Grocery store peeves

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AOL had an interesting article posted this morning about the 20 most annoying things at the grocery store. There were some pretty interesting "peeves" listed.

Just this week I was shopping and a woman with a little girl (by appearances I'd say she was about 4) in her cart who screamed her little uncombed blonde head off for at least 45 minutes --- she was still screaming when the mother finally finished her shopping and checked out. She wanted a toy and she wanted it NOW. I passed this clueless mother a number of times up one aisle and down another. She'd just smile and keep on walking while the little one continued her rant. That's my number one peeve - out of control children. (And not just in the grocery store!)

Number two is the fact that they have row upon row of candy, cookies and chewing gum at the checkout. Even if your child (or in my case grandchildren) has been good as gold this is a lot of temptation for them while you to check out, which often takes longer than it took to select the items to begin with!

What bugs you the most?

Some people have to shop weather it's "ok" with thier children at that point in that certain day weather they want to or not.
Yeah, a screaming kid is annoying, and quite frankly embarrassing, thanks a whole lot........ but some parents, myself included, are not willing to buy a toy or candy just because thier child wants it and wants it now.... just to save your ears.
I apologize in advance if my 2 year old ever is "too loud" for you in the store, but I do not allow "i want that". At least they are not running in the aisles, pulling things off shelves, and disrespecting other's space.
Seems to me you would be the same person thinking badly of my parenting because I DID give in to "I want that".
 
I ONLY got through about ten of these comments and my blood pressure started rising! I can relate to so many of these comments but what can one do? I have already confronted the manager only to be told I should do something about it. In other words, someone on cell phone I should go to another part of the store and wait until they move on! Also about children, he asked me if I never had a child that was out of sorts! When I did, I sure left the store and came back without him or had someone watch him while I got the things I needed.

Why are the ones that try to do the right thing made to 'understand' someone else's priorities? I am going to read the rest of these comments if I can stand it. This is so real to my own life that just reading them bothers me. I am trying really to be more patient with people but they are the majority not just few.
 
Not everyone has the ability to come back when it's more convienient (sp?) for you.
 
It’s good to see that many of you share the same aggravations as I do…Now I know it really is “them”…and not just me.:LOL: Out of control children can really grate on my nerves too! However; My number one pet peeve in a grocery store or anywhere for that matter is the physical, mental, and emotional abuse of children…I am a strong advocate of “Spare the rod, spoil the child” and I never “spared the rod” on my children…I tanned their little boo-hineys in a heart beat when called for.… but some of the young moms, and dads I see today are almost out of control with physical abuse... When you grab a child’s arm, jerk them around, and slam them down in the buggy while screaming….NO! You can’t have any Grapes I don’t have the money!!......Gee mom, howya gonna pay for that case of Miller Light, and the carton of Marlboro Smokes???:ermm: The same scenario is played out at the check out…”NO! You can’t have that candy bar…it just junk!....”Put it back right this minute…..Put it back I said!!!... Gee mom, you have enough bags, and boxes of “junk food” on the belt to choke a full grown Billy Goat. Who’s gonna eat that stuff???:ohmy:
Some of my fondest memories are grocery shopping with my children…especially at the check out….Ok, Sweetie pie, hop down and get anything you want…After pondering what must have looked like a whole wall of candy and goodies to her, she would make her selection of one, sometimes two items, and hold them with both hands tightly to her chest. She was a happy little girl. I often wondered why she didn’t go for the “good stuff’…you know, Snickers, Milky Way, Hershey Bars with Almonds, etc…. It was always the kid stuff…the inexpensive stuff…Anyway, she managed to grow up, is very healthy, has a beautiful smile with sparkling white teeth, and I managed not to go bankrupt in the process. All in all a very positive experience…If you have never allowed a child be a “kid in a candy store” …ya don’t know what you’re missin…Today, almost every time she comes home she brings me some candy…....….the “good stuff”;)

Bless the beast, and especially the children, for they have no voice.



