Supermarket Pet Peeves

I do take one grape to eat when I buy grapes because I have been burned too many times with seeds in “seedless” grapes and with grapes that I’ve tossed in the garbage because they were so tart. I don’t feel bad about it. It’s the only food that I sample before I buy and I make no apologies.

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I’ve used a bandaid a few times :wink:

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Oh I know! The worse offenders I saw are tied in their stupidity:

#1) was the couple at Costco who dumped out all the strawberries from two, 2# cartons, and put the ‘better’ berries carefully in one carton and just jumbled the rest into the other carton. Shame! As for the ‘pick’n’eaters’ for grapes, cherries, apricots(!), obviously they are not washing the fruit before they eat it and thus deserve any food borne illness or pesticide poisoning they come down with.
#2) There was the guy who would fill up his baggy shorts pockets with cherries, eat them one at a time and while doing so through the store, deposit the pits on the floor, on a shelf, in other produce, while his lady friend shopped. I am responsible for his being barred from the store. Serious health issue there!
I always do a good look at the carton or bag that has been prepackaged, including spinach, sprouts and Oriental pea pods. I’ve been burned before, too.
If I don’t need 6 bananas, I will tear off two, if there are no acceptable looking singles. If I don’t need a full 2# prepackaged bag of grapes, and there are no smaller offerings, I will take out what I need and put it in a regular produce bag. I was told by the produce person that, that was okay. I did ask, first.

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Someone who runs their hands through the rice is liable to run them through the walnuts, too.

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Having done this myself, I get the desire to do this, though. The feel of rice is quite sensuous.

To clarify, though, I have never done this in public bulk bins. We keep our rice in the pantry in a huge can that holds about 25-30 lbs of rice, which I decant into a smaller (#10) can that lives in a kitchen cupboard for daily use, so only my family is subjected to rice that I have fondled!

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The only thing is being in front of me fumbling with paying . Reaching for whatever people .keep the line moving.

@ricepad Do you put anything in the 25lb container (or the smaller one) to ward off bugs?

(I decant from 10 or 20# bags into a 2# jar.)

Some years ago, dh said that “old ladies hold up checkout lines while fumbling through their coin purses.” (While I thought that is was guys trying to fish coin out of their tight jeans watch pocket!) But in order to insure fast moving lines, since that day I have not spent a coin. I just cash a paper bill and hand over all coin to him…to fish out of his tight jeans pocket.

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Never had a problem with bugs.

Sure, so do I. I also get the desire to open up cans of unfamiliar soda to taste them, or rip open a bag of almonds for a quick snack. But I don’t do that, because it would be terrible.

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My local fancy organic grocery still has bulk bins.

my local still invests heavily in their bulk sections and was not impacted by covid (although for a period of time you needed to queue up and have a staffer retrieve the items for you). i really rely on it, as i’m very down on packaging waste. the further benefit to me is never having spices get old, i buy small portions and replenish them often. their bulk inventory stands at over a thousand items.
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That is like my ideal store.

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All I want to do is :heart::heart::heart: this.

So :heart::heart::heart:.

I’m so jealous.

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I think location has more to do with it than which supermarket it is. Out of town stores don’t really need coin locks. Everyone arrives by car, and very few trollies go missing.

In Canada we have a chain called Bulk Barn. Its a self serve store where you take as little or as much as you like. I get coloured sugar in very small amounts if I’m decorating cookies. Just enough for 1 batch as I don’t use it often enough to get a premeasured container full.

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Lol, I swear I must be built like a triangle, so I know how you feel. :expressionless:

If we have to have bulk bins, I wish the stores would use the turn to dispense kind. You place your plastic bag at the bottom of the spout and turn the giant knob (like the old fashioned candy machines) to dispense what you want. No touching of the product! I’m surprised this hasn’t caught on more at those stores.

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I can’t speak for the situation at other branches of Waitrose but of the nearby Asda, Tesco, and three Sainsbury’s supermarkets which might be thought “out of town” all of them have coin-operated release mechanisms on their trolleys, which is probably because it is cheaper to field them across their entire estates rather than special case the few drive-to locations.

That is the model I saw a woman stick her hand in. The bin had a lid (to fill it) and a spout (to empty it). The store probably expected shoppers to observe basic rules of hygiene, but not all of them do, apparently.

They need the super tall ones where you can’t reach in unless you are 9 ft tall. :smile: Kind of like the ones in the M&M stores. I’ve seen the really tall ones get used, but I guess it doesn’t make it easy to refill

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