Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Suffering Stupidity and Pain

I go shopping kind of early so I don't have to deal with crowds, about 8:30AM on Saturdays. So, I don't expect there to be many check lines open, but like I wrote before, there aren't crowds that early on a Saturday, but there's at least one for people like me who are lazy and like to think that if we go to a check line run by a person we can discourage those shitty self-check lanes.

Well, I went shopping at a local story, Lucky, this Saturday. They had some good sales and I wandered up and down the aisles picking up extra stuff that I wanted but didn't necessarily need, like molasses. When I arrived at the front of the store, finished with my shopping, I was surprised to find that none of the check stands had a person there to check me out. I was forced to use the self-check lanes.

Now I've used the self-check before, but it's always been for a few things, never more than four, during crowded evening. It's easy when you have so few things, you scan, listen to the damned voice, put your stuff into a bag, and repeat until your out of stuff.

It's not quite as easy when you have a cart with many things. First, the computer lady doesn't like you skipping putting stuff in a bag. (But why would I want a bag for a five-pound bag of potatoes?) The computer doesn't like it any more when you just fill the first, of three, bag and immediately pull it and put it in your cart without filling the other two. Oh, and trying to find the right veggies in their list by picture, a real pain in the ass. Paying is easy though.

I decided that the next time I stop at that store I'll scout out for a checker and if there isn't one I'll ask the self-check guard and if I'm told there isn't going to be one during my trip, I'm leaving.

In other news, I finally know what it's like to have food poisoning. It's why I wasn't at work yesterday. Mostly, I worked the sickness out during the night, but I didn't sleep much and thought staying on the floor in my apartment watching TV and napping would be best.

When I worked in a sandwich shop, when ever my boss had a stomach ache, he'd call it food poisoning. For years I figured that if food poisoning was just a stomach ache then it's no big deal. I know better now.

6 comments:

geewits said...

I always loved the self check out until the day I had big items, like case of beer, cat food etc and the thing freaks out because you don't set it down and when you put a bag in your cart, yeah it's all, "Hey where'd that go!!??" I hope you are feeling better. Did you see my "movie poster?"

Jazz said...

God I hate those self checks. Something always goes wrong. It's a damn hassle to when you bring your own cloth bags cause you have to bad the stuff then when you've paid pull it out of the plastic bags and rebag it cause the stupid machine lady won't accept YOUR bags on the damn bag thingy. All this makes me very very annoyed.

I'M getting hot under the collar just thinking of it.

Oh, and yeah, the joys of food poisoning...

heels said...

Ugh- food poisoning... I still sometimes have trouble eating regular bacon. I couldn't at all for YEARS. Hope you're now feeling lots better.

ticknart said...

Geewits -- I am feeling better and just saw the poster, pretty funny. Did anyone do a "Lord of the Blings" poster, with the guys all decked out in gold?

Jazz -- That lady in the machine is bitch, especially since she always has the same calm tone. I'd rather she got upset at me.

Heels -- Mine was eggs. Old eggs. They were okay the week before, but not this weekend.

My tummy is still wobbly, but feeling much better.

geewits said...

Lord of the Blings! Hee hee. Unfortunately the contest was to change just one letter. Did you check the link? The "Tar Trek" was hideous.

ticknart said...

No, I didn't. I'll check it out today.