grocery stores mandatory "courtesy"



Chuck wrote:
> On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 01:56:13 GMT, cathy <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> >why can't the store trust their employees to
> >use common sense
>
> This is 2006... common sense was lost a few generations back.
> Chuck ( in SC)

The clerks only work there. The store management has decided it is a
courteous thing in these rude times to call you by name and ask if you
need help. So the employees do what they are told. I sure don't think
we should be snotty to the employees for doing what the boss tells them
to. Hasn't your boss ever had you do something you didn't like?
Be courteous to the employees. If you want to complain tell management.
If you want to shop there let it roll off your back. If not go
someplace else .
 
"cathy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

>I suppose this is a pretty minor pet peeve, but it still ticks me off.<

Her two peeves were:

1. Supermarket clerks who ask if you need help to your car
2. Supermarket clerks who address you by name

Here are two peeves of mine:

1. Shoppers who whine about clerks who show courtesy, even if only because
of company policy
2. Shoppers who give snotty comebacks to those clerks

Hey, folks, it's courtesy! Take it!

Felice
 
cathy wrote:

> The second thing that Vons does that ticks me off is this: when you
> pay by debit or credit card, the checker is required to call you by
> name when they hand you the receipt. So you have to wait while they
> stare at the receipt, and try and figure out how to pronounce your
> name. I find this fake "personalization" worse than just a generic
> "ma'am" or "sir"...
> None of the other markets I shop at do this. Anyone else have this
> kind of experience? (I think it's a policy for all Safeway stores).

My Danish name is regularly mispronounced in this situation, which is
not surprising. Danish has notoriously peculiar pronunciation. I tell
the checker, "It's pronounced 'yule,' but please call me Derek." I see
it as an opportunity for a very short lesson in Scandinavian
linguistics, in addition to a waste of everyone's time. :)

Derek Juhl
 
On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 09:10:46 -0600 while whitewashing the broccoli
George Shirley <[email protected]> tossed a caber at the lizard
while remarking:

>The Mickey Dee's franchisee has his employees now saying
>"Have a great day." I just scowl at them and mumble something under my
>breath.
>
>George

You could always say, "If I was having a *great* day, I'd be at Burger
King, but thanks anyway." (Or insert McD competition of your choice.)

