h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Grocery Checkouts:

I hope you realize this only supports my earlier assertion that having people there to bag it FOR you is superior. You come to the line and begin unloading your groceries onto the conveyor belt, which moves right away. The checkout lady isn't forced to wait for you, so she's happy, and once you've finished paying for them the groceries are already bagged and loaded into the cart, allowing you to leave immediately, so you're happy. The next in line doesn't have to wait for either you or the checkout lady, so they're happy. There are no delays for you OR anyone else in line, so you feel no pressure to rush through anything. In other words: it's "serene."

>My power cords and usb cables are labelled, so I know what goes with what... Also very helpful when you're trying to figure out which one to unplug. <

Malabarista, that´s clever, so it´s German, and probably unfair - and AFAIK you´re female, which means you are in REAL trouble.

Eh?

Labeling your cables, so you know what belongs where...that´s clever, and being clever is considered rather elitist nowadays.

"I hope you realize this only supports my earlier assertion that having people there to bag it FOR you is superior."

I disagree. It may be superior for the supermarket and other people, but it's not superior for me.

I bag my stuff depending on where it's going in my house (e.g. cupboard for tins, cupboard for cereal, cupboard for cakes, fridge, freezer, toiletries). A bag packer won't know where I want my stuff kept, so that makes it inefficient when I arrive home.

Plus I like to minimise the number of bags I use. Can usually get away with 3, maybe 4. That means I can carry them all in from the car in one trip. Packers are told to be careful with customers goods and use as many bags as they need to avoid cramming stuff in.

"being clever is considered rather elitist nowadays"



Are you sure though. Isn't everybody now able to go to university and therefore be clever?

Seeing some people on German TV, I believe having brains and having an academic title has become mutually excusive.

Good thing I still don't have my diploma yet. I'm in no danger.

(Petty hate: still my Uni...)

So I guess that makes me terribly unorganized...
ah well nothing to fret about.

Personally, I don't have a problem with just unpacking all the bags once I get them on the counter, and then sorting out the jumbled mess. Especially if it saves me annoyance and aggravation at the grocery store.

A good trick, if you really want to annoy the other customers is to have your wife/husband/partner carry on shopping while you queue. Thenwhen you get to the counter, they can keep bringing things to add to your conveyor belt. So what looked like - to the people behind you - a little amount, turns into a huge trolley full.

I know this annoys other people, 'cos I've been the other people from time to time.

I'd welcome any suggestions on how to get one's own back on the pople who do it.

Difficult one really but ... you could do what we use to do when I was a lowly assistant on the Fruit&Veg department and we used to get certain irritating customers. We'd follow them around the store and surreptitiously put extra things in their trolley.

There's usually magazines, leaflets, sweets, chewing gum, bags-for-life at the checkout; perhaps you could add those to their pile when they're not looking ...

It wouldn't work - surely they would notice while the "superfluous" items are being either checked or when they're re-packing them at the other end. Then you're in for a very prolonged wait while the checkout person deals with the cancellations or - worse still - has to wait for the supervisor to do it.

I had a phone chat with mine poor old mum who has some 30 years working retail under her belt...you ain´t seen nothing yet!

"It wouldn't work"

That's a bit dismissive especially as it depends on what your aim is ...

Shop assisstants who comment on how lovely the thing is that you are buying. I think they are told to do it, it sounds so insincere! Especially when you are in a queue to pay and hear them make similar comments to each and every person they serve.

While we're going on about shop assistants, I get fed up in Smiths and Mrtins the newsagents where they [b]always[b/] offer you something extra that you had no intention of buying. Go in to buy a neaspaper and you get offered a special offer in chocolate or cellotape or whatever. I find myself saying 'NO!' as soon as they start to ask, which is very rude of me, but, hey! I'm the customer, not an alien who can't read or make my own decisions.

PH: E-mails in large-point but all-lowercase Comic Sans with huge attachments, inviting me to dubious parties.

That's a PH, Mala? You're lucky! Wish I got some of them. All that happens to me if that from time to time someone offers Viagra or a Russian Bride

The price of replacement razorblades ...

I've got a bloomin' Gillete Mach3 which is £7 for 5 replacement blades. Far too expensive when you compare to Sensor 3 blades which are about £4-50 for 5. And I accidentally bought some of them a while back. BUT you can't buy the Sensor 3 handle for them to attach into. So I'm stuck with some blades that I can't now use other than to slit my wrists ...