Grocery Store Rant

I'm tired of people who work in grocery stores blocking entire aisles and not moving when customers are trying to shop. I go in for specific things and I really need the baking powder you are standing in front of. I'm not going to go away if you just ignore me.

Yesterday, I had a clerk (presumably on a break) cut to the front of the checkout line and pay for her items. In what world is that okay? I get that you have a limited break, but my time is limited too, stand in the freaking line like everyone else. Hire more cashiers if the lines are too long. Please.

When the self-checkout first came along I loved it. Quick, easy. I soon found that it had it's limitations, so I decided that I should use it for small amounts of goods. One grocery store in my neighborhood recently had 2 lights on for the normal checkout, but no cashiers to be seen, and a bunch of self checkouts open. I looked at my half full cart dubiously and my sleepy, grumpy baby and realized the decision had been made for me, there were literally no clerks. As I checked myself out, turning products every which way to scan the bar code I also attempted to keep a hand on my nine month old who was trying desperately to escape.

As I'm watching the prices come up I realize that a good half of them are coming up more expensive than I remember them being on the shelf. I look around, not a person working there in sight. Sigh. Then the machine made an announcement, my bagging area was full I would have to bag some groceries and then scan some more. So now I'm bagging groceries with my hand on the baby and my groceries half scanned. The machine then starts yelling at me to push finish if I'm finished, which I'm not. I now have enough bagged that I can run back and scan again. I scan and scan and scan until I come across the artichokes. Now I have to find these in the produce lookup. ugh. All the while the baby is getting awfully squirmy and trying to turn backwards and stand up and someone has appeared to bag my groceries, she asks if I want a bag for the Gatorade. I say "no, it's okay," that's what I always say when people say, do you want a bag for this, as if I would be insane if I said yes.

Finally I'm about done. Just two bags of chips and a jar of salsa. There is a deal on these products. Two bags of chips for $6 and you get the salsa for free. The salsa rang up at $4, not free. I asked the cashier for help, she literally took several minutes to get from the groceries at the end of the belt to me and finally voided the salsa price at my request. I left the other inaccuracies alone because I wasn't sure about exacts and it was like 18 items. Then she said, "you got this?," and left the rest of my groceries unbagged. It appears all she did was not bag the Gatorade. Whatever. So here I am bagging groceries again, baby is starting to cry because her nap is past due, and I still have to run next door to the mailing place to fax something because my fax machine decided to break.

I hate grocery shopping. It's no fun at all. The people who are standing back weaving back and forth between two lines to see which one goes faster, the people who hit you with their cart, the cashiers who apparantly hate me, the poor little old man on the phone trying to find out if the brand of flour is important to his wife at home and it standing out in the middle completely oblivious, the lady writing the check, and my wonderful children who ask for everything they see.