Cheryl
~~~Given enough coffee, I could rule the world.~~~
 
"Steve Wertz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 01:56:13 GMT, cathy
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>I suppose this is a pretty minor pet peeve, but it still ticks me off.
>>
>>I shop at Vons in the Los Angeles area (owned and run by Safeway).
>>They have two store policies that I find irritating and hypocritical.
>>The first is, the checker always asks you "do you need help out to
>>your car", no matter what the size of your order.
>
> They ask "Do you need help with your bags?" I tell them "Sure! I
> walked here and I could use the company on the way home."
>
> They ask "Did you find everything OK?". I say, "I didn't know
> what I was looking for so how would I know if I didn't find it?"
> or "Isn't it a little too late now that I'm checking out?"


Actually, I've gotten some interesting responses. If it's something in the
store and I just didn't find it, they send someone scurrying to get it for
me. If they don't carry it, they hand me a card to fill in. Takes about a
week to get a response to the card. Sometimes they can find the item,
sometimes they can't.



>
> They ask "Paper or Plastic"? I respond, "Surprise me".
>
> I never get any responses, or any help with my bags.
>
> -sw
 
"cathy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
snip
> Apparently it's store policy that they =have= to ask that question, no
> matter what the size of the customer's order. Aside from the
> ludicrousness of the question, I feel it's an insult to me - do I look
> so decrepit that they genuinely think I =need= help? And it's an
> insult to the checker - why can't the store trust their employees to
> use common sense - ask the question if there's a =large= order, or the
> customer is elderly and might need the help. Let the employee assess
> the situation. Its not rocket science. I've complained several times
> and have been told "it's company policy".
snip> Cathy

I'm replying to no one in particular and I'm not going to make myself
popular either.

There is a large and growing larger portion of our population that has no
choice about taking go-nowhere jobs that are mind-killing tedious where they
are subject to constant humiliations whether the humiliation is inflicted
upon them by stupid company policy or customers. The old folks at Wal-Mart
aren't there because they need a broader social life, they're there to pay
for the spouse's oxygen or pills or other life's necessities because the
retirement they thought they had has dwindled or been snatched away. People
in their middle years are working these jobs because they have been laid off
and their skills are not wanted by anyone else. Company pension? Gone.
Health benefits? Gone. IRA's? Eaten by the stock market. You know all
those jobs that are supplied by the great entrepreneurship and small
business this country? The majority of that self-employment doesn't supply
enough income to get you a pot to pee in. Of course the unemployment
numbers are dropping. . .people fall off the lists after the payment
entitlement ends and then they go to low-paying jobs or start a small
business that just barely keeps the wolf from the door. These people work
really hard for their money. To generalize about them that they are all low
intelligence and don't understand what is going on is shameful. Many of
these people had the same hopes and aspirations just a little while ago that
you do and now all they can look forward to is a constant, hope-deadening
grind. Give them a break. It's not their fault that some bozo has decreed
they have to do or say something in order to keep their job. Most of them
have a hard enough time just getting a 40-hour work week from their
employer, they are not going to jeopardize the job they do have to ignore
the manager's orders. Say thanks, smile and leave.
Janet
 
Spuddie <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 09:10:46 -0600 while whitewashing the broccoli
> George Shirley <[email protected]> tossed a caber at the lizard
> while remarking:
>
>>The Mickey Dee's franchisee has his employees now saying
>>"Have a great day." I just scowl at them and mumble something under my
>>breath.
>>
>>George
>
> You could always say, "If I was having a *great* day, I'd be at Burger
> King, but thanks anyway." (Or insert McD competition of your choice.)
>
> Cheryl
> ~~~Given enough coffee, I could rule the world.~~~


The greeters at stores bother me the most. If they say "How are you?" or
"Hello" or whateverr, I've been tempted to stop and reply "Could you
spare a few bucks?" and stand there staring at them for a couple seconds
and see the reaction. At 6'5", I'm sure it would unnerve most of them.

Andy
 
"Spuddie" <[email protected]> wrote :
>

> ~~~Given enough coffee, I could rule the world.~~~

Your sig made me think of a bumper sticker I saw a while back: "God invented
whiskey to keep the Irish from ruling the world."


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"Andy" <q> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Spuddie <[email protected]> wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
>> On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 09:10:46 -0600 while whitewashing the broccoli
>> George Shirley <[email protected]> tossed a caber at the lizard
>> while remarking:
>>
>>>The Mickey Dee's franchisee has his employees now saying
>>>"Have a great day." I just scowl at them and mumble something under my
