Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be upset with lady on the till at Waitrose

103 replies

stonetheroses · 16/07/2011 22:36

My DH is away and have no family nearby so if I need to go to the supermarket DS1 (4.5) and DD2 (20 months) have to come with me. Today it was a little stressful, being a Saturday it was pretty bust and DD was out of the trolly wandering around. She can now undo the strap on the trolly seat so it is a nightmare as if I turn my back for one min she is up standing on the seat which is dangerous.

Anyway, at the till DS1 is constantly talking to me so I am trying to talk to him, keep an eye on DD2 (a couple of times I had to dash after her) whilst unloading/packing as quickly as I could. The girl on the checkout was not great, I had to ask for paper to wrap two glass vases I had brought and alert to her I was ready to pay.

I turned away to check DD2 was behaving and quickly glanced back as my card was in the chip and pin and caught the girl rolling her eyes and making a face to the girl on the next till. She knew I caught her and quickly gave me a big false smile. I looked at her in a way that let her know I had seen, took my receipt and walk off without smiling or saying goodbye.

AIBU for feeling equally cross/humiliated?

OP posts:
Fecklessdizzy · 16/07/2011 23:24

Don't give it another thought ... You don't know if she was making a face about you anyway.

Shopping with sprogs is a total nightmare, have you tried doing it on line? Loads less stress ...

worraliberty · 16/07/2011 23:26

Supermarket checkout assistants abroad are human too you know Smile

Really, all she did was roll her eyes OP.

How many times have you done that in your life? I bet you can't remember and I be she doesn't even remember you or your kids so it's really not worth the annoyance.

nothingoldcanstay · 16/07/2011 23:36

Mmm well Morrisons is all British meat and fresh not frozen sea food so that's better than Waitrose.My local Waitrose goes from typically seeing everyone you know from Tennis,Swimming,Dance to the tutting types who look daggers if your DS says" I want the pizza with no pesto". I like Waitrose but Lord knows Morrisons is 20% cheaper and no class wars . Has Harssia paste, fish sauce and very cheap Pak Choi in case anyone is worried

thursday · 16/07/2011 23:38

because after watching you run off to retrieve a baby a couple of times i'd be thinking 'thats what trolley seats are for' and 'i havent got all day' Wink i'm not intolerant of small children, mine are the same ages as yours. i suppose i'm imaging the scene if my daughter was loose as i packed and paid for a shop. it.....wouldnt go well. she should have kept her eyes in check as she's paid to smile at you, but its not like she was tutting and giving you the wanker gesture or anything.

campergirls · 16/07/2011 23:50

'British' and 'fresh not frozen' are no guarantees of animal welfare or sustainability though nothingold - I shop at Morrisons a lot but don't buy their meat b/c they will not say anything publicly about animal welfare/sustainability re their meat. Which makes me assume they have something to hide.

(love the name btw! I had to discuss that poem at my uni interview)

DrPolidori · 17/07/2011 01:24

oh do get a grip. girl on check out exchanges glances with another. its it all about you? probably not.

snippywoo2 · 17/07/2011 01:48

one, stick ds2 in the trolley so she can move around

two, wrapping glass in paper does nothing apart from pissing the till assistant off

three, dont buy vases on a saturday

four, plan ahead so you dont have to take said kids shopping on saturday

JarethTheGoblinKing · 17/07/2011 01:54

Imagine yourself in the same situation, having working saturday shift, and having countless yummy mummies (not saying you are one) go through the til, having not had the experience of having had children and earning £6.50 an hour.

Then step back, chill the fuck out, and stop caring what a teenager thinks.

Joolyjoolyjoo · 17/07/2011 02:00

I really wouldn't take it so personally, OP. Was she a young girl? maybe doesn't have kids herself? Maybe one day she will be the harrassed mum and someone else will be rolling their eyes. Before I had children, I might have rolled my eyes at mums struggling with them, but now i would be far more sympathetic! Let it go, no harm done.

BrandyAlexander · 17/07/2011 06:15

If you can afford to shop in Waitrose, why would you martyr yourself and not shop on line when you have v young children?

BrandyAlexander · 17/07/2011 06:15

If you can afford to shop in Waitrose, why would you martyr yourself and not shop on line when you have v young children?

Geepers · 17/07/2011 06:36

It's completely ridiculous to have a baby running loose-leaf out of the trolley on a busy Saturday. I hate, hate, hate getting stuck behind people faffing about with their children when I just want to get my shopping and get home.

