Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
purpleduck · 17/01/2009 23:44

Agree with curly's earlier post

not knowing veg
talking to colleague whilst customer is at til
not LOOKING at customer
etc etc

its all poor training - companies want to save money by not training staff properly.

Seriously p*sses me off!!!

Ayomi · 17/01/2009 23:58

I work in Sains too and have not long returned from a lovely 9hr shift on checkouts.
Now i know what an aubergine is, and indeed do cook with them, but the tills are designed to bamboozle you. (As is the mindnumbing monotony..)
And you can't weigh aubergines at sains - they're a single price item and SHOULD have a barcode sticker on them for the poor lass in OP to scan...
But thats just my tuppence worth...

Original poster
thomsc · 18/01/2009 01:06

she was in her 20's.

but it does look like they are a single price item, and perhaps it should have had a sticker. but still...

I'm a bad man I'm off to my bed to see which wakes me first - the 2yr old DS1 or the month old DS2.

OP posts:
ManIFeelLikeAWoman · 18/01/2009 01:28

Don't suppose anyone did French at Edinburgh between 1996 and 1999? Or frequented PAMS House during that time?

Technofairy · 18/01/2009 01:40

Ha ha. Yes this is funny but it still makes me incadescent with rage. I was in a pub quiz team last year and we were asked the question - small mammal, burrows in the sand, lives in a large family group and is famous for posting several family members as lookouts.

And what did the silly bitch say???? How can anybody confuse a meerkat with a fucking aubergine?? Yes that's right she said 'It's an AUBERGINE'!!!!!!!

And no, she's not on the team any more but this woman has a fucking degree!!!!
Grrrrrrrrrrr

nappyaddict · 18/01/2009 01:51

Well I suppose it could have been a fruit or salad if you aren't familiar with it.

Washersaurus · 18/01/2009 02:26

I was behind a man in Lidl who was trying to buy a celeriac - checkout guy stared at it for 10 mins and then had to ask a friend. Tbh I wouldn't have known either but DH used to be all veggy

laweaselmys · 18/01/2009 09:57

I reckon an aubergine is a relatively uncommon veg. The only thing I ever make with it is moussaka - and I bet masses of people don't have that as part of their regular diet.

The whole eggplant thing confuses me massively as well! Don't know why things have to have two names... I also didn't know what was actually in tatties and neep for ages even though I ate it all the time as a kid, because obviously there are no signs in the supermarket directing you to either tatties or neep! (specially is suffolk...)

sophy · 18/01/2009 10:05

You are lucky that you can buy Aubergines in your local supermarket.

My branch of Sainsbury's doesn't sell them because "there's no call for them round here."

scienceteacher · 18/01/2009 10:08

They are called eggplants because they look like huge boiled eggs when they are on the tree and yet to ripen.

I think a checkout girl can be excused for not knowing what an aubergine is, and then not being able to spell it. If she doesn't know what it is, how could she be expected to be able to spell it? Presumably the customer knows what it is, so could let the girl into her little smug secret without causing her embarrassment.

blueshoes · 18/01/2009 11:15

In Asia, I know them as brinjals. Although having said that, brinjals are different from aubergines in that brinjals are longer, thinner, lighter purple and have more seeds.

Aubergines are used a lot in Middle Eastern/North African cooking - eg moussaka (like laweasel says), baba ghanoush (pureed dip), Imam Bayildi (salad), melazane parmigiana (aubergine, cheese, tomato bake).

I also just have them sliced and grilled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt. They are delicious and so easy to make.

I would not consider them as part of run-of-the-mill British cuisine -a pity. So I guess that is why the shopgirl did not know.

ThePregnantHedgeWitch · 18/01/2009 11:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Oldyellow · 18/01/2009 11:44

I've been asked in the local Tescos what peas in pods are more than once!

kizzib · 18/01/2009 11:45

used to work in asda, I didn't know either was rather embarrassing but I learned!

ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight · 18/01/2009 11:52

Some people might not have ever been given an aubergine. It's a bit daft to not realise it's a vegetable but pmsl at looking under O? Really - if you don't know what an aubergine is why should you know how it's spelt?

Snobbish much?

BreeVanDerCampLGJ · 18/01/2009 11:53

It is not exactly rocket science is it ??

elliott · 18/01/2009 11:56

I thought that technically speaking, aubergines, like tomatoes, are fruit?

SoMuchToBits · 18/01/2009 12:00

Lol at Technofairy's meerkat/aubergine!

But seriously, I think eating habits must vary a lot over the country. I am quite old (47), and when I was a child aubergines were unfeard of, but by the time I was a teenager, things like moussaka were becoming much mor widespread. This was in the South of England though. And nowadays even in Suffolk (which is not as cosmopolitan as London/Home Counties) I would not think an aubergine unusual.

Dh's family, however, live in Scotland, and it wasn't until I went up there to stay that I realised that a lot of veg/fruit I would consider quite popular down here was stuff you never see in the shops up there.

I still think that in Brixton it would be unusual not to recognise an aubergine.

SoMuchToBits · 18/01/2009 12:01

Elliott, yes, tecnically they are fruit, as are courgettes, runner beans, and cucumber!

pointydog · 18/01/2009 12:05

YABU

It's not that hard to imagine that some people in the UK have never noticed or eaten aubergine. It could hvae been a fruit. She was spelling it phonetically.

You are sounding rather superior.

BitOfFun · 18/01/2009 12:05
BitOfFun · 18/01/2009 12:08

Manifeellikeawoman- wasn't a student there, but did shag a boyfriend on the snooker table in PAMS house around that time as I recall

noonki · 18/01/2009 12:08

YABU

sorry.

It's a very middle class veg (if you can class veg...and come on in this country you can class frigging everything)

my MIL had never eaten an aubergine or asparagus or a courgette until I made her. She had seen them all in the shop but didnt know what they were.

She wasn't too impressed (probably down to my cooking thou' )

Thunderduck · 18/01/2009 12:11

Aubergines are very common where I am Bits.

I'm near Glasgow and I wouldn't say aubergines are uncommon here,however it does depend on which part of Glasgow.

In the poorer areas certainly one would find a relatively basic selection of veg because there isn't much of a market for it.

But go to the west end, Newton Mearns, Bearsden etc and there's a huge selection of the less commonly used rather more exotic veg.

And as for the op, I wouldn't expect the girl to know every bit of produce they sold, though I do think of aubergine as a common vegetable but of course if you don't use it then I wouldn't necessarily expect people to recognise it.

And I would expect her to look for it under ''O'' if she wasn't familiar with it.

BodyBagBastard · 18/01/2009 12:42

mybe she didn't have the same prilavaleged upbringing most of you have.

shame on you for mocking her really