Remember when the customer was always right? Like in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, when that angry guy didn't believe he'd been served the best breakfast he ever ate? Even though he ate most of it, and demanded his money back. HE was right. He got his refund, and he got Brad fired from All-American Burger.
These days, it's like the customer is never right. They're an annoyance.
I'd be satisfied if I could be right at least half of the time. Walk in, do my business, no hassles, nothing out of the ordinary. Just pay for my items and leave.
Friday, I set out my Walmart purchases on the conveyor. I am a well-known grouper. Boxes with boxes, produce with produce, cold with cold. All the checker need do is run the stuff over the sensor, and put it in a bag. It's GROUPED with what it needs to be bagged with. That wasn't good enough for my checker.
I started with the fried chicken. It was hot from the deli warmer, and I didn't want it bagged with anything else. In fact, as soon as I get it to T-Hoe, I take it out of the bag so it doesn't sweat. Nobody wants sweaty chicken. Boxes of stuff were next. Some crunchy oats and honey granola bars, an assortment of mini cereal boxes. Then Hick's loose bottles of strawberry banana flavored water, six of them. The produce was next, a bag of limes, a bunch of bananas. Lastly, I had a few cold items grouped together. A block of extra-sharp
cheddar, some bratwursts, BBQ pulled pork, and a pack of eight fried
chicken wings from the deli refrigerator case.
I had my eye on that checker. Usually, they will bag up my hot fried chicken, and set it on top of the bag carousel, where I pick it up and put it in the child seat of the cart. Just to keep track of it. Same way, I put my cold stuff last, so I know it's in the end of the cart when I get to T-Hoe, and put it in my soft-side cooler first.
The checker was holding my hot chicken hostage. She had set it lengthwise (!) down in a bag, and it was turning on the carousel as she bagged other items. Not turning all the way around, where I could get it, but back and forth, on the checker's whim, as she decided what she was bagging together. You know, because my sorting wasn't good enough.
As the cold stuff came to the sensor, the checker put in the cheese block with the bag of limes. The bananas had been bagged with the box of granola bars. I didn't say anything, even though I didn't want my bananas exposed to the sharp corners of the granola bar box. I drew the line, though, when she took my little container of cold chicken wings, and put them down beside the hot fried chicken.
"No. I'd rather not have my cold chicken wings bagged with the hot chicken."
That checker looked at me like I was overstepping my bounds. I thought for a minute she might twirl her crazy finger near her temple. What she did instead was take out both the hot fried chicken, and the cold chicken wings, and proceed to set each one down on top of the carousel while she felt the top and bottom of the other container with both hands. All the while, looking me in the eye! That's some creepy stuff. She finally put the hot chicken in a bag by itself and handed it to me. Then put the cold chicken in with the granola bars and bananas.
As soon as I got to T-Hoe, I put the limes with the bananas, the granola bars with the cereal, and all the cold stuff in one bag to go in the soft-side cooler.
Sheesh! That checker was pretty much calling me out, doubting that I had both hot and cold chicken. You'd think she'd realize that. You know, working there every day. This is the second checker I've had to caution about putting cold items with hot, and they both acted all put-out with me for mentioning it. The other one wasn't this psycho, though.
I wanted to twirl my crazy finger, but I was too scared.
I don't worry too much about bagging groups, Mrs. C however is also very particular about what goes into each bag. I'm not familiar with Walmart, but at our supermarket she is able to stand at the end and bag everything herself. She bags as fast as the checkers can check. The checkers always thank her for bagging...but then we don't have any baggers that that live on 1313 Cemetery Lane.
ReplyDeleteI bag my own stuff at Save A Lot, and of course I do it perfectly! I'd never try that at Walmart. I can't imagine what that checker might do to me, if just the suggestion set off her voodoo stare.
DeleteI am brave, I say things. If they don't like it or give me attitude, I ask for a supervisor. I have even been known to ask for the owner's name, as I think they should know about their employees and their attitudes. This clerk needs to review her CBL's (computer based learning). Their is a whole series on bagging merchandise …. not to mention customer service. I like to put my stuff on the belt in a particular order, as well. I like all my frozen stuff together and then all my cold stuff that goes in the fridge. It helps when I am unloading at home. It annoys me when it is done wrong. Most of them know me by now and are afraid not to do it right. I am the scare-er, not the scare-ee!!
ReplyDeleteI used to be a checkout operator and I appreciate your type of customer, it's always easier on us when customers group their stuff.
DeleteKathy, I'd like to turn you loose on that pharmacy clerk who keeps insisting that she can't run my card as a debit, but only as a credit card!
DeleteI tell them when I don't want one of their never-biodegradable plastic bags. Like a frozen pizza or a bottle of booze. They don't need a bag all for themselves. Guess you don't have problems with the booze, though.
ReplyDeleteSometimes they ask if I want a certain item in a bag, and usually I don't. Like a gallon jug of distilled water. It has a handle, by cracky! Why would I want that in a bag?
DeleteI buy the booze, I just don't drink the booze. They double bag it, by itself. That's fine with me. It's not like I'm going to walk out brandishing a fifth of Wild Turkey. I prefer not to call attention to myself buying booze. All those teaching years. The history teacher never could escape the wagging tongues, after he was seen imbibing in the beer garden at the Labor Day Picnic!
You're right, hot and cold items should never go in the same bag, even if they are both chicken. So here's what you do: Take the cooler bag in with you and instruct the checker to put all the cold items in it, then tell her to bag all the 'like' items together just as you have them on the belt. Let them think whatever they like, it's your groceries and you can have them bagged the way you want them. We don't usually put the hot chickens in another plastic bag though, since they are already in their own little bags.
ReplyDeleteI could see that working at Country Mart, but those Walmart checkers are a tough crew. I'd be afraid to try that without Kathy along as an enforcer.
DeleteI love River, she has an answer to every problem. Sometimes in certain situations I find myself asking, "What would River do?" I seldom come up with he correct answer.
Deleteha ha :) and thank you joeh.
DeleteShe could start her own website: Riverpedia.
DeleteRiver can supply the solutions and I have no problem being the enforcer!
DeleteYou two would make the perfect entourage for me!
DeleteThat is why I bag it myself. People don't think things through anymore. That gal was a tad short, or maybe new. I would have said Cold with cold, please. No guarantee you wouldn't get the stink eye.
ReplyDeleteIt's like she thought chicken could only be hot! The stinkeye might be a permanent affliction with her. I'm going to avoid her line in the future.
DeleteYou have the right to tell them what you want, or you can ask to bag your own things, which i have done. Talk about the evil eye...... you are cursed my friend.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could fit myself in beside the checker to bag my own stuff on the Walmart bag carousel. The card-scanner thing is in the way of reaching items from my side of the conveyor, once it gets to the scanner.
DeleteI sometimes think I AM cursed with these interactions. Like the time I didn't want to go ahead of a man in Casey's, who was standing by the donut case taking to another customer. I hung back, and said, "Are you in line?" He had a fit, dashing to the counter and throwing his donuts down and glaring at me. I guess I should have cut line! I couldn't have gotten a worse reaction than I did for being nice.