Prior to getting cloth bags, I was guilty of that. I figure if I do the work, I deserve a discount - some % of the savings from increased bagger/cashier productivity.

I've yet to have a cashier offer to fill my cloth bags, although several have looked for a bar code to scan them when I place them on the conveyor belt at the front of my order. :D

1-What does Mom or Dad allowing their kid to eat have to do with your use of the store?

2-Find a well-known chain that has a problem with this...i suppose when i'm sitting in the pharmacy waiting for my script to be filled, i shouldn't reading that magazine or eating my chips or drinking my drink either...

my pet peeves...
 

Someone mentioned expiration dates...that bothers me too.

Also, the loyalty cards don't bother me too much, as long as it's easy for them to solve it when you don't have yours/don't have one. I was at some store in San Diego, didn't have the card, and it took 5 mins for the guy to scan the store card...
Giant Eagle doesn't give you the sale unless you have a card; if you don't have yours, they check your ID to look it up.

Kroger and CVS just ask for your phone number...

ditto

As well, the mounds of mail I get from every grocery store within a 10mi radius of my home.

I'm not an enviornmental nut, but it just seems so wasteful.

I really, really, really would prefer to use self-checkout at my local store, but the knuckleheads who try to use it just foul up the entire process. I think they should have mandatory training for folks if their check out process takes more that 3 minutes at the self-serve aisle. I'm sick of watch people try to figure out where the bar codes are on their produce, or who don't even know what produce they are buying. It's just infuriating, and forces me to go to the regular checkout line.

1. It raises prices for everyone if the food is not paid for. If it is, and the kid doesn't make a mess, I don't care at all.

2. I don't really care much if Mom or Dad pull off a few grapes for Junior. I do care when they allow grubby-handed Junior to paw through the produce that may wind up on my table.

Aside from snacking on the produce or other items that cost money based on weight, what's the big deal if my kid snacks on the crackers or cookies or milk that I'm otherwise buying? I'm gonna pay for it at the register. Why should it matter if I indulge before I get there? Heck, even my deli gives my kids a slice of whatever I'm ordering, and that's an item that is billed by weight. I just don't see why it should matter to anyone else whether I'm hungry or my kids are hungry. It's not like we're making a picnic lunch in the middle of aisle 14 and blocking your way.

at no point in your post did you say anything about the food not being paid for (at least that i can remember--i can't find your OP for some reason)

you talked about people wanting "instant gratification," again, how does this interfere with your use of the store?

this is like the people who complain about people wearing shorts/t-shirts/ "inappropriate" clothing in the lounges or on the plane...i just don't understand how a guy wearing a burlap sack somehow interferes with your use of the lounge. similarly, because you don't think mom's being a good parent, that's your opinion, but it doesn't have anything to do with your grocery buying

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space has been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

My number one issue: The carts. They are frequently filthy and have trash in them. Discarded flyers, grocery lists, kleenex. Shouldn't the employee who gathers them from the parking lot take the trash out of them?

And collect them more frequently. I hate going back out (usually in the rain) to find one.

And prices that scan differently than the price on the shelf. It took 3 weeks for the local Winn dixie to change the price of Abita Purple Haze on the shelf to match the scanner. I kept getting a $1.50/ six pack credit at the service desk until they fixed it.

We don't have much rain here, and the carts are all kept outside, never inside. In fact a lot of them are kept at the apartment complexes across the street.

One market even lines up some of them near the door under the overhang directly UNDER THE PIGEONS! What are they thinking? The rest of the carts are just lined up in front to the store (no overhang, no pidgeons.) So they have a pidgeon problem and have put up spikey things on the beams, but why do they keep putting the carts there?

At least this debate of consuming pre-purchase keeps the grocery store peeve thread on topic. ;)

I must admit I found it slightly confronting to find a McDonalds inside a Wal Mart when we visited Kona. :)

That was my first (& only) WM experience but our purpose was to collect some drugs. :(

(Yes, I did buy a burger there, which was a surreal experience in itself. Once was enough)

Oh, that reminds me of another one. My grocery store got rid of the cart corrals in the parking lot.:confused: Carts. Everywhere.

What gets me even more are adults who will go through the bulk section and sample a handful of dried fruit, then a few nuts, then some more dried fruit.

