Saturdays of wine and roses...
Well, no wine, because I gave up drinking for Lent. And no roses, because it's 23 degrees out today... And I've never actually read the book, only a reference to it in Rummies by Peter Benchley. So yeah, I guess actually none of that whatsoever, although I love the title. Days of wine and roses, I mean, it just evokes emotion and mental images, one of those phrases like "Aaahhh, summer in Tuscany". Doesn't matter if it's winter, doesn't matter if you've never been to Tuscany, it's been romanticized enough over enough years that you get the idea. As it is, this is a quiet weekend around the house, just chillin', as they say. Second load of laundry's in the wash, I've changed out the depleted Wallflowers, and unloaded the dishwasher, so I guess that's something, a little bit productive anyway. Hey, I'll take it. I worked my ass off this week, so I'm rather pleased to be just chilling around the house. I've killed off the last of the milk, so I really should do the shop, especially if I want to meal prep some breakfasts this week, because I don't think there's quite enough egg to do so, and I'd be a little skimpy on the potatoes too. That is more and more looking like a tomorrow morning job, that is, if I don't stay up too late tonight. I'm upstairs laying on my bed, because that's comfortable, listening to music, and just enjoying the day. It's a lake effect squall day, and for those of you not from Michigan and points 'round, this means that every five to ten minutes or so, it goes from being sunny with blue sky and white puffy clouds to grey and snowing like crazy, just like that. I couldn't see the stop sign four doors down or so, and now yeah, blue sky, sunny, white puffy clouds.
I feel like Letterkenny here; so ah went on down t' the grocery store th' other dayyyyy... There was a stretch where I just hadn't been there, was either tied up with work, or just utterly exhausted. Now, for some context, you have to understand that 'round these parts, we grew up going to Farmer Jack, formerly the A&P. It's a dearly departed metro Detroit grocery store chain, look it up. It was a grocery store, most every city around here had one, at least one. Great produce section, lovely meat counter, I mean, it was like the grocery store on Supermarket Sweep, you know? Windows in the front to let the light in, and cash registers that had BAGGERS that bagged your groceries. That's right, you unloaded them onto the belt, they scanned them in, put them on the little belt, and the bagger bagged 'em up. To be perfectly honest, I can't recall if they put the bags in your cart, but still, you get the idea. Shit, to even tell you how old I am, this was back when every check out station had an Eight o' Clock Coffee grinder. You'd have your bag of whole bean coffee that you picked up in the store, and they would actually (if you wanted them to) fresh-grind that coffee right there while your groceries were being rung out and bagged. I mean, that's service. And jobs. Bagging was never anything I did as a job, but that was one of your quintessential "high-school jobs", you know? And I mean, this wasn't like a fancy high-end store in an uptown neighborhood, it was right in the middle of the city, but all the other grocery stores had the same deal, maybe not the coffee grinders, that was like an A&P thing, but Kroger, Meijer, umm, what else was around here, Oak Ridge Market, and then there was Oakland FoodLand, the local Spartan store (Spartan being a regional value off-brand that merged with Nash a few years back). That's just how grocery stores worked. Hell, out in Ortonville, when the Pamida shut down and Bueche's came into town, they would put your bagged groceries on a stand-up cart, wheel them out to your freaking car for you, and load them in your trunk, hatch, whatever. Just as a service, yeah? Nothing special.
KMart (man, we're really going down defunct store memory lane today, aren't we?) was the first to, as a cost-saving measure, eliminate the baggers, and the bagging station, and put in the carousel. Six stations holding bags on this roundy-round thing, so as the cashier scanned, they would turn and place items in the bags, spinning it around as the bags got full so the next open bag was available, and while they were doing so, you would unload your groceries from the carousel into the cart. And as time went on, other stores did the same. This is well after Farmer Jack went out of business; I don't know if Value Center still does bagging, as I haven't been there in several years. My wife prefers Meijer, so we generally shop there. And that's been a thing now for, shoot, at least the last ten, maybe fifteen or so years. Maybe longer, I mean, it's been a while now. That was the standard. Until we went to Meijer, and saw yet another change. Now, first, they have removed the majority of the checkout stations, and greatly expanded both of the self-check out lanes. I mean, like a lot. But then at the checkout lanes that still exist, they got rid of the carousel; now it's a single station, and it appears that the intent is for you to unload your groceries on the belt, the cashier scans them, and then you bag them. And I mean, like, up north, when there's not a bagger in line, you generally are willing to jump in and give a hand. Like what, I'm just going to stand there like a goon while Ethel's pulling double-duty, come on, give me a break. But this isn't the local village market up north. This is a suburban grocery store.
So we did the self-check out last time. I actually drove that bus, because of the remaining actual checkout lanes, only one was open, and the line was stacked well beyond any reason. Now, I hate this for two reasons, one, just on greater principles which I will go into, and two, for the way they used to be. When they first came out, and it's like, OK, let's give this a whirl, the AI recognition of items and objects was nowhere near sophisticated enough. "Please place the item in the bagging area"... Umm, I did. Scan next item, place in bag "Please place the item in the bagging area. Please place the item in the bagging area. Customer assistance required, self-check station 2 *DING DING DING*"... It's like the poor bastard running the control terminal, all they were doing was tapping and overriding the stupid thing's errors, while it's sitting there yelling at you, and all you're trying to do is ring your damn groceries out. And I have to admit, they've gotten a lot more clever. Shoot, I put my bananas on the scale to weigh them, and went to tap in that it was bananas, and it had already recognized them, and was asking me to confirm. It was pretty seamless, and I do appreciate that. But here's my thing. If I wanted to work at a grocery store... then I would. But that's not my line of work. I'm now being expected to do the cashier's job as well as doing the bagger's job, and at that point, what's the point of a manned check out lane to begin with; I mean, the writing's on the wall here.
