My "Asshole In Front Of Me In The 15 Items Or Less Line At Safeway" Rant

[Amerigo Vespucci]

So I go to the market last night around 11 PM. I get in the express lane. There's a guy in front of me who has the cashier ring up his 15 items or less and before she hits the total he decides he needs something out of the locked liquor cabinet.

The checker asks him "Should I just cancel this?" And he says "No, I'll wait."

Protocol for this kind of thing is that you ask for your item from the locked cabinet WHILE YOU ARE SHOPPING and the person who gets it for you gives it to the checker so that when you check out, there it is.

Unless you're an oblivious prick like this guy was.

So she calls three different people over the intercom. Someone finally shows up.

Then the guy has to find the key.

When he finds it, he asks the guy what he wants.

So he goes to get it, and I think he went wherever Arrowhead gets their mountain sprint water from.

Meanwhile, they open a second checker for express and the checker in my line tells the woman BEHIND ME "You can go over there! No waiting!"

And as I'm trying to gather up my items from the belt, someone ELSE gets in the line.

So I said to my checker "Can you please help me put these on the other belt so someone else doesn't cut me off?"

And she says "Huh?"

I have around four people behind me in line at this point.

And the second checker tries to say "I'm closing"...after ringing up THREE EXPRESS CUSTOMERS...but he takes my stuff and asks "How are you tonight?"

And I said "fine," paid for my shit, and left.

Rant over.

:grr:

[quakerboy]

1. I had a new one today

A cart semi full of items. No way is it going to hit the under 15 limit. I have 2 items. They pull in, but all the other open lanes appear worse, so I follow.

They split it up. Hubby takes 15 items, throws up the divider, then the wife throws up her 14 items. They pay separate. Which makes it take for EVER, cause they both have to go through all the cards and the numbers and all that song and dance. Awesome. Way to find a loophole in the system, people. Maybe someday they will have a pair of kids, so that they can take 60 items through the 15 or less express lane!

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. That happened one night at Safeway, but it was 4 stoners and 4 orders

4 20-somethings, stoned out of their skulls, with a full cart, and even when they divided up the orders, they'd have 4 six packs of Coke and count that as "one item."

[LisaM]

31. I had a couple use their kid once to hold a place in line

while they went and shopped. It wasn't an express lane, but I was behind this kid with like 10 items, and right before he was set to step up, his mother shows up with a basket with about 30 things, and then his father shows up on the other side with about 25 things. I let them have it, though I felt sorry for the kid. Are they really SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than I am that they can't wait in line? I hate people like that.

[struggle4progress]

2. Friend of mine said around 1968 he went off to visit some of his buddies

in the big city. Arrived late in the afternoon, dog-hungry, they had nothing to eat in the house. Nothing. So he volunteers for a grocery run. They say, Well, there's a Safeway over that-a-way. Sounds easy. Off he goes. Not his city. He has no idea where he's going. Wanders and wanders. It's getting later and later. Everyone he asks gives vague directions: It's over that-a-way. Notices the neighborhoods he's wandering aren't so very nice: street-toughs strutting around scowling and such. He doesn't want to ask any of them for help, just trying hard to be invisible and to move along. Sun's starting to go down, and he's made no headway. Finally, he sees a little old lady rocking on her porch and figures he can ask her. So he walks up and says, Scuze me, ma'am, could you tell me how to find the Safeway? She squints at him a moment and then says

Sonny, there's a right way. And there's a wrong way. But there ain't no safe way

[BlueJazz]

4. I still think that the floor space by the Register should have a trap door.

When someone such as "Liquor Cabinet Guy" shows up, the Cashier can discreetly pull a lever....the offending customer will disappear
and be whisked out to the parking lot.

I could really dig that. It would make shopping so much fun! :)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

5. That would rock, but this cashier was clearly an enabler...

...she could have EASILY voided out his purchase and then taken him as the next customer when the guy came back with his booze. She didn't.

[Odin2005]

6. Liquor in a grocery store?

[Kali]

8. not even locked at most stores in AZ

:toast:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. Yep...there is a "Liquor" section in the wine aisle...

...stuff like Jack Daniels and the $20 or so per bottle things. These items have a big round black plastic security cap that fits over the top of the bottle that the cashiers have to remove with a special key.

They also have Cabo Wabo Tequila, Grey Goose Vodka, and more expensive Scotch, Cognac, etc. in the lock box. You have to ask for them.

[MrMickeysMom]

11. See, we don't have these problems in PA!

You have to go to a separate store to get your liquor. It's the State run one that groups liquor with wine.

Now, if you want beer... that's another State run store where you have to buy a case of it, unless you're a big player like the Giant Eagle is... then you can enter a separate part of the grocery store to get your beer only and be gouged for a six pack.

[Curmudgeoness]

33. Or get your six pack at a bar. That is the option I choose.

But still we have idiots who make the express lane go slower than all the others.

[Odin2005]

14. Heh, In Minnesota and North Dakota that would be illegal.

Beer can be sold at gas stations, but all others can only be sold at liquor stores.

[realisticphish]

13. sure

pretty much every grocery store in Ohio has it, at least. not the expensive shit, but the cheapish stuff at least

[LiberalAndProud]

15. Coming soon to a grocery near you.

Well, it's here anyway. Except you have to wait until after noon on Sunday if you wanta buy. We still have some standards.

