Supermarket Etiquette

Peaadina

As a kid my mam would always give me a roll to chomp on while in the shop - it took hrs as I was on a special diet so labels had to be studied.
But we always paid for it, and a big deal was made of that to me.
I worked in a Supermarket for 5yrs -Christmas time was such hell i used to work through the night instead!

I think there are far worse things kids do in shops than pick at grapes/bread -a kid used to come in to the shop i was in and pull stuff down - his mother did nothing! another kid used to put his finger through the yogurt lids...:mad: as long as ppl pay for the food, it shouldnt be an issue!

johnp

julep wrote:

i hate the people who go to the express checkout with more than 10 items and then wait until all their items have been scanned before taking out their purses (yes, it's mostly women), rooting for small change and then packing their bags.
it's the express checkout. hurry the fuck up, bitch.

This one really bugs me too. Doesn't just happen in the express checkout, it happens everywhere. Women (mostly ) fumbling through their handbag to get their purse, then fumbling through the purse to get the exact (to the cent) amount to pay.

Funny thing is that women (mostly) spend so much time making themselves look good only to ruin it and make themselves look clumsy and awkward at a till :rolleyes:

Nightwish

c - 13 wrote:

I

- Why dont you have it in stock, my child saw it on the late late toy show and they want it for xmas ? Well why didnt you buy it earlier ? It is the top selling one for xmas.

Oh yeah, I'm very familiar with this one. On a daily basis I'm being harassed about Digi Make Overs and Dreamweavers...look they sell out within a day of being delivered!!!

- Could you get this out to the car and make sure the kids dont see it while I pay ? Then you take the item, leave the shop, find the car that you were directed to and theres four kids and the mother sitting in the car with their mother, as the mother distracts the kids with shouts of "Look over there" you try to jam the thing into and already overfull boot

I have that too, at the tills when I call back the order, to confirm everything is right and is there, the person gives me the glare and shhhhhhh....its Santa presents, while the kid is standing there. Last Saturday I got given out to for saying "Connect 4...thats 7.99 please", cos her kid started asking "who's that for mammy". We frequently get requests to hand out the stuff in black sacks because little Ciara and Jack are standing there looking gormless, asking "what are you buying mam, what are you buying mam". Or we just get shouted at because the kid sees the toys...I mean its my fault you brought your kids shopping for Santa presents.

- Could you carry that to the car for me ? Then you leave the shop with them and realise theyre actually parked about three carparks away, and unlike you lady I cant hop over the car park boundaries because i'm carrying a 40KG trampoline

Yeah, I just laugh when a woman, comes in to buy a wardrobe and when she sees it says "oh...I didnt know it'd be that big...can someone carry it for me".

- Drunk people knocking on the window at 6.05 on christmas eve, "OI neeead to geeat somethin' for ma nephyooo". Well **** off I need to go home, should have came earlier instead of going to a bar then shouldnt you ?

2 years ago, when the shop closed up on christmas eve, the myself and the rest of the staff were just setting the alarm to go home and a guy barged through the door, knocked me over and demanded a Bratz doll. Come on people, does your kid need that doll so bloody badly???

And then the 27th of december, the first reopening after christmas produces the following gems -

- I bought this for my child for xmas and it wouldnt work, (s)he was upset all christmas day. Is it too obvious to suggest that you check the thig first ? And secondly I dont see how its my fault, I only sold it to you off the shelf I didnt actually make the thing.

Oh ditto, and thats why I'm quitting christmas eve. I've worked 7 "December 27th" and I've had enough

ferdi

r3nu4l wrote:

There is such a thing as consideration for other people and basic good manners, if we all dropped a few crumbs on the floor then we'd be complaining of the filthy floors in the supermarket. There is no excuse for ignorance tbh. Nothing wrong with making someones job a bit easier by being clean and tidy people.

this post made my day

c - 13

Nightwish wrote:

Oh ditto, and thats why I'm quitting christmas eve. I've worked 7 "December 27th" and I've had enough

Good to see someone else has shared in my miserable experiences keep up the good work !