I am not, and will never be "too good" to do any kind of work. That's not who I am, that's not how I roll. But there's a difference between, like when they're shortstaffed at the D&W, formerly Glen's, because it's not quite tourist season yet, and you pitch in and lend a hand... and when you're just expected/forced to do so, without so much as a by your leave. Ignoring the fact that these are jobs that are being whittled down more and more, let's look at the fact that I'm now being made to do MORE work as a part of this transaction... and yet my groceries still cost the same. Like, I believe there's a charge as part of the Click Ship thing, or whatever, the thing where you select groceries on your phone, and someone inside does your shopping, bags it up, puts it on a cart, and then brings it out and loads it into your car when you get there. It would make sense that there would be some kind of charge for that. So I mean, all you have to do is drive up to a special parking space, open your hatch, and call or text or click something in the app. Meaning that store staff has to do all of the aforementioned work for you. And this isn't like that. I'm doing my own shopping. I'm selecting my own produce and products. I'm unloading it, taking it back, and being on my way. That's got to be cheaper for the store. So now that we're adding even more to this transaction, again, can't help but to notice that the price of everything has not gone down; there's not a $5.00 credit for playing Meijer Cashier in the self-checkout lane.
It just pisses me off, because it's one less thing. I mean, I know times change, things change. The world has changed SO much in the last 39 years I've been on it, I mean, it really has, but I suppose every generation could say that. You look at something like Downton Abbey, and it's like damn, the world will NEVER be like that again. And yeah, that's a thing. Farmer Jack is not coming back. And society increasingly doesn't value that sort of customer service, so it's not like opening a store that took things back to the old school would be something that would take off, unfortunately. We're more and more accustomed to terrible customer service, and if that's the case, then please give me no customer service. Let my push my wobbly cart through your shitty grocery store, pick up what I want, check out, pay, and leave with my air-pods in and no human interaction the whole time, thanks kindly. But it's another chink in the armor, another crack in the wall... It's something that you just have to put up with, and nothing you can do about it, but at the end of the day, it's both more work put on you, and a decreased customer experience. And then you're just left standing there, literally holding the bag, and wondering what's next. What's the next thing to go? I mean, my mom has been doing the self-check out thing for years, because she didn't like dealing with the surly attitudes of the cashiers at our local store. And trust me, I'm an introvert by nature; I'm just good at functioning in the world, but it is exhausting, it really is. Takes a lot out of me, but if I'm working up the moxie to go to the grocery store, and deal with all the people there, I'm prepared to, and perhaps even looking forward to the interactions. The banter, ah, there's the rub, where's the banter anymore? Treating a cashier like a damned human being, asking how their day is, telling jokes, how are your kids, just getting on, or about to be off for the evening, just a basic human interaction conversation... You don't get that in a monolithic sea of self-check out machines.
The price of everything continues to go up. The "Penny Smart" value brand eggs, whose yolks are almost more of an off-white than a yellow, and whose shells are like tissue paper (like, seriously thinking about buying a coop and doing chickens-itza this year) are still going for like five bucks a dozen. And it's not like they're dumping extra love into taking care of the store; the plastic shelves that the half-and-half and milk were on, you know, the ones that are slanted so that when you take one, the rest slide down to the front? Yeah, covered in black mildew. Like, a washcloth and some hot soapy water would take care of that, they're white for a reason, and it's seriously obvious when they aren't being properly cared for. The parking lot is still full of garbage, the garbage cans in same are overflowing, the bottle room has been closed two weekends in a row when we've been there, and I mean, I'm sure staffing has something to do with it, but it's like damn, people... You're making me do more work, and receive less service... while the cost of everything continues to rise, and the overall quality of the store is declining precipitously. Not cool. If these other things changed, I'd still be annoyed, but it would be like hey, OK, I see what they're doing, they're shifting resources, using what they have in the best way possible to improve, or at least attempt to maintain the customer experience. No. Flour shelves covered in flour, sugar shelf covered in sugar, the place is looking pretty shop-worn, and again, this is... wiping things. Vacuuming. Just a little bit of cleaning, and I mean, the store's not even 24 hour anymore, hasn't been since covid, so there's time when there are no customers in there, there really is.
I dunno... I have to go tomorrow, and I'm not sure what my tactic's going to be. On the one hand, I suppose I should get used to the self checkouts, and I mean, they really are quite intuitive, and I appreciate that they still take CASH. But at the same time, it's like, I don't want to aid and abet the steady decline in expected standards. I'm happy to be drug kicking and screaming into this "new normal", that's really just fine with me, if I'm making a stand of some kind. It's just really obnoxious. Again, one more, well, one LESS thing, prices go up, standards go down, and the best we can come up with is "well, it could always be worse"... Yeah, but the other side of that is that it could "always be better" too, and if I'm dropping Ben Franklin and at least two of his twin brothers when we do the shop, there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever. None at all.