


Great, big 25 lbs. bag.  A good place to put it on your cart would be the shelf under the main basket... But wait a minute...


This shopping cart doesn't a lower shelf on it!  Must have fallen off some time ago and no one noticed...  So...


You have to sling this bag up and on to the main basket, laying it across the top (and hoping that it doesn't sag and crush your eggs and bread!)


Awkward.  Again, maybe the store should inspect all carts  now and then to make sure they are complete.

GROCERY CARTS con't

2.  Another shopping cart peeve of mine are the safety straps for the child's seat.


I don't know how many times I went to open the child's seat to put groceries in it, when I couldn't because the straps were caught in the framework of the cart.


Don't get me wrong, those safety straps are necessary and I'm sure have prevented many a child from tumbling out... But their design is such that they easily get tangled and caught, making opening the seat near impossible.


Maybe it's time to re-think the design..

GROCERY CARTS

1.  I'm sure every one has grabbed a cart with wheel problems.  Maybe a wheel is stuck -- a front wheel especially -- where the cart doesn't want to go straight, but turn in circles!


Or how about the squeaky wheel(s) that makes so much noise, that people start staring and may become annoyed.


I know shopping carts get a lot of use and there is wear and tear, but shouldn't the store inspect all carts, repairing the broken ones occasionally?

GROCERY SHOPPING

OK, here we go...

I'll start with the general topic of Grocery Shopping with different aspects of it as sub-topics.

I'm not an HTML web designer, so I may try different "looks" to make things easy to read and easy to follow.

Let's start with my Pet Peeves of:

GROCERY CARTS

What is This All About?

I don't know about you, but there are plenty of things in an average day, week, month, whatever, that you just want to shake your head or worse.

I'll be posting some of my "favorite" pet peeves here now and then about any thing from grocery shopping to parking to just about any thing else.