I usually order my deli items by the slice. Most of the time I am using the slices for appetizers/sides and i want to make a specific number of items. I do the same when buying scallops, shrimp. and certain vegetables. I find this method is especially useful for dinner parties, catering and for teaching cooking classes.
4 Likes
Yeah, their “thin” is NOT thin when it comes to things like Swiss cheese. So I now say “super super thin” and get it the way I want.
An alternative to getting too much/not enough of a weight would be to ask for “15 slices” of roast beef/ham/turkey, etc. if you know how many sandwiches you want to make and how much you put on each sandwich. Of course, if what you’re buying is for family and everyone makes sandwiches differently (3 slices of Roast Beef vs. a mound of about 6-7 slices), that won’t work. 
1 Like
Same on seafood items for me - I just say to the Wegmans’ fishmongers “let’s start with 5 of the large sea scallops and see what the weight is” - if the weight ends up being under what I usually get, I’ll ask them to toss another scallop in there.
3 Likes
I’ve learned to do that too, and ask to see the first slice to verify proper thickness as well. I’ve tried asking for a third of a pound, and have been given quantities between .14/lb and .72/lb. With the lower standard of education these days, it’s clear that many people don’t seem to even know what a third-pound is. To illustrate: https://awrestaurants.com/blog/aw-third-pound-burger-fractions
With all due respect for the good intentions of deli servers, it’s entirely possible that many have no handle on fraction to decimal equivalencies. Like a quarter of a pound sounding like .4 lb.
3 Likes
True story: I have a dear friend who is a wonderful human being with terrible taste in romantic partners. I went out for drinks with him and one of the idiots he was dating* and we started talking about football for some reason. She said “I know there are four quarters in a basketball game, but how many quarters are there in a football game? I don’t follow football.”
*At least she was nice. The smart ones were mean. Or unfaithful. Or both.
6 Likes
College basketball has 2 halves .
That probably would have made her head explode.
I’ve noticed folks can no longer count change if you try and round up with change to get back quarters or dollars instead of pennies.
They give you this blank stare and have no clue as to what to do.
11 Likes
I’m one of those people who still pays cash at drive through window. I keep change with my bills so I don’t get a pile of small coins back. I sometimes get a puzzled look when I pay, but they figure it out - with the registrer I guess. It’s scary how people can’t do simple math in their heads anymore. I can still keep a running total of what’s in my grocery cart. I guess it doesn’t matter these days.
6 Likes
Last fall a bill came to something like 80 cents. I was just back from the UK and the rest of Europe, had several coins, US, EU, and otherwise ( pounds?) and wasn’t immediately sure which was a US quarter. The cashier was as baffled as I was and had to excuse herself.
4 Likes
I do the same thing, and though I run the risk of sounding presumptuous, I will preemptively explain to the cashier why I’m giving them, let’s say $5.05 for a $3.30 cup of coffee, so that I can get quarters back. What gets me occasionally is that they will still give me small coins or do their math incorrectly as if that extra five cents didn’t exist. Another time, I was the second customer at a coffee shop that opened at 5am, and the guy in front of me wanted to pay for his coffee with a $100 dollar bill. I could not contain my irritation (I grumbled something to the effect of “Hey, this isn’t a bank!”), and it almost turned into a scene from “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.
8 Likes
I see that all the time at my local supermarket deli counter. What are they teaching in school these days? I recall learning fractions in 3rd or 4th grade. Also, if I ask for a pound of sliced deli product and the scale shows 1.25#, they will ask, “it’s a little over, is that okay?”. Puleeeeze!
2 Likes
My recent peeves are related to hidden overcharges. The most annoying is for the scanner to use last week’s price on what should be a sale item. Sure, they refund the difference if you bring it up at Customer Service, but I am sure that the person with a full cart for a week’s shopping will not be going over the register tape for each and every item.
The other is the use of a whopping big sheet of paper for the unpackaged fish or meat item, where the automatic tare is nowhere near the weight of the paper. $10 a pound for paper wrapping is not a friendly practice. In a similar vein, I hate it when the prepackaged meat or chicken has a sponge full of dripping liquid hidden under the meat. Want to bet that weight is being paid a meat prices?
For that matter, I still feel burned when the price label or the “SALE” sticker hides a big bone or mass of fat, with even more hidden on the underside of the chop or steak.
6 Likes
My fish are always weighed naked for pricing, then wrapped. Same with meats when I buy something from the case.
3 Likes
My experience is the same . . . just a very thin sheet of liner between the scale and the fish\meat. And I know my local meat market weighs the meat before they package it with the spongey stuff to put in the case. Not sure if the local supermarket weighs the meat prior to packaging, but I’ve always assumed they do 
1 Like
The meat diaper only absorbs what was already in the meat so I don’t think the fact that chickens have blood is cheating anyone, but maybe it’s more of a problem with brined/injected/water added products (which I avoid anyway)
2 Likes
Here’s another, been mentioned before in another thread: boneless chicken thighs packaged with like 3 feet of chicken skin carefully folded underneath each thigh. I got so sick of that ‘trick’ that I now ask the meat counter person to unpackage the thighs, trim off the extra skin, reweigh and repackage the whole thing. It’s like a half a pound of throw away that I was paying for.
2 Likes
“Throwaway?” I cut excess skin and fry that shit up. Extra treats for the cook
9 Likes
I think this came up on another thread when someone mentioned “excess” chicken skin? There’s no such thing–crispy skin is the best part of any poultry.
7 Likes
This happened to me at In N Out recently.
Order total was 11.02.
Gave cashier 20.02
Got back the following: 1 five dollar bill, 3 one dollar bills, three quarters, two dimes, and five pennies.
And I think they were completely different pennies, too.
6 Likes
That’s weird, 'cause the register should tell the cashier how much change to give. Maybe s/he was conserving singles.
2 Likes
