Me, too. Growing up, I always heard that alcohol is the social lubricant. DISagree, good manners make the world go 'round.
My local IGA hires some of my school kids who have autism, or whatever. On time everyday, ready to work and with a smile. Makes my day to see my peeps working hard and making their green.
And I hope they’re being paid at least minimum wage, not pennies based on that old loophole about hiring the disabled.
They get starting wage, like anyone else. The young people get the bonus of working in a very tight knit store, with similar clientele, so folks get to know their names as they get to know the customers. Just perfect for young people who aren’t as sure of themselves. My latest started out pretty shy. Two weeks later, he’s one of the community in there. I’ve helped the ones from my school out since they were little, so it’s a bonus for both of us to see each other regularly. One guy, who graduated last May, is so proud that he can swing it. I’m dang proud of him. You work with a kid for 13-14 years, it makes your day to see it come to fruition on planet earth. Thankful.
Well, the bonehead that got my car pushed her cart from halfway up the parking lot!
Most of the baggers at my nearby publix strike a good balance on filling the bags.
The few who don’t hit that balance tend go overboard in the opposite direction.
An example from last week (DeCecco pasta was bogo). Yes, four boxes of linguine and four 28 oz cans o maters will fit in the bag, but that’s 11 pounds, with a lot of it having sharp corners.
While all 6 bags were overpacked, that one would have ripped and spilled had I tried to carry it into the house without removing the pasta boxes. Just lifting from cart to car, some corners were poking through.
New peeve: apps that lie, like saying the organic onions are a 3-lb bag for $2.99, when in fact it’s a 2-lb bag. Or give you unit pricing in a variety of units for the same product (e.g., coffee in price per ounce, price per pound, and price per unit).
Kroger self checkout.
“Please clear the bagging area”
“Please clear the bagging area”
“Please clear the bagging area”
“Help is on the way”
“Help is on the way”
I get so tired of this.
Use the regular checkout instead 
I know but .The problem with Kroger checkers it’s like a race to the finish line.
I am so suspicious of anything involving a computer at the store nowadays. If the computer says it is here, then by golly gee it’s here, somewhere. I miss our manager who retired a few months ago. If I couldn’t reach something he, being 6’+, wouldn’t hesitate in pulling something off the shelf that me, at least half a foot shorter couldn’t reach. No hidden rakes or hoes in the store.
New pet peeve: deli meats being cut on the same machine without a clean up between. I witnessed a server slicing premium turkey breast for a customer on a machine with lots of ham debris on it. Ew!
Do any of you . When shopping in large grocery store . Step back for a moment , and decide what line you are going to get in ? Number of people in line , do not care , chatty cashiers. etc… etc… ?
Yes - number of people definitely makes a difference - unless it’s Kevin at Wegmans, as I noted upthread. 
If I’m doing a self-checkout, I always look to see how others before me are doing. If someone obviously doesn’t know what they’re doing, I’ll go to a regular checkout.
+1millon. In feel bad for those employees who have to tend to you. I get embarrassed.
At least at Costco, they have a multiple-server-single-queue model (well, double-queue, if the customers are not mathematicians). It works like banks do–one queue and the next available server takes the first person in line.
Costco actually seems to encourage two queues, one for each side of the self-service lane. It keeps the queue from getting really long, but is not the most efficient system.
(I have an M.S. in computer science, and took a course in queueing theory, so I think I can say I know something about what I’m talking about.)
As far as bagging – Sunshine and I have this down to an art (especially for our big shopping). Sunshine puts the purchases on the conveyor belt, the checkout clerk scans them and I bag at the end of checkout area. Sunshine pushes the cart to me when she is done, I load the bagged groceries into the cart. The clerk totals our order, I insert or tap my credit card, the receipt prints and we are gone.
Whenever I ask the check out clerk if its OK for me to bag, I always get an enthusiastic “YES”!!
If we are just picking up milk or one/two items, we’ll go through self checkout. There are different nuances at the different grocery stores for self checkout, but I’ve learned them and can anticipate what the computer wants.
It would be nice if all of the grocery stores would standardize the self checkout hardware & SOFTWARE!!
Of course! There are clerks I seek out because I know they are conscientious and there are clerks I avoid like the plague because they have proven to me to be dishonest. At Safeway I will use the self check out because I have ony a few items, pay cash and the check out lines are miserably long due to lengthy socialization.
Unfortunately, the turnover of employees at my usual store is high.
I see sometimes in our little village employees who have left in the past returning, only to leave again.
And if the credit card machines all put the scanner in the same place. In some it’s behind the screen, in others it’s to the left, and there are probably other variations as well.
I unload, have the cashier scan my club card, and then I scan my credit card before I start bagging. It lets me put the card away rather than have to dig it out later.
Wasn’t that a plot point in a Seinfeld episode or standup routine?
That is ew, even for folks who do not have specific dietary observations. I rarely ask for sliced deli meats but have seen the guy with my request (black forest ham) standing there waiting for the “ham slicer” to open, while two others (I guess beef or chicken or what not that’s not ham) sat idle.
Wow. I’ve never had a clerk in a grocery actually be dishonest. What kind of stunt/s did they pull?