>>>breath.
>>>
>>>George
>>
>> You could always say, "If I was having a *great* day, I'd be at Burger
>> King, but thanks anyway." (Or insert McD competition of your choice.)
>>
>> Cheryl
>> ~~~Given enough coffee, I could rule the world.~~~
>
>
> The greeters at stores bother me the most. If they say "How are you?" or
> "Hello" or whateverr, I've been tempted to stop and reply "Could you
> spare a few bucks?" and stand there staring at them for a couple seconds
> and see the reaction. At 6'5", I'm sure it would unnerve most of them.
>
> Andy

Awww -- c'mon, Andy, you're so tall, you should be gentle. You know, the
gentle giant. The Walmart greeters are my favorite. I like them because
they seem average, normal kinda people (around this neck of the woods), not
the up-beat over-the-top greeters at Circuit City. Don't scare the Walmart
greeters, they usually are soo kind.
Dee Dee
 
"cathy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:eek:[email protected]...
> I have complained to the manager many, many times about these two
> policies. The most sympathetic response I've ever gotten is a shrug.
> I've also written (snail mail, not email) to Vons corporate,
> complaining, and I've never gotten any response.
>
> I don't get it.
>

It's just the unfortunate result of a bunch of half-wits (the kind who would
go into restaurant management and wind up at "home office" in DR&D
putting their pointy heads together and deciding that since they can make
the poor slobs who work in these places do anything, why not make them
convince the general public, who are at least as stupid as the managers and
R&D people (at least in the ill-informed opinions of the managers and R&D
people) that they care deeply about them and the kind of day they are
having.

I guess my larger point was, don't take it out on the poor employees. They
have to do it to get their minimum wage.


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"D.Currie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Steve Wertz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 01:56:13 GMT, cathy
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>I suppose this is a pretty minor pet peeve, but it still ticks me off.
>>>
>>>I shop at Vons in the Los Angeles area (owned and run by Safeway).
>>>They have two store policies that I find irritating and hypocritical.
>>>The first is, the checker always asks you "do you need help out to
>>>your car", no matter what the size of your order.
>>
>> They ask "Do you need help with your bags?" I tell them "Sure! I
>> walked here and I could use the company on the way home."
>>
>> They ask "Did you find everything OK?". I say, "I didn't know
>> what I was looking for so how would I know if I didn't find it?"
>> or "Isn't it a little too late now that I'm checking out?"
> >>


At Walmart, I can go in with a list of 10 items, I may come out with 2.
(one item is usually there - distilled water, except at the Walmart closest
home). I gave up a long-time-ago telling them that I didn't find everything
that I'm looking for. I'm just another old-lady-complaining-kook (not
cook).
I'm on to them -- tee hee.
Dee Dee
 
In article <%[email protected]>,
"Doug Kanter" <[email protected]> wrote:

> "OmManiPadmeOmelet" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > In article <[email protected]>,
> > Wayne Boatwright <wayneboatwright_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> IMHO, this whole thread is much ado about very little. If this is enough
> >> to get people bent outta shape, then I doubt they have enough to occupy
> >> their minds. There may be things that they do on their jobs, too, that
> >> annoy the hell out of other people.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Wayne Boatwright o¿o
> >
> > Yep. ;-)
> >
> > Part of my job is sticking needles into people arms...
> > If they complain, I suggest (politely) that they discuss it with their
> > doctor. He's the one that ordered the tests.
> >
> > If they try to refuse, I let them know that that is their right, and
> > walk out of the room and inform the charge nurse, who then talks to
> > their doctor.
>
> Have you seen the movie "True Lies", with Arnold Schwarzenegger? The nasty
> torure guy comes at him with (IIRC) a syringe and says (with evil guy
> accent) "Zis is going to hurt!" Maybe you should try that. :)
>
>

<lol> No, I don't think so... ;-)
--
Peace, Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-*****." -Jack Nicholson
 
In article <[email protected]>,
"Janet Bostwick" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Give them a break. It's not their fault that some bozo has decreed
> they have to do or say something in order to keep their job. Most of them
> have a hard enough time just getting a 40-hour work week from their
> employer, they are not going to jeopardize the job they do have to ignore
> the manager's orders. Say thanks, smile and leave.
> Janet

Well said Janet!

And oh so damned true.......

I think that all of us have things we have to do to keep our job that we
hate! Mine is wearing the shitty, ugly-assed "uniform" that they have
decreed for the lab.

Khaki pants and a maroon polo shirt. I HATE Khaki pants and polo shirts
are hotter than hell wearing a lab coat.
--
Peace, Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-*****." -Jack Nicholson
 
Doug Kanter wrote:
>
> Agreed. It sounds fake. Keep talking about it here until someone from Vons
