Yesterday I was in a rush at the grocery store. Since I was at Albertson's I knew I was already doomed the second I walked in the door. (Their reputation around here is this: sllloooowwwww.) I grabbed my two bottles of soda and surveyed my check out options. Shock! There were minimal lines at three checkstands. Quickly I chose the quickest and most competent looking cashier.
I should've known better.
The elderly lady checking out in the front of the line was mulling over whether $2.21 was a fair price for a bag of tomatoes. She had the cashier weigh the bag and give her the price (with and without the Albertson's club card.) Granny pondered the price and sighed...eventually giving in. She dramatically pulled out her change purse and started dropping random change on the counter leaving the checker to count it out for her. When there wasn't enough she slowly pulled out her purse again and threw more change on the counter.
I'm usually a pretty patient person at the grocery store. Checker's have to deal with alot of bad behavior, but unfortunately I was getting irritated by this point. I was willing to stick it out though because there was only one other person in front of me who only had a case of beer.
Oops!
The girl in front of me fumbled through her wallet for her ID for the beer. After she retrieved it the checker scanned her beer and asked her if she had her Albertson's card.
The girl gave a look of utter confusion..."Ah, What?"
"Your Albertson's Card."
"Oh...hold on."
She pulls out her cell phone and calls her friend using her best dumb OC accent.
"Um...yeah...I'm at Albertson's. What's your Albertson's Card number? Yeah...they need your card number. I don't know...what is it?" Repeat.
Internally I scream. I grabbed my bottles and the checker graciously pointed to checkstand #5...no waiting there.
I was in and out of checkstand #5 in less than 1 minute. As I exited the store the girl was still on her cell phone trying to get her friends card number. (For those of you who don't know....you just put in your phone number. That's it.)
Kudos to the checker for not losing it: I would have. But seriously people? What happened to the art of counting out your own change? Or the miraculous art of having the information before you approach the counter? Or even common sense?
Yikes.
--Laurel
7 comments:
I don't know about the younger lady but I can say that as far as the older lady goes, maybe she had a stroke earlier in life and couldn't do that math (I know a few people who this happened to) -- or maybe she had some kind of memory loss and needed help.
Oh Laurel, I can so relate to what you're talking about!! And it always seems to happen when you're in a hurry. Soooo irritating. But hey! You got the pop and still got to our house with time to spare.
Becky...that might be true. You're right. But there's still no excuse for the OC stereotype in front of me. I cringe for that girl's future!
I live for the stores with self check out.
Nope. Just a grumpy ol lady. There's lots of those. I used to be a checker...just gotta smile and give them the ol' "have a nice day ma'am."
at least i know that i am not the only one that this happens too!!!
by the way, on the last post....there is absolutely nothing wrong with popcorn and cheese for dinner on sunday night(-:
hope you guys are feeling better!
I hear the slow checkers. Hemet only has Stater Bros. and the checkers at Stater Bros. talk to each other and barely acknowledge your existence. I HATE STATER'S!
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