[blueamy66]

27. Not in AZ!

We now have the pleasure of purchasing liquor at 6 a.m. on Sundays.

[Lil Missy]

17. Yep - in iowa there's a liquor section in grocery store's

[eShirl]

23. Even here in Maine, birthplace of prohibition.

[MiddleFingerMom]

7. I was stopped cold by the visual brought on by the first few words of your Subject line...

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...My "Asshole In Front Of Me.
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Imagine my disappointment.
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[Amerigo Vespucci]

10. I know, I read that one and thought "someone may take this the wrong way," and sure enough...

:eyes:

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

18. Asshole in front?

And, hey, I have a tail!

Why does my neck hurt?

:hi:

[lutefisk]

28. Funny...LOL! . . . nt

[trackfan]

12. What happens to me is, about 1 out of 3 trips to the store -

and I go several times a week - the person in front of me in line, even though they are my age or older (I'm 51): has apparently never checked out of a supermarket before in their life; has absolutely no idea what to do; has never signed up for that store's club, and is offered an application for same, to be filled out while I stew; has never used a credit card before,and needs instruction in the use thereof; forgets to present coupons, and has to have the ticket re-opened and run again; and, needs the bagger to trade an item they have for the one that was actually on sale.

[MiddleFingerMom]

16. And I really appreciate your patience, sir.

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No shit. We've just GOTTA be shopping behind the same people.
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Nobody counting out 78 pennies for their $106.78 order?
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You lucky DOG, you.
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[WolverineDG]

19. I've had this happen to me

stuck behind someone who's got their "more than 10 items" order divided into 3 separate orders: 1 to pay cash, 2nd food stamps, 3rd WIC. Each have to be rung up separately & paid for separately. :grr:

dg

[BurtWorm]

20. She should have completed the sale with what was there and sent him to the back of the line to wait

for the liquor. Problem solved.

[av8rdave]

21. OK, I gotta slow down and read the whole subject line

I just spent the last 10 minutes trying to figure out how you got your asshole in front of you!

[Blue_Tires]

22. i remember one time trying to go shopping

during the after-work rush hour, so all of the lines were really long (AND I had to fight D.C. traffic just to get home and make dinner)...Woman in front of me had about $130 in groceries, and wrote out a check but didn't have a picture ID -- So she proceeds to start a 10-minute argument over it until the cashier finally refers her to the manager....

[Crystal Clarity]

24. Great rant. I'd be mad too

People can be such jerks sometimes.

But lately it's been the store itself that has me PO'd. They recently updated for what I can only guess are cost saving reasons (for them I mean). They now have the Wal-Mart style grocery bagging round-about thingy so that you have to load your own into the cart.

Now don't get me wrong, a little extra work on my part is not what is bothering me. It has more to do w/the idea that they've now got one person doing the work of two and probably not paying them any more money. Plus it slows the whole process down. I live 20+ miles from there so when I go, it's usually for 2 weeks worth of groceries (or more) and many of their customers live distances farther then me. Needless to say we're talking $150 or $200+ purchases for most people. I'd be willing to guess that not having a bagger tacks on another 5 to 10 minutes for everyone.

I always do my best to load my cart as quickly as possible while still dealing w/the transaction. And if I see someone behind me with less items, I usually invite them to go ahead of me... but still I can't help but feel that I'm holding everyone up and I'm sure others w/super-loaded carts feel the same.

Maybe I've lived in the boonies too long, and having no bagger is the norm everywhere these days? But even if it's what everyone deals with, that still doesn't make it 'right' imho. Furthermore, it seems to me that if someone is giving your store $200+ worth of business, the least you can do make it as pleasant an experience as possible. Not so w/them apparently. They don't even help little old ladies who clearly could use some.

This store (Hannaford) is part of a large chain of stores here in the NE and I guess whatever the top dogs command is what they all have to do.

We are all becoming irrelevant it seems. :rant:

[edbermac]

25. Don't you wish ordinary citizens could carry Tasers?

"You know what the word EXPRESS means, asshole?"

[blueamy66]

26. My opinion...

no purchasing of "locked" items, such as cigs and liquor, in the Express Lane. And no "separate" purchases, such as using WIC checks.

Done deal.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

29. I've aged dramatically waiting for some jerk's pack of Marlboro Lights

I'll high five that...NOTHING locked, period.

I remember the days when single packs used to be in the checkout lines with the candy bars. Now ALL of the cigarettes are under lock and key.

The other favorite is when someone is buying an "advertised special" (2 for 1, etc) and they say "I could only find one on the shelf" and the checker has someone go out in the back to look and when they don't find any says "Would you like a rain check" and the person says "yes" and you get to stand there while they fill it out. SLOWLY. In the EXPRESS LANE.

:grr:

:-)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

30. I can see that the content of my thread has been upstaged by the gramatically imperfect title

My bad.

:eyes:

:rofl:

[noamnety]

32. I got a lot better at waiting in grocery lines

after helping out in a food pantry in Louisiana post-Katrina. Being in an area where there were no grocery stores at all helped put things in perspective for me. I went from being impatient in line to being incredibly aware and grateful that I even have access to such an amazing array of groceries to buy, all in one place.