Ste.phen

c - 13 wrote:

Good to see someone else has shared in my miserable experiences keep up the good work !

heh, i work in a supermarket and that day is strictly optional. I usually work it (last 4 years at least) because they bribe us to hell to work it.
(i'd get ~E240 to work it, plus free brekkie and dinner).
Not this year though, this year i'm takin the day off for once

DonJose

I stopped going to Lidl because I couldn't stand the smell of BO. There is nothing worse than standing behind a smelly construction worker who doesn't mind spending €20 on a bottle of Vodka but won't spend €2 on a bottle of deo.

dabbler2004

Sad Professor wrote:

- Screaming kids. I don't care how much child care cost! I don't care you have no one to leave them with! Just keep them the f**k out of supermarkets. Either that or get some control over them for chrissake! Most parents just stand there with blank expressions while their kids are screaming their heads off. Whats wrong with them? I listen to this all day long.

this drives me nuts as well :mad: , I usually want to slap the parent not the child!


customers are crazy people; one of my fellow workers was asked the following serious question by a woman once;
'Is this the butter I normally get?'
Like how the hell do we know what you buy , you're one of a few hundred/thousand shoppers that frequent our store!

and one of the all time favourite customer quotes is ;
'Shur if it was a dog twud bite me'

Kilkenny

Dyflin wrote:

The other thing is staff standing around chatting and making plans for going out later on. This always seems to take place beside stacks of unopened boxes and/or a leaking fridge. Get to work!!

petes wrote:

What is the world coming to? Staff talking amongst themselves. They should know better.

I certainly don't object to staff in supermarkets chatting while they're working, why shouldn't they?

However, there is a limit, and for me that limit is checkout operators so busy discussing their plans for the night ahead / their significant others / whatever to the extent that they are paying no attention to what they're doing. For example, about a week ago I reach the check-out and the girl is in an animated discussion with her neighbour, flapping items vaguely in the direction of the scanner with her head over her shoulder most of the time. She finally finishes, I pay, then glance at my receipt to discover that she has double-scanned 2 items (additional cost €5.16 on a shopping bill of about €20). When I point it out to her (i.e. when I manage to get a word in edgeways) she glares at me, grabs my plastic bag and starts pawing through it for the items which I have no doubt cleverly concealed within it, WHILE STILL CONTINUING HER CONVERSATION!! When her detective work proves fruitless, she gives me another dirty look, rings a bell, turns her back on me and the queue and uses her much needed break to ... you guessed it ... continue her conversation with her friend, leaving me to stand cringing in front of the frustrated queue until the supervisor eventually arrives. Our talkative friend drags herself away from the conversation long enough to mutter "must be something wrong with the scanner." Yeah ... right!

This was the worst instance, but I have had several similar experiences in the last year.

That rant over, I have to say that NORMALLY my sympathy is with staff in shops. It must be a bloody boring job most of the time, and even as a customer I have noticed crazy things that happen.

* Once witnessed a 6 - 7 year old monster child stuffed into the carry seat of a trolley and amusing himself waving an over-sized aerosol can of some type. Young guy working in shop tries to squeeze past trolley which of course has been jammed across the aisle while mother chats to her crony. Monster eyes him up, then with deliberation and malice aforethought whacks him with the can straight in the goolies. Mother's reaction, as shop guy slowly folds towards floor? ... bursts out laughing and says "Jaysus, Byron, what did yer man ever do on ya?" before shoving trolley past the casualty and strolling away.

* Teenagers getting potato wedges etc. at fast food counter in Dunnes, eating them as they stroll through rest of shop, and upending the leftovers / crumbs etc. over clothes displays

* People so obsessed with their shopping experience that they fail to notice the poor shelf-stacker crouched down trying to pack the bottom shelf, and ramming him / her with trolley

* (Abroad, in fairness) Mother taking baby out of seat of trolley in order to substitute 2 year old who is screaming "it's my turn!!" Dumps baby, clad in wee jumper and obviously soiled terrycloth nappy on conveyor belt while she pays. Fastest way to clear a queue at a checkout I ever saw!!!

