Royal Summer

I hate working in the summer. Summer lasts for about 2.5 months where I am and then the rest of the year may as well be winter; so it's no surprise that I'd rather not be inside while everyone else is outside. Almost everyone, that is.

People still buy groceries, of course, and they're usually in a rush to get stuff for their cottage or they're very cranky from the heat...or both. Thursdays and Fridays are very busy and then there's still everyone who didn't go to their cottage or camping who comes on the weekend. I mean, the store is usually busy anyway but I'm just bitter when I look outside and see the sun shining and people come in and make comments about it.

On another note, in a couple days William and Kate are coming here...this wouldn't be interesting to me if a certain someone didn't share a name with the beloved Duchess. I'm sure you can guess the number of comments I receive daily about this and the question of whether I'm going to see them or not. I'm not. Good luck even getting close, I say to those who try.

Better than You

[I'm really bad at updating this thing, just throwing that out there... like you don't already know]

Over my time working I can recall twice where I've had cashiers come up to me and tell me that they just had a customer, both times a mother and her child, who said to their kid, "See, now this is why you have to go to school so you don't end up here." I'm sure this happens a lot but these two times I remember because not only were these girls FURIOUS, they were also very young. It's obvious that they haven't made a career of working in a grocery store and that they're just working while they're in school.

     I wonder why it is these mothers decided to say this in front of their young children? If they thought they were trying to teach them a good lesson, I'd say they're doing a better job of teaching them to be judgmental and ignorant.

On another note, some guy came and wanted to return a chicken meal with no receipt, no packaging, no anything to prove that he had actually ever bought one. He even said he lived in the States so we couldn't put his address in. The store manager gave him the refund...um, hello? You just gave a guy money he never spent...he got money for nothing. 

These are the people I work with.

Old Ladies

So I was really busy and then my internet broke, but here I am with a story of yet another older person acting like a baby.

It all started with potatoes, yes, potatoes. For those of you who don't know, there is a produce code for each yellow, white and red potatoes...I'm sure you could have guessed that though. This lady was using the self-checkout, she was old but not so old that I felt bad for her. I was helping her do her produce and I put in the code for her white potatoes and she's like, "Well that's not the right code!" And I was like, "Yup it is, there's only one code for each colour of potatoes and on the screen it says 'potatoes white' so it is." "No! You're trying to screw me over!" She yells. So now I know where this is going. I shook my head, frowning, "I'm not sure how you think that but that's the right code. It's my job to know the codes so I wouldn't screw you over."

"Oh don't give me that shit! You people don't know how to do anything, I can't even believe the types of people who work in these places!"

So I walked away. Obviously, why would I stand there and put up with that when she's clearly just being a rude idiot now. She yells at me to call the manager, so I do and he asks me what's going on before he comes down. All I hear beside me from this woman is, "Oh yeah you tell him everything. I bet you're telling him your whole life story aren't you? I bet he really cares. You don't even belong here, you should be out back with the rest of the garbage." I hang up and turn to her.

"Please get away from me and my work area. If anyone does not belong here it's you. You're rude and you're acting like a child."

Anyway, the manager ended up coming down and telling her not to swear at me while she called me a know-it-all and rude and ignorant and how I told her to get out of the store. Manager defended me, told her it's good I'm a know-it-all because it's my job and to not talk to me while she leaves the store.


Most of my customers from hell are middle-aged and older...shouldn't they know better? Just because they've got a wrinkle or a few doesn't mean they've earned the right to treat everyone else like crap.

Grocery Store Woes: The Lifelong Commitment Face

It's a safe bet to make that every single employee of a grocery store hates this question: "So, what do you do for a living?" Not only do you have to confess to being a slave in that abysmal place you've heard so many people complain about, but you have to watch as they try to cover up the look of horror that crosses their features.

You've all seen it, that slight nod and pause and then comes the: "Oh, well that's...good. How's that working out for you? Are the hours good?". You know they don't actually care but for some reason they keep asking questions and prolonging the torture as you explain to them that you're just trying to make ends meet or that you're a student or that it was the only job you could latch onto for the moment. I've had this happen to me more times than anyone could imagine, and it gets worse every time.

I don't need to be reminded that the place I work at is a lesser-than-average kind of job to hold; I don't need people to look at me as though I'm making a lifelong commitment to this place and that there's something wrong with me for it. True, there are people who work entry-level grocery jobs for many, many years - these people will typically make you feel like you never left high school, if I might add - but I am not one of them, and neither are a lot of people.

So hey, Mr. I've Got a Real Job, why don't you take your judgement to someone who's on your own level and leave me to deal with the people on mine. At this point, I'm used to dealing with their dramatic school-age gossip anyway.

Morning People

Do you love the morning? Or do you hate it? I believe some people think that they love it but, really, they hate it with a burning passion. Who doesn't like the idea of getting up and having your whole day ahead of you to do anything you please? But when that alarm sounds, let's face it, you're about ready to kill someone and laugh at yourself for having such a crazy thought.

I hate working in the mornings, I mean I love it because I have my whole day ahead of me ;) but oh boy do I dislike the customers. They're in a rush because they have to go to work (I know, I don't get it either), or they've been up for hours waiting for the store to open. Anyway, in the mornings there are lots of things to be done, as you can imagine, and frankly, customers just get in the way with their annoying 'morning person' persona's.

I had a customer, while I was opening up the self-checkouts, who came through and was doing a bunch of groceries and about half of them were 50% off items (for those of you who don't know, items like these must be processed by the attendant, in others words, me). I'm trying to open six of these bad boys and so of course, I'm not just standing there waiting for her to hand me these discount items.

At the end of her transaction, when she was leaving, she looked at me like I had just slapped her and said, "What's your problem?" Now, I may not be an expert on fighting but when you ask someone this you had better not be expecting a smile and warm, cheery answer.

"Um...nothing? Just opening up these machines?"

"You have an attitude problem." Now I'm really confused, and irritated as you can imagine.

"Uh...sorry. I don't really think I do though," I even looked confused, not angry.

"Oh please. Be thankful you have a job," she rolled her eyes and stalked out of the store.

Proving me right yet again: People who think they like the morning (getting up early to do groceries) but they hate it with a passion (what's your problem?).

What is my problem? It's people like you, lady.