Supermarket annoyances

[MyQuaterLifeCrisis]

This is a rant really... I hate supermarkets, for many reasons...

1. When the cashier asks 'how many bags do you need?' after buying a big £100+ shop. As if I'd know! Surely they, as a cashier, are more knowledgeable than me on this?

2. EVERY bloody time I queue up, the person in front of me either forgets something and has to go back to get it, or their pin number doesn't work.

3. People who stand in the middle of aisles, chatting away, when you are obviously trying to get past/get an item.

4. People exiting out of the entrance, and entering through the exit.

5. Childless people parking in parent and child bays.

6. Single people walking around with one of the very few baby and toddler trolleys in my local Waitrose, meaning I have to carry toddler on my hip or use a pushchair and push trolley at the same time.

7. At my local supermarket it's free parking, so everyone who is going to town parks in the Asda carpark, leaving no space for anyone, and you usually have to park 10 minutes walk away.

Yes, I could do online shopping. But I like to see bargains and whatnot, and can never decide what I want/need online!

Oops sorry BennytheBall - completely misread your post. apologies.

And I actually agree about the entire families comment. One parent should stay home (or go to the park!) with the kids.

misswrite89

Whycanti, I used to work in a Sainsburys and if there was a 2-4-1 offer but only one of the product then we would give customers a voucher for a free one next time. Ask at customer services.

My supermarket gripe is when I use the self scan tills and the person operating them doesn't know how to use them and I end up telling them, even though it's been years since I've operated one.

To whoever said shop online - I could do, but you just can't get the reduced stuff 15p bread at closing time and whatnot. Plus I currently have no working freezer, and tend to buy a lot of fresh fruit and veg which needs to be replaced every three days or so, and I work random as-and-when shifts as a single parent so can't guarantee if I'll be home for collection IYSWIM.

I know I should remember bags. I'm guilty of that. I even have a stash in my boot for supermarket trips, but have constant work calls, kids with me, in a rush etc so always flipping forget. In my defence though, I am very anal at recycing and most of my rubbish collection consists of recycling bags rather than rubbish. :D

The cashiers under 18 should have a badge on to say so, so you can choose to go to a different till with your alcohol and other age-restricted items rather than waiting ages for a non-existent supervisor to come (why don't they put them next to someone over 18 so they can approve the transaction).

When I load the shopping the way I want to pack it and the cashier starts to pick random items to scan

Yes this bugs me too!

But otherwise online shopping really is your friend and you can see offers online.

To those saying "shop online" just as if not more problematic! Just see all the threads about money being held/taken twice! Plus weird substitutions etc

"Checkout Flingers...I carefully selected the unbruised fruit for a reason - please be careful with my food, I've got to eat it, you know!" Yes yes yes!

I now use scan and shop, can pack as I want as I go, alerts you to special offers even if the shelf tags don't.

But yes still have to deal with customers who park themselves across aisles/doorways or even worse stop dead at the top of the travelator (I'd rather not risk my toes being shredded thanks!)

One nobody's mentioned yet is other customers who think their need to get something from the shelf you're using is more important than yours!

I'm afraid you lost me at no.1 - we should all be using our own reusable bags, no excuses! I also have work, kids, busy life (and my general scattiness on top of your list), but I still take my own bags...

Another issue I've had with online shopping - short-dated fresh items, as there's only me and dd I don't get through it so fast as to be able to use an entire weeks dairy in 2 days!

"Do you need help with your packing?"

"No thanks" I think I can manage to put a loaf of bread and a Curly Wurly in a bag all by myself

I can cope with most general supermarket annoyances, but the one that really gets me is when they decide to rearrange the whole shop contents (for no good reason), and you have to walk the entire length and breadth of it every time you go in for weeks afterwards because you can't find anybloodything.

Lmao coasytoaster.

Oh, also... I once got ID'd when buying a bottle of wine because I was with five year old DC. Because obviously I'm planning on giving it to him when we get home.

I also get ID'd a lot, even for scratch cards. I'm nearing 30. Damn baby face.

Sorry easytoaster, meant to highlight your name not put a line through it!

Aisle blockers are my pet hate. Tonight I had to say 'excuse me' three times to get to the cheese whilst two couples had a chinwag.

I always say 'no thanks' to bag packers collecting funds as I like to pack my own stuff. Still chuck money in their bucket but they are usually happy to step aside.

I turn into a seething ball of rage in post-office type queues in my local pound shop, you know where there is one (usually long) line of customers and customer at the front of the queue goes to the next available cashier?

So I'll be at the front of the queue keeping a beady eye on which cashier is going to become free next. The sale has been completed, the customer moves a millimeter and the cashier yells at the top of their voice down the store "WHO'S NEXT PLEASE?!" as if I am the one holding up the queue. I take it very personally. >.<

Is bellowing measured in the same manner as scan-per-minute / scanning rates?

It's the whole families going shopping that really drives me insane. When dh isn't away with work I go shopping alone about 8pm and the number of families there is ridiculous. This week th ere was a mum and dad plus a screaming, probably tired and fed up, toddler and a child of about six going round the shop, it drove me nuts all the way round the shop.

The old dears that clog up the shop at 9am, stood chatting in the middle of the aisle or walking at a snail's pace down the middle of the aisle give me the rage too. I'm usually nipping in for bread/milk/fruit top up and it ends up taking half an hour because I can't get to what I need. I know I'll be that age one day but I hope I've kept a bit more sense about me.

Older people with dithery husbands that are in the way and people who take forever to pick an item.

My pet hate is the next customer in your space before you have completed your transaction. Wait back a bit. Also cashier flinging shopping down the conveyor belt.

When the cashier says "you can remove your card now"

The only thing I really don't like is the way some cashiers think it's a hilarious joke that I will enjoy to squint at me and say 'hmmm and you are over 18?'

So your joke is our shared understanding that I look loads older than necessary? That's so very funny! Ha ha lol yes there's no way I'm young, and it would be very funny if you thought I was, because I'm obviously not!!!!1

I'm short and I hate that they seem to put short thinks at the top like tights where not even my 6ft partner can reach yet the long stuff is at the bottom. Shurly it makes more sense to do it the other way round.

At my local Tesco there are two cashiers who repeatedly lick their fingers to help separate the carrier bags before giving them to customers. Watching them hand over the saliva-soaked bags is a huge incentive to remember to bring my own.......

I would love to take my DS shopping with me, he does the "What is there to eat" teenage boy thing, he should flipping come shopping with me.

I was shoved out of the way by an older woman while I was standing a bottle of milk up in my trolley, she shoved my trolley into my abdomen to get to the Cravendale.
Then she blocked another aisle with her trolley while she yacked to a couple. I did the "Excuse Me" very pointedly and the couple moved their trolley (she didn't)
I was very tempted to grab the bottle of fizzy wine (Prosecco or Cava) and give it a good shake

People like the woman I encountered in Waitrose, who get halfway through checkout at the self service till, before deciding they've forgotten half a dozen items and wander off casually to get them. Leaving a huge queue waiting!

People that stand right behind me in the que
the women in iceland who put their baskets on tne freezer and stood chatting for ten minutes
scooters trikes etc in shops just why ,