Dan133269

Igy wrote:

heh, i work in a supermarket and that day is strictly optional. I usually work it (last 4 years at least) because they bribe us to hell to work it.
(i'd get ~E240 to work it, plus free brekkie and dinner).
Not this year though, this year i'm takin the day off for once

jesus christ, what supermarket do you work in? I worked in tesco, we probably got time and a half, can't really remember, nothing like that though.

[/QUOTE]and one of the all time favourite customer quotes is ;
'Shur if it was a dog twud bite me'[/QUOTE]

I've literally heard that one hundreds of times.
Also been hit with trolley while crouching down, they always apologised though.

Most ignorant bitch I ever came across was one who I carried load of alcohol to her car, it was heavy enough, on the way through the supermarket she stopped off at the butchers to get meat, and stopped to chat to her friend for a second, then I re-arranged the sh*t in her boot so the stuff would fit in nicely. And after all that, she never even offered me a tip! some people

DAVE_K

yep i'd have to agree - you'd really want to try shopping with a 2 year old kid that you can't keep sitting down in the trolley and can get a out itself if you turn your back for a minute - the weeks shopping has to get done and you've nowhere to leave your kid(s). There's nothing wrong with giving them a juice or something to occupy them and then taking the empty carton to the checkout and getting it scanned - it could be argued that you're telling your kid that whatever the consequences - you gotta pay - whether you can get away with it or not - you have to be honest.

Taking anything without paying is a different story - that's theft - which is always wrong

DAVE_K

when i was a child and my mam had me in the trolly doing the weekly shop, you better believe i moaned but my ma did not give in just because it was the easy option, instead she tried to instill some "discipline" in her child - teaching him that crying and making my parents life difficult did not result in getting my own way.

i'm sad to read that my vision of future generations with some social cop-on is a result of rose-tinted glasses. i feel sorry for any kid whose parents choose an easy life over going to the effort of ensuring their child is a decent individual.

and just how would you instil discipline (in a public place) in a 2 year old who can't understand english then......hit them a slap??? It's fine at home - you can give them a time out - what are you going to do in a public place - tell them to go stand behind teh deli counter for five minutes while you do your shopping.

I'd much rather see a child going round drinking a juice quietly than being dragged around a shop by the wrist or getting shouted at.

there's nothing worse in life to me than some git who sit's by and criticises the efforts of others when they've never given something a shot themselves - it's the ultimate in ignorance.

Dutchology

DAVE_K wrote:

and just how would you instil discipline (in a public place) in a 2 year old who can't understand english then

Lol, the spoken english of a 2 year old child may not be adequate for them to get their message across to you, but I assure you, they understand more than enough of the language to be able to understand you!

Ste.phen

Dan133269 wrote:

jesus christ, what supermarket do you work in? I worked in tesco, we probably got time and a half, can't really remember, nothing like that though.

Aye, it's Tesco. Treated as a Paid day off regardless, but if you work it you get double time in addition to that. (so basically triple-time, a little less for me because I'm a part timer and a 'days pay' for me is only ~4 hours).

Might be a Dublin-stores only thing, there's different arrangements depending on which union represents your store, dublin/country, 'old'/'new' stores, etc.

DAVE_K

Lol, the spoken english of a 2 year old child may not be adequate for them to get their message across to you, but I assure you, they understand more than enough of the language to be able to understand you!

true perhaps.....although i'm not sure in my case as we have a bilingual house.....

BUT all the same (i'm deadly serious here, not being sarcastic)

What exactly do you say? or do?

We work like this.

a) We tell our son what to do (or what not) and why?
b) If he doesn't do it (which can be a lot with a two year who only understands what he wants in life) we discipline
c) Discipline for us is "Time Out" as we don't believe in smacking

Time outs aren't available in supermarkets so how just do you get around this.

