Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

No Germans at home, but the blog still seems to have a few. This is another test post. If you see a title like the one above, feel free to skip it. I'm just trying to fix something or test how something works. In this case, I'm still getting a blank page when I try to open this blog. This all started on Friday.

But here's a bonus if you did look at this post. Today I had the worst service I can remember at a supermarket. It’s been about 9 years since I worked a cash register, and maybe a couple of years longer since I bagged items at a checkout counter, but I could have done much better than the crew here today. And keep in mind, when I was doing it, there weren’t bar code scanners. I punched in prices by hand. So why does the service stand out so much this time?

Well I went during a not busy time. Only two registers open. That’s ok. Things were going great until it was actually my turn for checkout. I had three women helping me. One on the register, and two bagging. This is an enlightened store. They have a bagger that’s half crippled, with only one good arm. I often get him. And he alone was faster than all three of these women combined. Do you see a theme here? Lemme give you a hint: none of these women had laryngitis. Does that help?

First of all, register girl didn’t handle my goods well. Time out. Ok normally, I’m immature enough to enjoy a double meaning in a statement about a woman handling my goods. If I ever write about sex here, you’ll see euphemisms like that. In this case, I am only referring to the goods I was purchasing. Time in. So register girl doesn’t hold items over the scanner, she just clunks them from the conveyor belt and across the scanner. That’s great for a box of crackers. Not so good for glass jars. Nothing broke this time, but it’s just not good practice. Something else I learned in my service: don’t put cleaning products in the same bag with food products. Although it’s extremely unlikely to happen, no one wants a can of Comet to leak all over their fresh strawberries. Separate bags offer another layer of protection. This is a good practice. Think about it. Do you want your pilot to take shortcuts on the preflight checklist? Probably nothing will go wrong, but you don’t want him to take the chance.

So I’ve got cleaning products in the oh crap I didn’t get Cheetos. Dang. Cleaning products with the food. Then these three girls (register girl helps bag too) just jumble things in there all willy-nilly. No regard for heavy or light items in their placement. Now when I had the items in the cart, it looked half full. By the time these girls got done, it was overflowing. I had to drive the cart with one hand and carry a jug of milk in the other hand. And slow? They just piddled. Why? Because they spent the whole time chit-chatting with each other. And none of these girls was adept at talking while doing their jobs. When one girl was done talking, she would bag. Pretty much whoever was talking wasn’t moving. Plus I had a pet peeve alert. Of the three, register girl was the good looking one. Don’t get me started. Or ask me later. Reader’s choice. Well, for a bonus tidbit, this went on a bit. Shopping list later.