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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to expect a supermarket checkout person to know what an aubergine is?

213 replies

thomsc · 17/01/2009 22:22

That it is a VEGETABLE and that it starts with an A?

I mean... ok, perhaps you might not know what an aubergine is, but her next question (whilst holding it) was "is it a vegetable?"! No, it's a type of biscuit!

She then said she couldn't deal with it as it didn't have a barcode. When I suggested that she weighed it and told the till what it was, she looked under 'O' in the list of vegetables.

AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH

OP posts:
DrowningInClutter · 17/01/2009 23:13

I used to work in Tesco and was once told by a very patronising man how to spell rhubarb. I did know how to spell it but couldn't find the blardy thing as I was looking in the veg PLU list and Tesco put it under fruit.

I'm sure that rhubarb is a vegetable.

mawbroon · 17/01/2009 23:14

Oh, were you in one of those huge Marchmont flats with no heating and where the landlord put a sofa in the kitchen and let out the living room as another bedroom?

SoMuchToBits · 17/01/2009 23:14

Don't get me started on swedes and turnips! I'm English, and call those quite large veg, which are purplish on the outside and orange inside "swedes" and the smaller whiteish ones "turnips".

Dh , who is Scottish, calls the swedes "turnips" but has never come up with a satisfactory explanation of what I call turnips are called in Scotland.

Anyway, about the OP - I would expect someone on the checkout to know what an aubergine was. In this day and age it's not that exotic (even in Suffolk where I live!)

My 8 year old would recognise one (and be able to spell it), but that's because I always took him shopping with me before he was at school, and amazingly enough I would talk to him in the greengrocers and point out what the vegetables/fruit were. He would know the names of things even if we didn't eat them ourselves (e.g. celery, which I hate, but he knows what it is).

ScottishMummy · 17/01/2009 23:15

know e'burgh well from stewdent days esp marchmont,meadows and doctors pub and wee red bar art school

no knowledge of deid rabbits though

mawbroon · 17/01/2009 23:16

SoMuch, I would call the small purple ones "wee turnips"

moondog · 17/01/2009 23:17

Yes Mawbroon.
I was fucking freezing the entire time i was there.
No wonder i turned to drink.

SoMuchToBits · 17/01/2009 23:17

AAAArrrrgggghhhh! Does that mean that someone has to wee on them before you eat them???

SlartyBartFast · 17/01/2009 23:19

coincidentally dd aged 9 picked up an aubergine today and asked what it was!!
i did know thankfully.

mawbroon · 17/01/2009 23:21

Yes, SoMuch. That's why we don't really eat them here.

ScottishMummy · 17/01/2009 23:22

aubergine,In this day and age it's not that exotic.aye mebbe in your manor not mine.straight up

mawbroon · 17/01/2009 23:23

I had pals who stayed in a similar flat moondog. It was awful. They were all so cold the whole time, and there were radge mice in the house that didn't even run away when they saw you!!

I lived in a hovel at Tollcross, man it was a dive, but at least it was warm!

SoMuchToBits · 17/01/2009 23:24

But ScottishMummy, I live in Suffolk (which is about 20 years behind the rest of the country). If we have aubergines here, they must know what they are in London?? Surely???

expatinscotland · 17/01/2009 23:24

yuk.

anyone seen that series 'Verminators'?

mice and rats are minging, folks. really, truly minging.

i worked at Edin Uni, and the rats actually burrowed under concrete to get into the building - why didn't they just use the vaults on the other side of the door in the basement? - and cause £25,000 worth of damage.

ScottishMummy · 17/01/2009 23:25

i am not talking about london

SlartyBartFast · 17/01/2009 23:26

but checkout girl was 16 wasnt she?
i bet imagine she doesnt cook?

expatinscotland · 17/01/2009 23:26

rhubarb is a veg. i lived on a veg farm in Alsace. it's a fucking veg. i'd have told him to shove it up his arse and smoke it.

ScottishMummy · 17/01/2009 23:27

that i would like to see rhubarb smoke rings

expatinscotland · 17/01/2009 23:28

well since his mouth and his arsehole are one and the same he shouldn't have too much trouble .

ScottishMummy · 17/01/2009 23:29

Aha conjoined arse and oesophagus.miraculous

SoMuchToBits · 17/01/2009 23:29

No, but the OP was in London, wasn't she?

Also ds (aged 8) doesn't cook, but knows a fair few fruit and veg.

And yes, technically rhubarb is a veg (it's the stalk) and aubergine is a fruit (it's the seed-bearing part) but I expect supermarkets classify them according to use (e.g. you put rhubarb in a sweet pie, and aubergine in a savoury dish).

RealityIsMyOnlyDelusion · 17/01/2009 23:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

ScottishMummy · 17/01/2009 23:32

ahh i see!yes she was.i was thinking of folk i knoow wouldn't know an aubergine if it got up and stoated them.literally and metaphorically

expatinscotland · 17/01/2009 23:32

it's an affliction that's far more common than you'd initially suspect, SM. politicians, for example, seem to be disproportionally affected .

ilovemyghds · 17/01/2009 23:34

DD has a wooden fruit and veg set that has an aubergine and courgette in it, amongst other things - I always think that it is a very middle class food set! My spelling is pretty good, but i can understand why someone who had never seen the word aubergine written (or heard of it before) would think it started with an 'O'.

I have worked in a supermarket whilst at Uni and if you are not assigned to a section (ie veg) you may never see some items. Maybe the checkout person had never had to scan an aubergine before and was not sure if it was a fruit or veg? I am sure she didn't think it was a type of bread or a fish!

ScottishMummy · 17/01/2009 23:34

quick get david cameron in for an endoscopy of co-joined arse and oesophagus