The Airing of Grievances

[V]

Damn, are you serious?? I've been shopping for my wife since she's over 8 months pregnant, and that's some usefull information I coulda used. Oh well, there's always next week. Usually I just stack a couple of the bins, making sure I get all my cans first so I don't have to crush my chips or bread.

I think I just passed some nerd barrier. Typing on a messageboard about grocery shopping. Ouch.

[V]

Originally Posted by Looger

for those that don't need to speak to employees, why not just order it online?

Generally my trips to the DIY shops are due to last minute "Damn, I need different screws!" revelations. I don't need to wait in line so that I can hear "Have a nice day" from some 18 yo girl. I'd rather just usher myself through.

[MrMastodonFarm]

People who text message.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Looger

for those that don't need to speak to employees, why not just order it online?

Me- because I buy things that I need. And when I need something, I need it now. Besides, if I order it online, I then have to make an extra trip to the post office to pick it up anyways.

Besides, Home Depot, Wal Mart, and Superstore don't offer online shopping; at least not more than 5% of their inventory.

[Looger]

Originally Posted by Dominicwasalreadytaken

Generally my trips to the DIY shops are due to last minute "Damn, I need different screws!" revelations. I don't need to wait in line so that I can hear "Have a nice day" from some 18 yo girl. I'd rather just usher myself through.

yeah there is that.

my grievances involving DIY places aren't that strong, they are awesome in general.

back to grievances.

winter. i took a teach-english-overseas course just to threaten myself with expulsion if i ever had trouble finding work, because i have had nearly enough of canada's winters sometimes.

[pope04]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

Actually, you can fit five of the purple bins; two of them can be hooked on length-wise (side by side) to the specially designed U shaped hooks at the back.

And seconded on the ease of loading up 6 of those bins into the back of our SUV - no shopping bags falling over during (spirited) cornering.

Ahh, you learn something new every day. I always wondered why we have five!

I agree with Dominicwasalreadytaken.........we have approached a plateau of nerdian proportions.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by pope04

Ahh, you learn something new every day. I always wondered why we have five!

I agree with Dominicwasalreadytaken.........we have approached a plateau of nerdian proportions.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Dominicwasalreadytaken

Buy a bin. My wife bought 6, and now she never has to worry about it. They're handy for carrying groceries in from the van too.

Man. That's sounds way too domesticimated for my liking.

I want to pop in to a grocery store without having to think if I remembered my "bin" or not.

Truth be told I don't shop at Superstore becuase there isn't one near me. But some time ago I was near one and thought I'd give 'er a go.

First thing I encountered was the bag thing.
"How many bags do you want sir?"
"Ummmmmmm. I dunno. 2?" (proved to be not nearly enough)

Then when it came time to pay - I whipped out my Amex. Oops they don't take that.

No problem, whip out my VISA. Oops they don't take that either.

Overall just seemed a lot of stuff that made my shopping experience less convinient.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by pope04

Yes, I'm aware of this. I was just debating the statement that it takes a lot longer to use debit/credit card than cash. As someone that does the vast majority of my family of five's grocery shopping, I don't see a difference.

Ah but there is a difference. My aired grievance was the people that are making a purchase of a few bucks and they still have to push the buttons. I don't expect anyone to carry around Wesley Snipe's bankroll, but a few dollars would be nice. If it takes longer for the "transaction approved" message to come up than it did for you to pick out your merchandise, that's when I get annoyed.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

First thing I encountered was the bag thing.
"How many bags do you want sir?"
"Ummmmmmm. I dunno. 2?" (proved to be not nearly enough) .

Yeah, Superstore is odd that way. I was in one a month ago and totally forgot the entire buy your own bag and put them in yourself thing. When the girl asked me how many bags I wanted I said "As many as my groceries need". She had no idea how to handle that situation.

[V]

Personally, I don't like to pop into a grocery store period. Bin or no bin. Maybe Safeway is super convenient. Maybe that's why they can charge ridiculous amounts for their groceries (or so my wife tells me).

[Looger]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Yeah, Superstore is odd that way. I was in one a month ago and totally forgot the entire buy your own bag and put them in yourself thing. When the girl asked me how many bags I wanted I said "As many as my groceries need". She had no idea how to handle that situation.

hey man, she gets commission on bags left there by frustrated customers that bought too many!

