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Grocery Store Etiquitte

#181
Relic said:
Had to run out briefly on my lunch hour to pick up a few things for dinner tonight, and that trip reminded me about what I hate most about grocery/food stores.. it's the lack of any sort of etiquette in the art of grocery shopping. So, as a public service, I'm here to introduce the fine art of grocery store etiquette to you who may be interested in such things

1) If you are not sure what kind of canned soup you might want, step back and scan the choices from a slight distance as to allow anyone else who may be less indecisive get a shot at the soups as well.
If you stand right in front, with your cart still held extended a full arm's length away thereby blocking the whole section and stare at the selection mindlessly for 10 minutes ignoring repeated "excuse me, please's", I'm going to pick up one of those cans and beat the doofus-isoity out of you. It'll be a generic one too. The good stuff is too good to beat you with.

2) If you are a senior citizen, I will generally respect you as it's the right thing to do. But if you get flustered because that bottle of prune juice is too high for you to reach, and you snap at me, an innocent bypasser, to "get it for you now gosh darnit!!" because you're mad, I'm going to slip some laxative into the damn stuff just to make it extra effective. Maybe it'll ease the back up into your brain.. A Pink Floyd T-shirt and cammo shorts are NOT a Shop Rite uniform last I checked. It's not my fault and I shouldn't be snapped at because of it.

3) If you like to walk slow, please for the love of god, walk to the side so that I can pass!?? My shopping is usually a painful agonizing thing that I like to get over with quickly. Having to trail behind you going .334% of 1 MPH just aint going to work. GET OUT of my damn way!!! Just walk slightly over to the side so that I can pass and we'll both be happy. This way you can take your time without me rushing you, and I can get things over with quick without a "cow" plodding along in front of me. Win/win.

4) If you have a large family like I do, please learn how to organize everyone so that they are not completely blocking the aisle every time you need to stop, thereby blocking everyone and anyone from getting by. See, I know this can be annoying to others, so I ask the kids to sort of step aside a bit and it alleviates the problem. Easy stuff. If you fail to realize that you, your wife, kids and two shopping carts are blocking everyone, and you are oblivious to the repeated "excuse me" excuse me" from the line of shoppers trying to pass, I question your right to reproduce...why!??? why must you inflict another generation of ignorant shoppers on us!??

5) What is it about me, a 40-something white guy wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt that makes people think that I know everything about produce? Every other time I go out, I'm asked which is the chicken is the one advertised in the local paper? Why do they put iodine in salt? Is salmon better than tuna? I'm a 40-something white guy for chrissakes, I buy whatever is on sale regardless of what it is, usually forget at least 3 items, and am totally pissy that I'm stuck shopping! I would buy dog food only if I knew everyone would eat it and it'd get me out of Shop Rite quicker. If we were in teh beer store, then it'd be a different story! My answer to everything in shop rite will be "I don't know" whether I do or not. That's what it will be. *spit*

6) Dont talk to me in the check out line. By the time I'm there, I'm already frazzled and about to lose what's left of my sanity. It's not that I dont want to talk to you, it's really because I'm in no mood or condition to talk about the Kardashian baby or the next new way to totally lose fat by rubbing crisco on your arse, according to the tabloids prominently displayed there.

That is all.
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It's like you summed up my frustrations in one, concise post. Except I normally don't get people snapping at me to help them. :D

I'm generally annoyed by people who aren't cognizant of the "space around them," so to speak. You know, the people who will be walking in front of you and just stop or don't bother to look around before they start walking from a stand still. I played a fair on Saturday and strolled around the midway before our set. I wanted to scream at people, "Do you drive as horrible as you walk?!?!"
 
#182
96tbird said:
This thread is big so I won't read it all

Lets move outside the store for a moment; THE PARKING LOT! Cars are trying to navigate and there's alleays a fat arsed woman pushing her cart right down the center of the lane! Cars can't get by and crawl along behind. If you dare give a little honk, you get a dirty look. I NEVER see men doing that. Men are always grabbing the cart and leading their woman out of the middle of the road and looking exasperated. Is saying the truth the same as being a misogynist?
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Then there is the fat arsed woman's counterpart: The group of bullet-proof teenagers who think they don't have to move because they're stronger than two tons of metal.
 
