13 Things That Annoy Me at the Supermarket
A few months ago I informed my readers that I Shop at the Supermarket Every Day and listed a few benefits for doing so. However, shopping every day also means being exposed to more annoyances as well.
Here are 13 of those inconveniences, irritations, and things that annoy me at the supermarket:
- Kids yelling their lungs off because their parents won't let them have something on a shelf.
For God's sake, parents, just put the toy or gimcrack into the shopping cart to shut him up. Later on, distract the little bugger and return the item back on the shelf when he's not looking. That's what I do.
Hopefully my supermarket will do what the owners of King Soopers, a chain of 29 grocery stores in Denver, Colorado, have done: they fitted their shopping carts with video players to keep little tikes occupied:
- Stock boys who kitty-corner their loading-dollies completely blocking the aisle.
- Supermarket staff smoking outside near the store entrances. Employees should not be allowed to smoke during working hours because they stink when they go back inside.
- Empty shelves. Unless there is a hurricane coming, there should be no excuse for empty shelves.
- Shoppers who decide they don't want or cannot afford the steak they put in their cart and place it on any old shelf far from the meat aisle. Is it that hard to go back and put it back in the refrigerated section where they originally got it?
- Idiots who cannot make up their mind and hold open the door to the frozen food section for 5 minutes deciding, deciding, deciding and fogging up all the other glass doors.
Hey, dudes, it's 2014 - it really amazes me that so few supermarkets have hand-held scanners to speed up my checkout time. I hate having to load all my stuff on the belt. I prefer to pack my bags as I shop and simply swipe my credit card on the way out.This also lets me immediately know if the price marked on the shelves for the item is exactly the same as I'm being charged.
I do understand, however, why they don't do this in urban poverty areas.
- People who park their cart on one side of the aisle while perusing the shelves on the other side. Hey, aisle-blocker, you and your cart belong on one side only - there are other people shopping other than you who need to pass through.
- Shopping carts with bad wheels that go kathunka-kathunka and bumpety-bump and head for a direction different than the one you want.
- Coupons that shout $1.00 OFF in large print but then quietly, in smaller print, insist that the buck only applies on the purchase of 4 packages of this or that - that is, it's really only 25 cents off each item.
- Related to the above - is a 12 pack of Coke marked $2.99 each and in small print you must buy 4 - otherwise the price reverts to $5.49.
- It really bothers me when larger or heavier packages cost more per ounce than smaller ones.
- People who use cash to pay for their groceries and take two minutes to count out $21.50. Credit cards people - credit cards.