By the time you get home (i reckon anyway) its too late then as they don't know what they're getting disciplined for

What do you do??

Dutchology

DAVE_K wrote:

true perhaps.....although i'm not sure in my case as we have a bilingual house.....

BUT all the same (i'm deadly serious here, not being sarcastic)

What exactly do you say? or do?

We work like this.

a) We tell our son what to do (or what not) and why?
b) If he doesn't do it (which can be a lot with a two year who only understands what he wants in life) we discipline
c) Discipline for us is "Time Out" as we don't believe in smacking

Time outs aren't available in supermarkets so how just do you get around this.

By the time you get home (i reckon anyway) its too late then as they don't know what they're getting disciplined for

What do you do??

Firstly, kudos for the bilingual household. My mum never kept speaking Dutch to me, and it is a minor miracle that I'm still fluent. My two little sisters being Irish-born speak very little Dutch. Keep that up.

What exactly is it that your son gets up to in the supermarket (I am sorry if you have mentioned it earlier on in the thread, I have not quite had a chance to read all of the posts)?

You are right though, I also do not agree with smacking a child, timeout works a treat. With the children, being asked if they would like a timeout whilst we are in the supermarket works also, as they usually decide they would rather sit tight than go for a timeout, though there is the possibility that they will realise that they can't possibly go for a timeout in the supermarket and continue to misbehave.

This may be more difficult with a 2 year old, however I notice with my friend's son that with the once or twice that she has given into his whining and crying and given him something, it has since become a habit, and he expects to have something as soon as he enters the supermarket, and will now take something from the shelves himself if he is not in a trolley. Though, even when he is seated in a trolley he will reach out for things and knock things from the shelves. It is definitely a case of start as you mean to go on. If you allow a child something once or twice, they will assume this is the norm and never give in until they are allowed again.

My friend's son, who is now 2 and 1/2 years old knows the difference between going to the supermarket with either of us. If he comes with me he is perfectly behaved, does not ask for anything, grab anything or cry and throw tantrums, however with my friend he is the exact opposite as she has previously given in to him to keep him quiet.

Blush_01

Things have changed a lot. We were never allowed to touch the shopping until it was paid for and in the car. There were usually three of us with Dad while he did the shopping and not only did you not eat/drink anything before it was paid for, you waited to be given something after you left the shop. You could ask for something, but that didn't mean you would get it and no meant no. I was 4 when my sister was born and I can't ever remember my younger siblings even daring to throw a tantrum if they wanted something - one look from Dad if you were even hinting at it, and it all came to nothing. That's just how things worked in our house. I couldn't care less if parents start giving their kids Carebears to eat in shops as long as they don't throw a bloody tantrum.

I work in supermarkets, grocery shops, newsagents and occasionally hardware shops. The amount of children who run around the shops bumping into pensioners and causing havoc is unreal. I know it's easy to say it as someone who has no children, but if they're that much of a handful while you're shopping, get the groceries on your way home from work or get your partner to mind the kids while you shop if you can't control them. In one particular shop a kid ran screaming at the top of his lungs (for absolutely no reason - no distress, not hungry, nothing) around the aisles for 20 minutes while his mother did her shopping, paid, packed it all up and when she was ready to leave the little brat (who couldn't have been more than 4 or 5) came up to the till with 5 plastic/rubber dinosaurs, all €6.99 each, and she bought them all for him! What does that teach him? Be a little shít and you'll still get everything you want. That's unfair on the kid.