Restrain your daughter, tell your other child you will chat to him when you have finished unpacking/packing/paying, and get out of the shop.

microfight · 17/07/2011 08:03

nothingoldcansay

What a bizarre post! "Go somewhere more suited to children"
what like those well known supermarkets that have play zones and creches Grin

Georgimama · 17/07/2011 08:12

Still don't understand why the OP doesn't shop online - Ocado/Waitrose own delivery have most areas covered these days and are expanding all the time. Or do what I do - get online shop of dry goods/tins/household from Tesco and buy meat from butcher/farm shop.

Piggyleroux · 17/07/2011 08:18

I think you should report her. Waitrose is renowned for it's excellent customer service, is bloody expensive and you should not be made to feel like you are a pita.

I am a social worker and if I did this to a client I would up in front of my manager straight away getting bollocked.

Goblinchild · 17/07/2011 08:21

Full face masks for checkout girls, with a happy smile on them.
If I was the shopper behind you, I would have thought you were being a bit of a prat OP. I would have been wearing my patient smile as you packed and fielded and chatted. And I waited my turn. And waited.
But I've had a lot more practice than the average checkout girl.

Georgimama · 17/07/2011 08:22

Social workers are professionals, not minimum wage teenagers working the till on a Saturday morning.

FFS. Let's just tar and feather the bored teenager, shall we?

OpinionatedPlusSprogs · 17/07/2011 08:26

Shopping with kids tests your patience but so does working on the tills serving customers with screaming kids. The amount of rudeness retail staff are subjected to on a daily basis is beyond the joke. It's also the most repetitive, tedious job known to mankind. Amazing she only rolled her eyes!

SeniorWrangler · 17/07/2011 08:31

Put it on Twitter. JL do read that and then take it up from there. I was dealt with very badly in one of the branches, moaned on Twitter, and next thing I know someone sorted it out, said sorry, and refunded some money I was ever so slightly diddled out of. I was very pleased with the outcome.

There's no need for ignorant teenagers to be rolling eyes behind customers' backs like this and it's very stressful for oversensitive, tired parents to have this kind of thing go on. The teenagers are at work, are being paid probably more per hour than a lot of working parents have left after tax, housing and childcare costs, and need to show a bit of respect in such a customer facing role. If they don't want to, well there are shelves to stack and they don't interact.

If one of my teenage kids did this I would be well cross about it. But tbh I think they've probably got a bit more understanding and experience of other people and would have helped entertain one of the kids to head off an incident. It ain't rocket science.

Georgimama · 17/07/2011 08:35

A teenager rolling their eyes, possibly but not necessarily at a customer, is "very stressful for oversensitive, tired parents"?

Some people seriously need to Get A Grip.

Online shopping is the answer for being tired and oversensitive (as well as myriad other problems, such as mine of not being arsed to go to supermarkets on a Saturday).

Goblinchild · 17/07/2011 08:36

How often do the checkout people say 'Thank you for waiting'
Most times, you and they have little choice but to wait, whilst the person in front of you faffs about.
My least favourite is the one who keeps dashing off to add extras to the pile whilst queuing, closely followed by the one dashing off to field children, and having detailed conversations instead of getting on, rather than doing it at the same time or saying 'I'll talk later, after this'

SeniorWrangler · 17/07/2011 08:41

BTW I don't like this tendency on the part of the massed British public to decide when and where certain groups of people should go to use publicly available facilities that are supposed to open to all. There seem to be a number of categories. Top of the tree are singles and unaccompanied adults, who seem to be permitted to travel around and shop when, where and how they like. After than are retired couples in the 60s and 70s, who also have free rein and are also allowed to moan a lot because they have vast amounts of disposable income and time. Bottom of the shopping and public facilities ladder are probably parents of young children, as secretly everyone wants the young children to stay indoors or in approved parks rather than pollute other public spaces with their (normal) behaviour, and also joining the social pariah group are elderly people using supermarkets at busy times, probably for company as they are living alone, who are thought to be taking too long. What a mean minded country we are.

exoticfruits · 17/07/2011 08:49

Note to all supermarket employees-'wear a happy smile at all times and never let it drop, even if you think you have a private moment'.
They are human-you were not supposed to see.

Georgimama · 17/07/2011 08:51

Mean minded country? Yes it is, particularly when middle class women with an over wheening sense of entitlement want to start a Twitter campaign to get some minimum wage teenager who probably earns in a weekend what the OP spends on sundried tomatoes sacked.

The OP is perfectly entitled to use the supermarket. However she might find it less stressful to do her shopping from the comfort of her own home,

frantic51 · 17/07/2011 08:53

I haven't read all the thread but I do feel for you. Supermarket shopping with children that age can be a nightmare. When my own children were young we had a Safeway supermarket nearby. The stuff wasn't brilliant, more Asda than Waitrose, but the fact that they had a creche was an absolute Godsend! (Well worth doing without the better range when only I and the DC were at home. :D ) Pity they went bust. :(