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

[thomsc]

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

YANBU- you hardly need a priveledged backgroung to recognise an aubergine for gawds sake!

Yeah but Hedgewitch, thats what I mean! I think stores should invest in their staff more, and give them paid time - regularly - so that they DO know.

I had this in Sainsburys, he held up an avocado and asked me what it was called, I thought it was quite sweet! What was less sweet was XP pulling a face and asking what it was too when DD was eating it once. He does the same for all sorts of seemingly quite normal things like butternut squash or lentils (I know but I am vegetarian!)

Have you seen the Ingredient recognition test on Masterchef? Seriously good hobby cooks get a surprising number wrong.

Besides, what she should have done is stood up on her chair, waved the aubergine in the air and said "I have a heretic at till 4!!! Trying to buy the food of the Devil! Burn the witch!". Isn't that the only appropriate response, when faced with an aubergine?

This is a nasty thread. So what if she didn't know what an aubergine was, and didn't know how to spell it.

Really. Shame on those who have sneered. You've all come out of this looking a lot worse than she did.

Exactly, pg

Some very snobby attitudes on here.

that's why they introduced picture charts of veg and fruit for checkout operators - there are some gaps in teaching these days. Did you not watch Jamie's School Dinners on tv? Children unable to recognise leeks, rhubarb, etc.? Not that uncommon, sadly.

I think it is really up to parents to teach their children about food, not the school. They can only cover so much in home ec lessons, and it doesn't usually involve loads of exotic veggies.

They are probably more likely to learn the names of specific foods in MFL classes.

I, too, worked at Safeway when I was at school/university, and they took staff training really seriously. Anyone who was going to spend any time at all on the check out had to be trained to recognise all manner of odd fruits and vegetables.

agree with THW. i worked for safeway for 6years. i knew PLU codes for the checkouts -veg, fruit, bakery items that didnt scan, single items that needed to be tapped in and other items, could recongise 99% of the fuit and veg aisle and the right codes for each item, can still tell the difference between all the apples now just by the different peels. add to that i was being trained in coffee shop, bakery, deli, general customer service areas, i had codes coming out of my ears.

do they still do produce tests? we used to get them all the time. we used to egt a lot of turnip/swede mix ups as well.

lychee were always a good one to test the new checkout people on

i was in tesco the other week, and i spotted one i didnt know. was an ugli fruit i think. made me laugh

It could be simply that she was new to the post, or that she had simply forgotten. Yes, she should have looked it up, but whatever she should have done, or what the supermarket should have done, what should have happened here is that no-one should have joined the OP in sneering at the fact that she did not know what an aubergine was or how to spell it.

Let's not turn this thread into something it's not.

I find it astonishing that knowing what a few slightly it of the ordinary fruits and vegetables, and expecting people who handle them daily to recognise them, is deemed to be snobbery. Only in Britain does this disconnect exist between social groups i the food they eat. I grew up in France, where many "poor" people grew their own food. They probably had a better understanding of fruit and veg of all types than many more privileged people.

Not recognising basic fruit and veg common to Britain nowadays is to my mind tantamount to proof of a poverty of social capital with regard to food. ie, very limited knowledge, among people who eat only chips and baked beans in the way of veg. This phenomenon transcends social barriers ime.

I had the same with a butternut squash in Tesco.

Firstly, an aubergine is not an ordinary vegetable or fruit to many. Secondly, she may not handle them daily - she may only work there part time. Thirdly, this is not France, and many people on a low income here do not have access to even the most basic of fresh fruits and vegetables, let alone land to grow produce mainly because we are now the most overcrowded country in Europe. Finally, the only social phenomenon demonstrated here is the British love of class and the opportunity to demean someone for their 'lack' of knowledge for something which is utterly, utterly trivial.

That answer your questions?

YABU. I don't think there is any reason why someone should know what an aubergine is. My grandmother doesn't know; she eats a healthy diet and lots of fruit and veg but that doesn't include aubergines.

I didn't know what plantain were until I was 18, because my parents never had them in the house.

I agree with PG, it is trivial to make a judgement against someone over an aubergine.

pg- actually I disagree with almost everything you've just said. Firstly fruit and veg are nutrient for nutrient a lot cheaper than quite a lot of what passes for cheap food in this country. Secondly, local authorities have by law to provide allotment sites to any groups requesting them. Thirdly, some of the most deprived people in this country, newly arrived escapees from appalling regimes throughout the world, grow their own produce. Not knowing about fruit and veg, is, I maintain, a knowledge gap, not an income issue.

I hope I don't get some of you come through my till next week when I return to checkouts after a 3 year break cause I cannot remember any of the plu codes (most of which have probably changed)and I will have to look them up! They have extended the range of fruit and veg we stock so I will prob look a bit confused and I am in my thirties and cook stuff from scratch a lot.

silently, I think there's a bit of difference between not remembering the code and not recognising a product one handles on a daily basis. I can't believe that so few aubergines are sold that a person working on the checkout would not come across them at least daily.

Disagree away. I'm still right.

I can't imagine the turnover of aubergines is that big. Personally, I only buy one or two a year (strictly in the summer). If there are lots of checkout operators, I can imagine that some rarely handle aubergines, especially out of season.

With the extension to the range of stuff we stock I prob won't recognise everything that comes through the tills. I hope this doesn't mean someone will ridicule me like this though. As others have said the girl may not of been on checkouts long and may not of come in contact with aubergine before. It is a training issue for the store not a reason to poke fun or be funny though.

Duchesse, I agree with you that buying fruit and veg is not a money issue, as it is cheaper to cook from scratch using fruit and veg.

But I do think that not knowing about a wide variety of fruit and veg, and how to cook them, and how to grow them, is to with background (not income). Some people have grown up with parents that cannot cook or grow a variety of food. It is not that fault of that individual, but they become more responsible for having that knowledge as they get older.

We don't know the background of the checkout woman. Maybe she had left school unable to read, and had spent years at a basic skills class becoming literate and numerate, and had struggled to get a job and pay rent. So she gets a job in a supermarket, and cooking aubergines and owning an allotment has so far been low down the list of priorities on her plan to rectify her less than perfect upbringing. We cannot know and so should not judge her.

Also, there is often a very long waiting list for allotments (at least where I live).