No, they're not using the scoops or tongs that are provided. I gladly pay more for a full package of whatever it is now that I've seen this.

Loyalty Cards
 

I hate that in order to buy groceries in this country you have to fill out paperwork - i.e. loyalty cards.

Before i moved to PHL, I used Super-Wal Mart and Meijer. (A regional big box). And Meijer indoctrinated me with signs that said "what does your address have to do with the price of eggs?". And I read after 9/11 how people's shopping records were pulled by the government.

And yep, when I'm out of town and want the lowest price, filling out the form (currently done - previously I threw a hissy fit but have been better about channeling my efforts to the grocery store's customer service dept phone number) (and I fill it out with vauge hotel addr info,as FTer reccomended I do.

My "discount" is the fact that I don't have to wait in line behind 15 other people who all have the same mindset as you OR who don't want to be bothered to learn the self check out. Gets me out of the store a heck of a lot faster! ^

I agree that it is completely annoying when you are behind someone at the self serve checkout who is obviously at the front end of the learning curve with the thing. :D

I LOVE THE SELF CHECKOUTS. I wish more stores would start implementing them.

Just out of curiosity, do you expect a discount from your bank when you use the ATMs? :)

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space has been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space has been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

I HATE THEM. I want them to stop talking to me. The voice is usually 2 steps behind my actions. They tell me the same thing time and again (please enter quantity)- hundreds of times. I get it. They accuse me of forgetfulness and other character flaws (please check your cart for items you may have forgotten). It asks me if I want Spanish or English - the cashier doesn't. It gets all confused by small produce (1 jalapeno), cloth bags (ok, so does the cashier), alcohol, and gives me cash back in five dollar bills (Wal*Mart).

I'm ready for a new generation of smarter self check-outs.

your post is also amusing as you call other people dense because they have different opinion than is yours. your lack of self-control when judging others for this is also amusing. if the customer does pay when leaving, as is also with a restaurant or a dancle club, then i say live and let live.

but i do say, i agree 1000% on your statements for the noisy voice on the u.s.a. self-checkouts! please let me turn this off! :p

My peeve is when an unthinking cashier places hot and cold items in the same bag (such as frozen food in the same bag as items from the hot deli).

I watched that happen a while back while waiting in the express line. A couple was taking their time and the woman between them and me was having fits that the line was not moving faster. When they started to look for a penny, this woman got into her purse, found one and practically shoved it in their face saying "Here's one, take it!" I found it all pretty funny, but if I had been in a hurry that day I would have been impatient too.

Self checkout opportunities
 

The OP started out with a discussion about a cashier not knowing the difference between say, zucchini and cucumbers.

Aren't there some possibilities here when self checkout is used?

For example, if one produce item costs 60 cents per pound, and another costs $4.00 per pound, suppose a poor flustered confused consumer presses the wrong button and ends up buying the $4.00 item for 60 cents? Because even professional cashiers are easily confused by the multitude of produce items, I can see how it would be reasonable for an ordinary consumer to also be confused.

There would appear to be no enforcement mechanism here because the only "check" is the weight of the item...and of course a pound of feathers has the same weight as a pound of lead.

Ditto. On the rare occasion I'm home long enough to buy Groceries, I have this complex about other people touching my food (I know they stock the shelves, but I don't see that). Something about a cashier sneezing in hand and then touching my orange just gets me.


Oh, and to go with the above statement, I wish like heck that EarthFare would add self checkout.

Self-checkouts aren't completely unmanned. In every store I've seen that has them, there is 1 cashier assigned to all of them (4 or 6 or however many there are) that checks IDs for alcohol purchases, scans coupons, etc. S/he has a computer at his/her little station that tracks everything going on at all of the self-checkouts, and they are (sometimes) paying enough attention that they'd be able to tell if you try to buy shiitake mushrooms for the price of lettuce or something like that.

That blocking of the aisle thing really bothers me. Also walking slowly down the middle of the aisle, whether it be supermakrets or whatever. WHn I go to the store, I know what I need. Being single and living alone, I don't cook too much, so for me shopping is a breeze. Get in, grab the essentials, get out.

