Vegetarian Nazi
Today the teenage boy who rang in my groceries told me he was a vegetarian and then proceeded to mock the bbq chicken I picked up. It was awkward. He also asked me if I "found everything" I "was looking for." Twice. And, as a coup de grace, bruised my bananas. I'm only really upset about the last part.
First of all, I've been a grocery clerk. It sucks. More mundane then working on an assembly line, and for extremely shitty pay. I used to dream that I was ringing in cans, and my hands would move while I was sleeping. You spend approximately 10 mins with a total stranger in your personal space who's cranky and hungrily eying you as you scan and bag their products. Most of time, I racked my brain trying to think of things to say for 10 mins to a person I didn't know, and wasn't in a good mood.
No matter who they are and no matter how you organize the groceries, no one is happy. I had a lady tell me I made her pop flat by putting it in a bag. I guess she doesn't understand how gas is trapped in a plastic bottle. And middle aged 400 pound fat men tell me I knocked all the toppings off their frozen pizzas by putting in a bag. Despite the fact that the pizza has an inner seal of plastic to prevent this exact calamity. Little old ladies who want a separate bag FOR EVERYTHING, each piece of fish needs its own bag. Bachelors who want EVERYTHING in the SAME bag. Fish, soap, rat poison, doesn't matter.
When those automated check outs first started popping up at Superstore I was dead against the idea. At the time I couldn't see the difference between those machines and ATMs. And I was right, there is no difference. Both technologies replaced low paying jobs in the service sector. Bank tellers were replaced by ATMs as groceries clerks will be replaced by self scanning check outs. Something I didn't see at the time and I definitely do now is this; consumers prefer the automated service because the people hired to do these jobs are absolute assholes who don't give a rat's ass about customer service because their job has turned them into soulless automatons.
Whether you're withdrawing money from your account or trying to pay for your bananas, the less you have to deal with these cretins, the better. I've NEVER, and I mean NEVER met a bank teller I didn't want to kill. Give me a machine over them any day.
First of all, I've been a grocery clerk. It sucks. More mundane then working on an assembly line, and for extremely shitty pay. I used to dream that I was ringing in cans, and my hands would move while I was sleeping. You spend approximately 10 mins with a total stranger in your personal space who's cranky and hungrily eying you as you scan and bag their products. Most of time, I racked my brain trying to think of things to say for 10 mins to a person I didn't know, and wasn't in a good mood.
No matter who they are and no matter how you organize the groceries, no one is happy. I had a lady tell me I made her pop flat by putting it in a bag. I guess she doesn't understand how gas is trapped in a plastic bottle. And middle aged 400 pound fat men tell me I knocked all the toppings off their frozen pizzas by putting in a bag. Despite the fact that the pizza has an inner seal of plastic to prevent this exact calamity. Little old ladies who want a separate bag FOR EVERYTHING, each piece of fish needs its own bag. Bachelors who want EVERYTHING in the SAME bag. Fish, soap, rat poison, doesn't matter.
When those automated check outs first started popping up at Superstore I was dead against the idea. At the time I couldn't see the difference between those machines and ATMs. And I was right, there is no difference. Both technologies replaced low paying jobs in the service sector. Bank tellers were replaced by ATMs as groceries clerks will be replaced by self scanning check outs. Something I didn't see at the time and I definitely do now is this; consumers prefer the automated service because the people hired to do these jobs are absolute assholes who don't give a rat's ass about customer service because their job has turned them into soulless automatons.
Whether you're withdrawing money from your account or trying to pay for your bananas, the less you have to deal with these cretins, the better. I've NEVER, and I mean NEVER met a bank teller I didn't want to kill. Give me a machine over them any day.