Also, the wealthier the area, the more people look down on you for working in a supermarket. In my line of work I don't have to help the customer. I don't work for the store, if I do help you it's because I'm going out of my way. "Working class" parents will make their children say please and thank you if you get something from a shelf for them. Those with larger disposable incomes, especially soccer moms with the 2.4 brats who demand EVERYTHING look right through you and sneer if they have to ask for help. Attitude has so much to do with it.

ferdi

Blush_01 wrote:

Those with larger disposable incomes, especially soccer moms with the 2.4 brats who demand EVERYTHING look right through you and sneer if they have to ask for help. Attitude has so much to do with it.

quoted for truth. i work in a wealthy area and all these 'new money' type arseholes going around flashing their labels in their SUVs and shiney new mercs that they cant even park properly, treating me like i'm something they stepped in. its all about their cash and what they can buy, these people have no real class and it shows. its theses type of people that make me pray from a resession in this country, for the economy to go tits up, for the property market to collapse and for it all to go back to like it was when we had no money so i can see these ****ers crash and burn MUWHAHAHAHAHA!

Blush_01

Red Alert wrote:

Managers who hate music: Why do supermarket managers have a crap music taste? There was one guy once in the supermarket in ballinteer who used to play great stuff a while back but that's about it. I find weekly shopping a boring activity and enjoy music to listen to a reasonably loud (like SQ Ballinteer do in fairness) yet acceptable level. It will get boring unless the CD's get changed regularly. Where I used to work they sorted out the music problem by subscribing to a digital music service and almost all the managers liked it loud as well, result was great music.

It's almost worse when there's no music. There's a particular store in Bettystown and they play a great variety of 80s hits - it's my favourite shop. Supermarkets have made me hate Wizzard. No, Eurospar in Dalkey has made me hate Wizzard. "Well I wish it could be Christmas every day" 17 times in a 2 to 3 hour period. Every second bloody song. ARGH!!!

Ickle Magoo

ferdi wrote:

quoted for truth. i work in a wealthy area and all these 'new money' type arseholes going around flashing their labels in their SUVs and shiney new mercs that they cant even park properly, treating me like i'm something they stepped in. its all about their cash and what they can buy, these people have no real class and it shows.

What kind of idiot gets some kind of power trip from treating essential workers as second class citizens?! :mad: Like to see what they do for groceries without the folks who work in shops & supermarkets needed to run them...

Money can't buy you class, as they say...:rolleyes:

hairyfairy00

Ahhhhhh memories, i worked in Dunnes for 6 1/2 years ( yes i know i'm sad)

We had the usual:- customers hiding razor blades and cosmetics in their shopping, it's surprising how many people try and hide them in the hot food bags from the deli!
People putting the toppings on their pizzas and then under weighing them, i gave up saying anything to them after a while. I'd just get up of the checkout and weigh it again, it was amazing how many thought that you wouldn't notice that an extra large pizza over flowing with toppings wasn't 2Euro!!!

I worked on customer service for 4 yrs, i once had a man threaten me because his children were not being served fast enough, It was Sunday after 12pm mass and the church was 100yrds up the road, the queue was about 20 people long, F*CK OFF.
I always found the best was to deal with the situation was just smile at them, "F*uck them with kindness" that was my motto.:D

A few years ago farmers were protesting because Dunnes bought their milk from the across the boarder because it was cheaper,
Our store closed at 9pm, at 8.30pm a load of people came into the store with trollies and proceeded to fill them up, nothing unusal we thought.
Then we realised what was happening, the farmers were filing up the trollies with what ever the could find ( Like supermarket sweep, expected to see Dale Winton) and then abandon them everywhere. There were 150 full trollies around the store, and of course they made sure that the tomatoes, bananas, bread, fresh meat and all the frozen food was at the very bottom of every trolly :mad:
We were there till 1.30am putting stuff back. They tried it again the following week!! Gotta love the farmers!!!

Kilkenny

hairyfairy00 wrote:

Then we realised what was happening, the farmers were filing up the trollies with what ever the could find and then abandon them everywhere. There were 150 full trollies around the store, and of course they made sure that the tomatoes, bananas, bread, fresh meat and all the frozen food was at the very bottom of every trolly :mad:
We were there till 1.30am putting stuff back. They tried it again the following week!! Gotta love the farmers!!!

Effective form of protest, you gotta admit!!

But yeah, sympathies to the poor bloody staff .... hope ye at least got good overtime for it!

