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

Kine: In common usage, "da kine." It's a Hawaiian word that means roughly "that thing we were talking about," the "you know..." Sounds a whole lot more intelligent than thingummy, whosiwhatsit, thingamabob, or whatchamacallit, don't you think?

Indeed I do sort them out - I'm quite anal like that; cans, bottles, cartons, boxes, meat, heavy veg, light veg, bread, crisps, eggs.

The local name for them is "yokes", but then the local name for anything that doesn't really have a name is "yokes" too, so that doesn't help.
No idea what the etymology is

Well the next time I'm in the supermarket I will try and remember to ask.I shall approach somone in a suit and tie preferably.You never know I may get an answer.

This conversation has made me laugh more than any other for weeks here. I have a very helpful son who not only knows what we have in the cupboards at home, but knows what we want, and helps unload and load the trolley. And I am the one whose credit card always stops all tills working five minutes before the shop shuts. It is also always me being served when the stapler for the cheese and meat counters need refilling. I have also supervised many a roll replacement at the till and dropped various sticky liquids just as they are paid for.

Sorry to everyone for that. Even if you live in a different country.

Train the children, thats the way to do it! Most supermarkets seem to be run by spotty youths these days anyway. Not sure the presence of a tie ensures presence of brain. Most likely their mum did it up for them!

I, too try and put things on the conveyor in some kind of order: all the frozen stuff together, then all the tins, all the fruit and veg, etc.

The bread causes me much angst. You have to put it on the top of your trolley to avoid it being flattened while you do the rest of your shopping (the bakery counter being one of the first that you come to). However, this means that it goes onto the conveyor first, and the checkout operator's system means that it gets squashed by the aforementioned cat food avalanche.

Two more things in supermarkets that make me gnash my teeth: since 24 hour opening has become the vogue, they obviously have to re-stack the shelves throughout the day, so my local supermarket's aisles are full of trolleys containing empty cardboard boxes. Secondly, *moves into Points of View mode* Why, oh why, oh why, must they keep moving everything around? I am so anal that I write my shopping list in the order in which things appear in the shop. Thus, the first thing on my list is on the first set of shelves that I come to when I walk through the door. Then the b******s move everything round (probably some marketing w****r has decided that if they do I'll be more likely to make an impulse purchase).

They *restock* your supermarket!
Where? Where?

They do in fact keep reorganising your supermarket to get you to pass stuff you wouldn't normally see. It might encourage an impulse buy, but it might also cause you to change your habits. Either way, you will buy more.

On restocking, many supermarkets now don't bother to restock their shelves themselves. They get their suppliers to do it for them. Sometimes there are two suppliers supplying similar products to the same shelf. They are forbidden from putting their product anywhere else, so they have to compete to get their stuff on the shelf. This guarantees that the shelf is always full. This restocking also means that when you approach a person stacking shelves with a query, they may brush you off with a brusque, "I don't work here"!

They also conduct what I consider to be something of a scam by charging the suppliers promotional fees for favoured 'hotspots' (e.g. gondola ends). A side effect of which is that if, for example, Gnomons Super Jam company comes along they find it impossible to get their product in front of the paying punter, because they have to compete with all the many bigger established brands for the shelf space. Do not fondly imagine that the supermarkets feel under any obligation to present their customers with the best, be it quality or value, products that they can. If (as an example) Mr Tiptree sees fit to 'buy' space for his jams, there is no way Mr Gnomon is going to get to present his finest conserves to you.

This explains why the cheaper stuff is supposed to be found on the bottom shelves. Presumably these are cheaper to rent, or are reserved for the store's own name, just-as-good-as-anyone-else's products.

I was goint to say that there *must* be a worthy guide entry here but I thought I would check frst that there wasn't one and lo http://www.h2g2.com/A112348 One on trollies http://www.h2g2.com/A313282 and even a thread on the same subject as this one http://www.h2g2.com/F14879?thread=90202 CH

Just trying to be helpful.
As for moving things around in supermarkets that's a sore point at THIS time of year it being Crimbo for about 3/4 months beforehand.I find that they always abandon some item I use regularily but no one else apparently buys just to make room for all the Crimbo c**p and I have to either go without for 3/4 months or go elsewhere.
The thing that really annoys me is that my husband thinks I ENJOY shopping at the supermarket.He doesn't suspect that I just do it 'cos he is so useless at it.On second thoughts perhaps he does.

Not so, our supermarket has a space dedicated to "Season Goods" - chocolate from January to Easter, not sure what in the summer, halloween stuff from August, Christmas stuff from September.

Always very tasteful of course.

CH

Aaah yes I could run up a huge list of stuff that gets taken off the market just when I've discovered it's the very thing for me. Not a lot of point going into it in detail here because it all applies to Germany, but if anyone is prepared to have a grouch about it, I'll explain them in a new thread.

Aha, the useless at shopping husband ploy. Very effective. Served me very well over the years!

Stuff that's not sold at Christmas: Birthday Cards. It is very hard to get a decent Birthday Card around Christmas. I know a few people who have their birthdays in December. Even the specialised card shops are full to the brim of Christmas Cards.

I asked at the supermarket last night. "What do you call that?" I said, pointing to the "produce separator" on the conveyor. The till operator was totally taken aback. She thought for a bit and said "good question". After some more thought, she came up with the definitive answer:

Next Customer Thingy

Someone mention Brithday Cards? Time for another rant:
Can anyone prove or disprove that there are as many people with birtdays in Nov/Dec as the rest of the year? Is this not discrimination? Seasonal Fascism?

Well, most children are born in the summer periods. That´s due to the fact that in the winter, it´s cold and dark outside and all you feel like doing is cuddle up in front of the fireplace. And then things start to happen. I´ve given a graphical description below


But in the summer time it´s too hot for that kind of action. And ppl usually don´t like you doing it on the beach.