> notices. Do not, under any circumstances write to the company.

What I hate is when you phone a business and the answer "Good morning,
this is the ABC company. My name is Gertrude. How may I direct your
call?" By this time I've forgotten what I called about...lol....Sharon
 
jmcquown wrote:
>
> George wrote:
> > cathy wrote:
> >> I suppose this is a pretty minor pet peeve, but it still ticks me
> >> off.
> >>
> >> I shop at Vons in the Los Angeles area (owned and run by Safeway).
> >> They have two store policies that I find irritating and hypocritical.
> >> The first is, the checker always asks you "do you need help out to
> >> your car", no matter what the size of your order. I've had them ask
> >> me that when all I bought was a half gallon of milk, or a single bag
> >> of potato chips.
> >
> >
> > I feel the same way about the enforced mandatory happiness at the big
> > box home store where they have to greet everyone. I am quite sure they
> > aren't really all that excited to see me buy a paint brush.
> >
> You never know... maybe they think you're going to rush over and paint their
> house! ;)
>
> We've been to a couple of restaurants where, the minute you walk in the
> door, every single server who isn't currently busy at a table all yell "Hi!"
> or "Welcome to [restaurant]!" to you at the same time. Now *that* is
> overkill, IMO.
>
> Jill

Would that be Waffle House? lol....Sharon
 
On Sun, 12 Feb 2006 12:48:48 -0500, "Felice Friese"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>2. Shoppers who give snotty comebacks to those clerks

<Raising my hand>

>Hey, folks, it's courtesy! Take it!

Courtesy comes from the individual, not from company policies. If
someone expresses genuine courtesy, I respond likewise. But when
you hear the same false sincerity over and over again, it gets
redundant and has no real heart.

-sw
 
Janet Bostwick wrote:

> I'm replying to no one in particular and I'm not going to make myself
> popular either.

You've earned a lot of points in my book. I feel that the "American
dream" is becoming more difficult for many people, if not disappearing
altogether.

Derek Juhl
 
In article <[email protected]>, cwells21
@NOSPAMhotmail.com says...
> I suppose this is a pretty minor pet peeve, but it still ticks me off.
>
> I shop at Vons in the Los Angeles area (owned and run by Safeway).
> They have two store policies that I find irritating and hypocritical.
> The first is, the checker always asks you "do you need help out to
> your car", no matter what the size of your order. I've had them ask me
> that when all I bought was a half gallon of milk, or a single bag of
> potato chips.
>
> Apparently it's store policy that they =have= to ask that question, no
> matter what the size of the customer's order. Aside from the
> ludicrousness of the question, I feel it's an insult to me - do I look
> so decrepit that they genuinely think I =need= help? And it's an
> insult to the checker - why can't the store trust their employees to
> use common sense - ask the question if there's a =large= order, or the
> customer is elderly and might need the help. Let the employee assess
> the situation. Its not rocket science. I've complained several times
> and have been told "it's company policy".
>
> The second thing that Vons does that ticks me off is this: when you
> pay by debit or credit card, the checker is required to call you by
> name when they hand you the receipt. So you have to wait while they
> stare at the receipt, and try and figure out how to pronounce your
> name. I find this fake "personalization" worse than just a generic
> "ma'am" or "sir". They don't know me from Adam, they are forced to do
> this, and the whole thing is so phony it makes me crazy. Again, I find
> it insulting, and I'm sure there are other people who genuinely don't
> want the checker announcing their name to everyone within earshot.
> Just imagine the reaction if you heard "Thank you, Ms. Longoria" or
> "Thank you, Mr, Laurie".
>
> None of the other markets I shop at do this. Anyone else have this
> kind of experience? (I think it's a policy for all Safeway stores).
>
> Like I said, I know in the greater scheme of things it's pretty minor,
> but I just can't help being irritated nearly every time I shop there.
>
> And yes, I =could= stop shopping there, but they carry things the
> other markets don't, and they occasionally have great sales on meat
> and poultry. Plus, they're they only market near me that carries milk
> in half-gallon wax paper containers, instead of the plastic jugs
> everyone else seems to have gone to. I find that my milk spoils a
> whole lot sooner in the plastic jugs.

A shame it isn't better than the blank stares I get when I go to local
Shaw's or Stop & Shop's. But that's just poor management - hiring kids
at minimum wage and not even trying to train them.

I'd find the name thing very annoying. Some people can pronounce my last
name correctly, but most try Peh Lick ee oo. It's peh lee chee oo
The 'cc' in Italian throws off most people.
 
Janet Bostwick wrote:

> It's not their fault that some bozo has decreed they have to do or
> say something in order to keep their job. Most of them have a hard
> enough time just getting a 40-hour work week from their employer,
> they are not going to jeopardize the job they do have to ignore the
> manager's orders. Say thanks, smile and leave. Janet
>

Bravo!
 
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