Stuff

We have started charging for bags as are most of the grocery stores around Southern Ontario. At first it was met with a fair amount of grumbling and complaining even though we had been telling the customers for two weeks already. But now it is about 60 - 75% recycled bag use. There are still people that ask for plastic bags and there are still people that don't know we're charging. Some of those people have been in recently enough that I know they are aware of the charge for bags. I think it is almost a "maybe if I act ignorant of the cost they'll let me have them for free" syndrome.

Not gonna happen! ! ! !

Anyway, what boggles the mind sometimes is these "kids" that come in and buy $100 to $150 worth of food, won't take bags but put everything in the buggy and take off with a GROCERY CART as if they are entitled to it. It would have cost them maybe $1.00 at the most for the bags they needed or $4.00 for enough recyclable bags. They never bring the buggy back. We have to send someone out to get the darn things. AND THEY AREN'T CHEAP!!

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The other day, I asked one of the head cashiers if she could take the sign off the door. She asked me what sign. I said the one that says every third customer has to be a bitch!!!

I don't know what was going on, but boy we had argumentative, belligerent, RUDE customers that day. Holy mackeral. Didn't matter what you did or what you said they were cruising.

One lady told me she wanted the meat put in the plastic bag. (she had a handful of her own bags). So I started to put the raw chicken in a small bag to put it in the big bag with some other raw meat, namely beef, pork, and fish (which was still to be rung through). She said "I do NOT want a plastic bag."
"I'm sorry" says I. "I didn't want to cross contaminate with the chicken."
"Just put it in the plastic bag."

So now this goes against what I have been taught and practised my whole life as a cashier, but hey if she wants to contaminate stuff, fine. Did I mention that there was fish as well? So now I get to said fish which is reduced and therefore leaking a little. Okay, A LOT! ! ! ! (I had to hose down my belt after she left).

I point blank told her I didn't know what to do now. She said just put it all together. She could have bagged it herself. In fact she was holding the bags and doling them out to me as she saw fit.

I don't work like that. My brain sees the groceries on the belt and starts to figure out what will go where in which bag. I have been bagging groceries for a LONG time. I know my job. I know what should go where, what will fit where and that cereal boxes take up too much room to be put in cloth bags when you could put the cans in there and its easier to carry home.

I don't like people that rebag after me as well. I have watched people move stuff around into what is totally unsafe for their groceries. They have gotten home, I'm sure, to find their bread is squished, their cereal is smelling like fabric dryer sheets and their strawberrries are flat.

Ah well, the customer is always right. (NOT)

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I have had this feeling that The Purple Lady had been avoiding me lately. I knew she had been to see her doctor, about 6 weeks previous and that she almost told me something then. But she decided not to.

Well, Saturday, she stopped to talk to me, and though she hasn't told me, I am pretty sure her cancer is back. I had tried a few times to ask her about her health but she was secretive about it. So when she stopped and handed me a bottle of orange juice on Saturday I could tell something was going on.

She is really torn about telling me what it is. I don't really know why. I don't know if she doesn't want to say the words out loud. Or if she doesn't want to break my heart. Or if she doesn't want to lose another friend. She is going to move up to live with her daughter. I think she'll like that, but I know she is going to miss her life around this part of town. She walks all the time. She must have so many people that she stops and talks to. It will be hard for her to move. I don't know what to do to make it better for her.

I don't think I can do this friend stuff sometimes. I really should be like the cashier from hell and just piss everybody off and then its not an issue for me.