Do you ever help folks at grocery stores?

[Claire]

This happened to me twice this week, but has happened many times in my life. Today I bought 3 heads of Napa cabbage to make kimchee (by popular request of my friends). The checkout clerk asked me what kind of lettuce it was. I told her it was Napa cabbage, and she dealt with it, but asked me what I was making that I needed three heads. I explained (of course I wound up trying to explain what kimchee is). But earlier this week, the store had avocados that weren't the normal haas that most are used to seeing here. I ran into a friend who asked me to help her select one, then the checkout gal didn't recognize it as an avocado, so I explained and she said she'd never tasted one. I had all I could do to not hold up the entire line at the store, go buy a haas (the others weren't ripe enough), cut it open, and feed her a bite! In the past few decades I've stopped my shopping to explain to people foods that confused them. Have any of you done this?

 

[Wyogal]

yep. as well as telling folks where to find things in the store.

 

[kadesma]

I"ve shopped at the same store for years. I love it as they keep up with things i read and hear about. If they don't have something they will get it for you. Both the fellow in the produce and the meat and cheese dept.s will ask me every time I shop, what are you making with this or that..Sat. I bought a new cheese and the check out girl took my phone # and then called me today to ask about the cheese. I get the biggest kick out of this..I enjoy talking recipes and food so I don't mind,but let me tell you get someone in the line that's in a hurry and has only a TV dinner in hand..They tend to get just a tad snarky
kades.

 

[babetoo]

have shopped on line for three years. when i did shop in store, had people ask questions a lot. and on occasion i am the one asking.

 

[GrillingFool]

I don't do a lot of question answering, but I do act as a virtual Reach and Grab
for short people.
Since I'm tall, I watch for people having a problem reaching or lifting something and
will generally help them.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I've been known to hand out advice to people, even if I haven't been asked. I enjoy helping people, especially in the meat and produce departments when they obviously don't know what they are buying. Good food should be available to everyone. And people who have less experience in picking out good melons, or good meat, or who don't know how to tell when fruit is ripe, well, if I can make their lives better by educating them a little, that makes me glad. I do odd looks from some people though.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Andy M.]

I help when the opportunity presents itself. As Goodweed said, often at the meat counter where lots of folks are at a loss.

I, too am tall so do the reaching for the vertically challenged.

 

[Bilby]

Yes I offer advice when requested and sometimes when someone just looks confused. I have even gone up to people and told them where they can get something cheaper.

The cat food aisle is often where I strike up conversations. We cat owners are a chatty breed!!

 

[Claire]

I, too, am tall and often walk up behind someone who is short or wheelchair-bound and get food off high shelves. I've lived here for 8 years and when Piggly-Wiggly bought out the only grocery store in town they tried me sorely. They keep moving stuff around. I know what they're doing and why they're doing it, which makes it all the more aggravating (they are making it so that you cannot walk in, walk up to something you want, and buy it, you have to wander the entire store to find what you need (and hopefully will walk out with lots of stuff you didn't intend on buying). This week I had to backtrack to the produce department to find the feta cheese (stupid me, looking for it in the dairy section), and while looking for the cheese, I found that they'd moved all of the organic bagged lettuce to the dairy aisle instead of having it in the produce aisle or in the one refridgerator where they keep organic dairy items. So in my store we're always looking at each other with dazed, puzzled expressions and asking each other, "Have you seen the ..... this week?"

 

[LadyCook61]

I have been asked for help a few times when I was shopping. One lady asked me what bread was good for Reuben sandwiches. We were in the bread aisle. Do I look like I know things? lol I don't mind helping out.

 

[roadfix]

I get stopped and asked for help at home Depot and Lowes at lot. I don't know why, I don't even own a red vest.

 

[Claire]

One time I was just perusing the meat counter, and there was a very young couple looking at pork roasts. He was arguing for the less expensive roast, she thought the tenderloin looked good. It was kind of funny listening to them. I eavesdropped long enough to know that they were engaged and were fixing one of their sets of parents a dinner and they really didn't know how to cook! I excused myself and stepped in, told him that his choice had less meat for the buck after you take out the bone and fat, and that the tenderloin is very easy to cook in a skillet if you don't overcook it (remember now, we live in a tourist destination and they were probably in a condo rental). They bought my choice and I hope they were happy with it (yes, I told them how to do it, but a pork tenderloin is a half-hour no brainer, a pork butt is another story entirely!). I do stuff like this all the time, and several times the employees of whatever store I'm at get a huge kick out of it!

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

Another reacher here, plus I must look like I know where things are.

 

[Alix]

I get asked for help all the time. My daughter tells me to "turn off your sign!" because people talk to me everywhere. I think its because I am not plugged in to an iPod or anything and meet people's eyes and say hello when I pass them. It gives people permission to talk to you.

 

[Max Sutton]

Helping grocery shoppers

Yes, I often help lady shoppers reach high food items.

I also direct shoppers to where food items are in the supermarket when asked.

I get asked for directions around our small town by visitors. That even happens in foreign countries. I must look like I'm in the know.

I'm not shy about asking lady shoppers for help when I'm shopping for some new food item.

 

[Claire]

Another one was when a friend commented on the expensive packaging for hydroponic lettuce. I picked it up and showed her the resevoir for the roots and told her if you buy this, you're buying a lettuce plant, if you treat it right, it will live in your fridge for a long time. It may be too expensive for some purposes, but if you live alone or with someone who won't eat vegetables, you can pull off a leaf here and there when you want it, and it will stay nicely in your fridge. It beats buying a head or even a bag of greens and throwing 3/4 of it away. The produce manager happened to walk by and said, "Gee, Albertson's should hire you!"

 

[Claire]

Max, I, too, live in a small town that attracts a lot of tourists and often give folk directions and tell them where to go (I mean that in a nice way!).

 

[Nyeer]

Yes sometimes it happens so many times times that I have to check if I am not wearing a shirt the same color as the store employees uniform, haha!