About those "loyalty" cards. I've never filled out an application for them. When I move to a new area with a new grocery store, I wait until a busy time, go to a checkout line, ask for an application after everything ha been rung through, and the person lets me have the card if I say I'll drop the app off later. ;)

Edited to add: One more pet peeve. Didn't happen at a grocery store, but Fry's Elctronics, so still a stor with carts. I hate it when people get close to me when waiting in line. Granted I have personal space issues, but I think this situation was ridiculous. The lady pushed her cart next to me and she was physically a foot behind me. The line moved, I moved, she moved, and that darn cart was right next to me again. I like to give the person in front of me plenty of room, unless the line is so backed up I threaten to block the walkway (I'm looking at you, Costco on Tatum in Phoenix AZ at 11am who had 2 checkout lines open).

Reminds me of an old Emo Phillips routine ...
 

"Eternity is a long time, my friends. It's hard to imagine how long it is.

Imagine you are at the supermarket checkout line and there's 15 people ahead of you ...
and each one has a full basket of groceries ...
and none of the items are marked ...
and everyone wants to pay by check ...
and it's the girl's first day on the job ...
and she doesn't speak English.

You take a few minutes off that, and you start to get an idea of how long Eternity is."

Up till this last Thanksgiving I worked at Safeway. We were graded on our secret shops and if we missed something like greet, offer to take to an item, thank by name (checkers), offer carry out (baggeres and checkers) and a few other things we'd get called into the mgrs office and get yelled out (seen it with multiple mgrs). Safeway is awful with this and yet another reason why I wont shop there or work there ever again.

Actually, for the type of account I have, my bank charges a fee if I use a teller instead of the ATMs, so in essence I do get a discount for that. :)

My biggest grocery store pet peeve is when the bagger puts all the heavy items together in one bag and the light ones in another. :td:

More Peeves
 

• Similar products priced using different units of measure. My favorite(?) is green bell peppers are priced per pound and red bell peppers are priced per pepper. Another variation on this is when the store uses different units of measure on the price tags so you can't do price comparisons easily. The worst was when most of the ice creams were listed as price per gallon and one was listed as price per quart. Aargh. I think Safeway is the most deceptive in this respect
• Aisles being blocked by personnel stocking the shelves. The worst offenders are the DSD guys who put their carts diagonally across the aisles

Safeway is also the worst when someone does not have their stinking loyalty card. I have tried to loan people in the line my card (false info on the card, of curse) but have been sternly rebuffed by the checker. They must take their data mining seriously. That is why I get a new card every few months (and don't shop there much!)

I've seen parents allowing their brats to eat an entire package of whatever and throw the empy away, WITHOUT paying for it. So supporters of this practice of allowing children to graze get over yourselves. Further, if you child is such a problem, do what our parents did - leave them home with the babysitter.

People who wait to fish out their checkbooks from their massively overstuffed purses until AFTER the total is tallied. Then, they search for 10 minutes only to find that they have no pen and need to borrow one. What, you think that you won't need to pay for it this time? While we are on this - getting to the car, fishing for the keys, unlocking car, DROPPING THE KEYS BACK IN PURSE, get in car, fish for keys some more - all while people are waiting for parking.

Computer idiots thinking they can use the self-checkout

Leaving line to shop some more, but expecting others to allow your cart to maintain your position - that's my worst!

Deaf ears here. Try living in a state where grocery stores aren't even allowed to sell beer.

People that block the entire aisle with their cart so you have to stop and wait for them to finish picking their product. You'd think that somone giving them "that look" would stop the behavior. Maybe they just don't care?

Reminds me of this weekend. I was shopping at Home Depot pushing a cart loaded with 4x4s. There was an empty cart right in the middle of the aisle that I'm pretty sure had just been put there by a guy looking at light bulbs. Since he wasn't moving, I asked my son to move the cart...expecting he would just move it to the side. Nope, he pushes it down to the end of the aisle. :p I turn around and see the light bulb guy now looking for his cart.

Grocery stores whose shortest line is "10 items or fewer." This is annoying to those of us who have come in to buy one or two items, especially when you get someone in front of you who insists that ten cans of soup equal one item, as do seven cans of cat food. One store I knew in another city had a "3 items or fewer" line, which was fantastic.

Fruit Squeezers! Arrgh!!