DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Pet Peeve Thread

I wouldn't have it delivered either or set for pick up. I grew up in the country. We had a huge garden and raised our own beef on my uncles farm. It makes it easy for me to be able to pick out meats and vegetables. I'm rather picky about that. I don't trust a stranger whose job it is to simply grab items and throw them into a cart to pick out my fresh vegetables and meat.

I'm not sure what I would do however if I was so disturbed by the conduct of others at the groceries. I have shopped in areas where the overall conduct of my fellow shoppers was much worse than it was in rural Ohio or is here in the suburbs of SE Nashville. In that regard I've been pretty fortunate.

I’m old fashioned. I prefer to go to the grocery store, which is easy since it’s literally a five-minute walk. I won’t use the self-checkout because I like the human contact of walking to a cashier, and like peen, I will do my small part to help keep people employed.

I agree. Being retired, going to the store is a highlight of my day. My peeves are mostly past experience. Now days i go early in the mornings on weekdays. I have my stash in the garage. After that, I shop pretty much for that day. I have little else to do, I like to cook, so I usually get nothing more than to last me today or tomorrow.

We do the bulk of our household shopping at a Kroger, 12 min away. It has most of what we need, and it's easy.
Every once in awhile, we need something that Kroger doesn't provide. Then, it's Foodtown. It's 6 min away. Smaller. Less 'corporate.' More like the Mom&Pop IGA that was home to my first W2 job.

I know Lydia, Marion and Priecy. I keep up with their families, they keep up with my next gigs.
I know them because the Foodtown 6 mins from my house has zero self-checkout lanes.

Talking to strangers is a dying art. "Small talk" is essential.
"Small talk" leads to deeper talk when faces become familiar. And then, Clem gets to know ladies like Lydia, Marion and Priecy.

At Foodtown, the pace is slower. It's more 'neighborhood.' I try to visit when there isn't a line of customers pressuring the checkout lanes. I never have a cartful of work for them, and I always come with a goofy joke that makes them laugh. I'm actually someone to them... and they are actually people who now mean something to me. Not friends, not strangers. Community.

I don't think that this is something special I created with these ladies at Foodtown. I think I became a willing participant in my neighborhood's culture- and this is my reward.
Also- I almost never see rogue shopping carts living feral lives in the Foodtown parking lot. I don't think this is coincidence. I think it's evidence that such a thing as 'community' still exists.


I think a lot of our 'pet peeves' stem from the same root: social isolation.
When we are out in public- and witness the things that irritate us- most of the time, it's not rudeness. It's a lack of individual thoughtfulness.

Thoughtfulness is the understanding that at some point, your space will bump into someone else's space.
At that moment, that's when common manners should kick in.

If we are tuned out to the world around us (with cell phone addiction/earbuds/[insert personal distraction here]), we miss the human behavioral cues we need to successfully navigate the world around us.

70% of my shopping is still done at Kroger. It's efficient, effective... but also competitive/impersonal as hell.
30% of my shopping is at Foodtown or other more local establishments.

I see much more 'community behavior' the farther I get from The Big Box Stores.


just sayin'

Actually, I would prefer human contact with a real cashier also. In fact, I usually try to strike up a conversation with the cashier and bagger. But if I have a lot of frozen or perishable items, and the available cashier lines are 3-5 deep with many having full carts, I want to get it checked out.

I get that.

I have seen the interactions that people who work closely with the public sector encounter with their customers on a somewhat regular basis. Far too often it's not good and customers take their frustrations out on people who have nothing to do with the situation they're complaining about. One such example is how they complain in the checkout line to the cashier about the price of groceries. The same goes for servers at restaurants.

More often than not these people make far less money than the customers complaining about food costs. The people they're complaining to have nothing at all to do with the high cost of food and it impacts their family as much as it does anyone. I make it a point to give positive comments any time I get good service and be pleasant to them. I make a point to tip well when I get good service. I tip above the average recommended percentage even for average service. Quite often I have had servers look rather surprised by the amount I have tipped. I don't really say much in response. My standard reply is that I know how much they depend on their tips and we all have to eat.

I don't consider any of that special. I don't think it makes me some kind of great person or anything. All it really does is help bring a sense of balance to people that as a whole often times have a pretty crappy day because of how they are treated by the public. All it takes sometimes is a little positive reinforcement and to know they are appreciated to help turn someone's day around and it isn't a difficult thing to do.