my first mooncup hurdle: running commentary from cheery - male - check out assistant in boots...

[thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat]

...not sure if he didn;t totally didn;t hear my mumbled response to his first q ("what are these things" "mumble mumble an alternative to tampons mumble") or if he was totally unembarrassed and unphased. "they're expenseive aren't they.... they're so light....I couldn;t believe it the first time I sold one.... I thought the box was empty...but they must be good if people buy them at this price...." good job I was having a good day...

I had someone come in here the other day who is pursuing a degree in Reproductive Biology. I'm sitting there thinking, 'You don't need a degree to study that, mate.'

But then again, looking at this poor chap, that's probably the only way he'll get near a live piece.

Have worked on checkouts before - it is hard to not say anything sometimes!

I remember one guy who bought a large bottle of Listerine, some flowers and some condoms - obviously hoping his luck was in!!

I have seen condoms and pregancy tests before, but suppose that's not that illogical - find out, sigh with relief and resolve to use some next time I guess!

I was always very careful to keep any comments bland and non-personal. I still cringe when I remember working one evening and there was a gorgeous blonde toddler in the trolley while dad was shopping. We'd been making idle chit chat about how lovely the little boy was, what the weather was etc etc, when I had to call a supervisor for an item with no bar code. She trots over and says, "ooh it's late for you to be out, where's your mummy?" to which the man replied, "mummy died, didn't she x?"

Ooh, makes me want to cry now thinking about it.

Lesson for all other shop assistants out there - never assume ANYTHING other than that the weather is too hot or too cold and no-one much likes food shopping or queues. That's why we seem like bimbos with no conversation skills, it's safer that way!!

In my much younger days we often used to trip through the checkouts with whipped cream, a banana and a box of condoms.

We also once left a pile of artfully staged said whipped cream, bananas and condoms in my hallway for my utterly horrified flatmate to find (well, the fact that there were three of us in his bed probably tipped him over the edge, but that's a different thread altogether ).

Expat, LOL at 'a live piece'