[Looger]

how to shop at safeway:

troll through there and buy what brands you like that are on sale, and nothing else. i've 'saved' $15 on a $25 purchase, meaning the regular prices were $40 and the sane $25.

when you want french's mustard but the heinz is the one on sale (one brand per item style and usually not the no-name), skip it and try next week. it's not worth it.

how to NOT shop at safeway:

buying exactly what you want for the next while, all at once. this is not a good idea because the prices ar consistently 20-30% higher than anywhere else.

basically, if you've been a starving student or a bachelor with habits and last-night-holy-moley-cash drought problems, then you're already safeway trained but if you buy $200 of groceries at once it's maybe not your thing.

i hope this clears things up, because my grievance with safeway isn't that strong, i can't believe people shop normally there as if it's any other grocery store.

[Yellefan]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Ah but there is a difference. My aired grievance was the people that are making a purchase of a few bucks and they still have to push the buttons. I don't expect anyone to carry around Wesley Snipe's bankroll, but a few dollars would be nice. If it takes longer for the "transaction approved" message to come up than it did for you to pick out your merchandise, that's when I get annoyed.

So your Grievance is actually with the stores that don't have a dedicated line for their debit transactions. At places like Wal-Mart and superstore I would challenge you to beat me out of there paying cash vs me paying with debit... trust me, I am just as frustrated as you when I hit those places where the machine has to dial and then wait... and wait... and wait...

Speaking of that, my grievance is with Safeway's debit machines... could the be any slower? For such a big outfit you'd think they could do better.

[Looger]

Originally Posted by pope04

I agree with Dominicwasalreadytaken.........we have approached a plateau of nerdian proportions.

a bodybuilder might say that the best way to blast through plateaus is to increase the reps.

post counts on useless crap, get em up!

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

If you buy your smut (Penthouse) and wankrag (toilet paper) with a debit card it takes a lot longer.

Not for me, man. I'm an Interac Machine Ninja. I usually could have taken the clerk's life eleven different ways using only my bank card and/or the machine by the time my purchase reaches the payment option. Then, POOF and I've paid for everything while exitting the store in a puff of smoke.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by Yellefan

So your Grievance is actually with the stores that don't have a dedicated line for their debit transactions. At places like Wal-Mart and superstore I would challenge you to beat me out of there paying cash vs me paying with debit... trust me, I am just as frustrated as you when I hit those places where the machine has to dial and then wait... and wait... and wait...

Speaking of that, my grievance is with Safeway's debit machines... could the be any slower? For such a big outfit you'd think they could do better.

No, my grievance is my grievances hijacking this originally funny thread twice now.

But just to clarify -- paying cash is faster than swiping the cards. I don't think you can really dispute that. If you are buying something for $4.50 with a debit card and I am buying something for $4.50 with a 5 dollar bill, who wins that race?

New grievance: being embarassed about arguing about this sort of minutiae on the internet. I mean come on, it was just an off-hand observation. I didn't mean to write a novel.

[V]

I don't know, with some of the people working the tills these days, I'd be terrified of giving over a fiver to pay for my $3.17 purchase. Sure, the machine tells them how much change to give out, but can they count it correctly?

This thread turned out ok, although it still woulda been more fun if the grievances were against other posters.

[OilersBaby]

Yeah, what if you end up with a checkout clerk who has the same IQ as those Verizon employees we were talking about a couple of weeks ago (the ones who couldnt understand the difference between dollars and cents). Im personally on the plastic (ATM/CC) side.

We have self checkout lanes in California Safeways and Walmart.....as well as a couple of other stores. Makes the whole thing faster sometimes, but sometimes it takes longer if the morons in front of you dont know how to use the keypad thing to make their purchase:S

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Dominicwasalreadytaken

I don't know, with some of the people working the tills these days, I'd be terrified of giving over a fiver to pay for my $3.17 purchase. Sure, the machine tells them how much change to give out, but can they count it correctly?

Or giving them a 20, and them handing you back change for a 5. I've had that happen to me a few times.

Mind you I had something similar happen once with Interac. The girl swiped the card on the pin pad device, and pressed "OK" for me for the total, so I was left with the choose account option. She was baffled as to why I refused to put in my info and simply trust that she had entered the right amount.