#183
Mike M. said:
When grocery shopping, two things become very apparent: people are getting lazier and they have no patience. Lazy: can't believe the amount of grocery carts that are all over the parking lot. C'mon, is it that much of a chore to return the cart back to to store or at least to one of the many cart coral's?
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Then there was the guy in the parking lot at my local hardware store who decided the give his cart a shove and send it rolling into the cart corral, which was 15 - 20 feet away. Unfortunately, instead of going in a straight line the cart began to veer off and headed directly at my parked car. I said to the guy "That's my car!" He went chasing after it but tripped and fell right on the pavement. He said afterwards that he had a bad knee (which wasn't improved by the fall!) He wasn't young either, too old to be hot dogging around in parking lots.

The important thing though, is that my car wasn't hit. :D
 
#188
FilterFunk said:
I don't write checks at the supermarket, but you just scared me into making sure I never start! :eek:
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People in Amerikay still write cheques? (yes guys that is how we spell it, i.e. properly :))
Very few places here these days where you get to write a cheque - in fact can't tell you the last time I wrote a personal cheque - haven't had a cheque book for a few years!
 
#189
I haven't read past page 1... I'm getting too anxious and agitated with all the food shopping talk :)

My biggest issue is people who go 1/2 way down a lane, grab what they need and then attempt to turn their cart/trolly around in traffic to double back out they way they came.... JUST KEEP MOVING AND LOOP BACK DOWN THE NEXT LANE!!!!
 
#191
MartinG1957 said:
People in Amerikay still write cheques? (yes guys that is how we spell it, i.e. properly :))
Very few places here these days where you get to write a cheque - in fact can't tell you the last time I wrote a personal cheque - haven't had a cheque book for a few years!
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The supermarket where I shop doesn't take credit cards, and for a long time we wrote checks there until they got a machine to take debit cards.
 
#192
TOOL460002 said:
If you're in front of me writing a check, know I am contemplating murder. If you ask how to spell the name of the store I am going to leave the line and wait for you at your car.
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It's pretty rare to see anyone paying by check any more, but it annoyed me when the person checking out in front of me would almost always wait until the cashier rang up everything before they would proceed with digging out the checkbook and then start writing. Jeez, if you knew you were paying that way, you could at least be considerate and have the check ready and write in the store name while you're waiting.
 
#194
I submit the current version where, usually a woman, (no I'm not being a sexist git, just my observational experience ) will;
pack everything, just so, and then, normally long after the shopping has all been rung through, will then start rummaging in the bag for the purse, eventually find it, open the purse, realise she hasn't handed over her effin loyalty card, make a fuss about getting her "points" added to her card and only after a supervisor has been called, had it explained and authorised the addition, will she then start rummaging again for her debit card...
Whereupon she will then look for her mobile phone to look up her pin number, get it wrong twice and then turn around and make an inane comment about "isn't it such a trial these days trying to remember all your different numbers?"
-"no madam it's not, most three year olds can manage it, you appear to be a clinical moron"
-and then I get a dig in the ribs from my wife!!
 
#195
elgecko said:
I frequent ethnic markets (Asian and Mexican) to get things not available at "American" markets and because produce prices are way lower. If you want a completely different shopping experience, go to an ethnic market! :eek:
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99 Ranch and Marukai (both Asian) and El Metate (Mexican) are a couple of my local favorites.
 
#196
Bob Lee (QSC) said:
99 Ranch and Marukai (both Asian) and El Metate (Mexican) are a couple of my local favorites.
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I like 99 Ranch for Asian and Northgate, El Super, and Vallarta Market for Mexican. I went to Jax Market yesterday (my other favorite Mexican market) but they're shutting down. :atoz:

There are a couple of Persian/Middle Eastern markets in my neighborhood but I've never tried those.
 
#199
A really funny thing happened when I took my elderly, and short in stature, mother to Wal-Mart once. We went to the milk coolers and my mother wanted to get something. I walked off a short distance to get something in another aisle.

My mother could not reach what she wanted and called out my name to get it but I was not within ear shot. A gentleman standing right next to her said okay and he would get it for her and asked how she knew his name. It turned out the stranger and I have the same name. A coincidence that turned out to be a good laugh for all of us.
 

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