Supermarket Pet Peeves

Maybe it’s here already, but I want to mention the “self check out Na**”, (** just in case the real word is politically incorrect.)

“She” reminds me of the rules in that Seinfeld “Soup Na**” episode.

Apparently you have to wait until she says put your empty bag down, then put it down, but don’t move it! And don’t add anything until she says, and don’t pick it up until she says you may. Any mistakes, she announces it, and you are supposed to wait for help, while everyone looks at you like you are annoying.

I try to avoid it, but used it today, and one of the helpers told me the secret was to put the bag and a weigh-able item on the scale at exactly the same time.

That was a funny episode. As a side story in that one was Richie. He kept changing lanes because he thought one was shorter than the other and never got anywhere…LOL. Still at the back when family got done with their hijinks.

I personally make sure I have everything I need well before so there is NO WAY, I am near a store a few days til TG.

I appreciate your desire to be courteous, but I personally don’t care if there are National Socialists here who will be offended because they believe your use of the word “Nazi” is a slur against their Volk.

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It’s not the National Socialists who will be offended. It’s the people who prefer that only actual Nazis - as opposed to garden variety assholes - be referred to as Nazis. In the same way that the words rape and lynching should probably be reserved for actual, rather than metaphorical, rape and lynching.

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Alrighty, then!

I always tell people don’t get behind me, because when I get there, it’s time to change shifts , change the tape, get a price check, go for cigarettes or lottery tickets, or whatever.

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I no longer try to find a good line. I’m reconciled to reading magazine headlines, people watching, day dreaming…

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Wow!! At Stop and Shop you are lucky to find someone at the self check when you need them!

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One thing Mark likes about Dollar Tree: they never have to call for a price check.

(Yes, I know there are a few rare exceptions to “everything is a dollar”, such as baking soda and greeting cards, but still…)

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You need to get someone’s attention? Just bag everything and start walking out without paying.

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Some of us are looking for allergens. Just sayin.

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Thank you for bringing that up Sasha; I need to be more patient as well as sensitive to that issue.

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It would be neat if this question could have been posed to grocery shoppers in the 1950s and '60s.

Those were the days that “supermarkets” were just gaining traction as a shopping choice. And, to my recollection, there was an over night crew at most of them tasked with filling shelves, so that day shoppers found everything they needed without dodging pallets sitting in the middle of aisles.

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Yes! And remember Mighty Mouse gained his superpowers because he hid out in a supermarket and ate Super Soup and Super Cheese, and took a bath in Super Soap.

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I DIDN’T remember! Whaaaat? Flash back to a cat puzzle I had. And to Mighty Mouse and Terry Tunes. Hard to believe that was only a childhood ago.

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That’s what they do at the supermarkets I shop at with any great regularity - my local Stop & Shop and a Shoprite in Jersey City. They do start overnight re-stocking before closing time so if you get there late at night, it can be chaotic in the back where they “stage” everything before it’s moved to the relevant aisles, but even that’s a reasonably controlled chaos…

Sometimes I’ll see outside vendors that come in frequently with “fresh goods” (mostly but not exclusively local/regional packaged baked goods) restocking when I’m there first thing in the morning, but I pretty much never run into major general restocking at either store between, say, 10am and 9pm.

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You just triggered a memory … Friday nights at the only 24 hour supermarket at the time, Pathmark in Yonkers, NY in the 80’s … lots of restaurant workers would shop after their shifts ended along with a group of non industry late night regulars, our drunken customers for the most part …. it was like going to a dance party at a club … music blaring and dancing in the isles literally, employees and customers … fun times EDIT: I have no idea how anything got done by Saturday am … the shelves were never stocked and there were unattended pallets with boxes on them everywhere, lots of carrying on though!

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Hey! I watched the whole thing wanting to hear “Here I come to save the day…”!

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You comment about Pathmark being open 24 hours…There was one in College Point / flushing on the Whitestone expressway, (Now as Stop & Shop) …I stopped in with my bride after a late night out with friends, about 1979 and as we were waiting online to pay, we saw a guy get down on his knee and propose… what a romantic guy!

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I remember that Pathmark. There was a really good deli in that shopping center that made great roast beef sandwiches

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“outside vendors”
It is usually the outside venders I see stocking during the day.