Famous_Séamus

c - 13 wrote:

Ill see this and raise you a kid taking a dump in a display toilet in a well known Irish DIY chain while his parents looked at wallpaper about two aisles over.

- Could you get this out to the car and make sure the kids dont see it while I pay ? Then you take the item, leave the shop, find the car that you were directed to and theres four kids and the mother sitting in the car with their mother, as the mother distracts the kids with shouts of "Look over there" you try to jam the thing into and already overfull boot

- Could you carry that to the car for me ? Then you leave the shop with them and realise theyre actually parked about three carparks away, and unlike you lady I cant hop over the car park boundaries because i'm carrying a 40KG trampoline

- Drunk people knocking on the window at 6.05 on christmas eve, "OI neeead to geeat somethin' for ma nephyooo". Well **** off I need to go home, should have came earlier instead of going to a bar then shouldnt you ?

[/SIZE]

I sharded myself laughing at those things. Seriously this whole thread is full of gold...in comediac form. Its even funnier 'cos its true.

Mr. Presentable

Ickle Magoo wrote:

If no-one is stealing anything & it keeps the kid quiet & entertained, where's the harm?

Thing is, and it's not just you, it's not yours until you've paid for it. Intention to pay is not enough. Consuming goods prior to paying for them is theft. It's that simple.

Consider. I am in Tesco, open a 7Up because I'm thirsty, but it falls on the floor and is spilt. Am I going to pay for it? Are you?

It's not yours until you've paid for it. Think about that. "Where's the harm?" Mostly there's none because you're "honest" and pay for what you've had, except that it's corrupt and poor example for your child.

rainbow kirby

Maybe it's just the day that's in it (Nintendo Wii launch day, 8-5 shift) but sometimes people make my head explode.
Children in general really get on my nerves - when they're in my shop they're at their most spoilt (no child *needs* video games to live!), so they're also at their most bratty. There's been plenty of times when I've seen parents have to pick up their temper tantrum-ing child off the ground by the scruff of the neck because he's demanding a Yu-Gi-Oh game or whatever and refuses to move until I get it... There's also the snotty posh mothers who think the world owes them something. They're the ones who think that we're the scum of the earth because we work retail, but expect us to lick their asses clean. I've seen one of them visibly cringe at my accent when in work - and my accent isn't that strong.
There's also the "I want $latest_shiny_toy!!!11one!shiftone!1" - this was particularly evident over the last couple of weeks. If you want new consoles - preorder. And preorder early. I think I had to turn away more people today than I actually could sell Wii's to. This is closely related to the "z0mg Kirby, you just ruined Christmas!" phenomenon. I've lost count of how many times I've been told that over the last few years. I really am not a big fan of the season anyway!

Ste.phen

Kilkenny wrote:

Effective form of protest, you gotta admit!!

But yeah, sympathies to the poor bloody staff .... hope ye at least got good overtime for it!

Aye, a friend of mine worked in Dunnes at the time this happened.

I can only imagine the level of service these (presumably local) farmers received from then on dropped sharply.

"Do you know where the butter is please?"
"Not for you, cockbag!"

Terry

hairyfairy00 wrote:

Ahhhhhh memories, i worked in Dunnes for 6 1/2 years ( yes i know i'm sad)

Why?
You had a job. nothing sad about that.
Fair enough, it's not the most glamourous job in the world, but it's a job. better than the one i don't have.

Snake Plisken

Was in Dunnes in Blanch one Sunday, when I spied a lady (not a scanger respectable looking) going through the yogurt fridge, peeling open the yogurts smelling them and putting them back on the shelve she did this a good few times, so I went over and hung her to one of the managers, he went over had a word and she promptly left the store.

Also the self service tills in Tescos are grand but if your doing a big shop, make sure not to put payment through until you've packed your bags as there is always some ignorant ****e who starts scanning things through before you've finished packing and getting their things mixed up with yours.

On the subject of kids, we basically don't take them as its to stressfull, very hard to control them so me or my wife will go and do the main shopping while the other babysits.

Snake