 
I ONLY got through about ten of these comments and my blood pressure started rising! I can relate to so many of these comments but what can one do? I have already confronted the manager only to be told I should do something about it. In other words, someone on cell phone I should go to another part of the store and wait until they move on! Also about children, he asked me if I never had a child that was out of sorts! When I did, I sure left the store and came back without him or had someone watch him while I got the things I needed.

Why are the ones that try to do the right thing made to 'understand' someone else's priorities? I am going to read the rest of these comments if I can stand it. This is so real to my own life that just reading them bothers me. I am trying really to be more patient with people but they are the majority not just few.
I did the same thing. In 17 years of mothering I have never once been in the grocery store and had my child cry or act out. She never cried for toys because no one ever gave them to her so she never expected them. As for going when she was cranky, as it was far more pleasant for me to shop with a happy child, I just wouldn't do it. There was nothing I needed bad enough to shop with a cranky child. Never! And I was a single mom with no one to leave her with so I made it work.
 
...Some of my fondest memories are grocery shopping with my children…especially at the check out….Ok, Sweetie pie, hop down and get anything you want…After pondering what must have looked like a whole wall of candy and goodies to her, she would make her selection of one, sometimes two items, and hold them with both hands tightly to her chest. She was a happy little girl. I often wondered why she didn’t go for the “good stuff’…you know, Snickers, Milky Way, Hershey Bars with Almonds, etc…. It was always the kid stuff…the inexpensive stuff…Anyway, she managed to grow up, is very healthy, has a beautiful smile with sparkling white teeth, and I managed not to go bankrupt in the process. All in all a very positive experience…If you have never allowed a child be a “kid in a candy store” …ya don’t know what you’re missin…Today, almost every time she comes home she brings me some candy…....….the “good stuff”;)

Bless the beast, and especially the children, for they have no voice.

Bravo, Uncle Bob. A sensible approach with outstanding results.
 
I am taking it personally. I'm not understanding the lack of understanding and sympathy for a person in a grocery store having a bad day with a child and attempting to move along.
Have you ever stopped to think this was not how thier trip started out?
Maybe that poor woman had been blindsided by this howling fit and could not finish another time, and quite possibly she could use your smile and not your sneer because your children never would have done that?
Maybe her children never do either, and she is horrified more than you can imagine that all these people are listening to it.
I apologize if I sound upset, but I really would rather give the poor parent an understanding smile for doing the best they could than an angry look for not "shutting that kid up".
 
What about the people riding a handicap cart???We must be invisible...so many times people walk in front of one and give a dirty look..(I am very good driving one and can stop on a dime...thank goodness) they need to look where they are going. People seem to zone out in a store...Blocking the aisle is my peeve.

Children crying ...look at your watch..is it nap time? Is it lunch time? there usually is a reason. Not just because they want something.
 
1) When they bag for u and put the tomatoes on the bottem, then something big and heavy on the top. Or, dont put all the frozen stuff in the same bag, even if I lumped them together already.

2)When they either dont know what the vegetable or fruit is, or they dont know the code for the vegetable or fruit.

3) when the item is scanned , but not registered in the computer and no one knows how to enter it, then they have to find someone with the key to the register ......

4)When you bought a leaky milk without knowing it ( even after checking it 100 times) and u find out when u get home.

5)when the crappy bags they give u either tear as u are loading them into your car, or one of the handles to the bag ( or both) rip as u are carrying it.

6) the person with 15 things in the 10 or under aisle.

7) the unorganized , expired coupon person is in front of you.

8) the person with the longest list in the world is in front you at the deli counter ( yes im a vegetarian, but i get the cheese and salads from there) and there is only one person helping out.

9) when u get to the store earlier than the bread truck arrives, or before they baked their own bread, so u have to rifle through the stale stuff to find something semi soft because u are too lazy to make the return trip

10) the people who dont use the tongs to pick out the rolls and touch everyone. At least if u are not going to use them, just buy the one that u touched.

11) milk that has an expiration date the same or very next day, and ther are no others to choose from.

these are just off the top of my head
im sure ill think of others.
 
People who park in handicapped spaces just because they are using a car that has a handicapped sticker. You didn't "buy" the space. If you don't need it, don't use it! I've seen perfectly healthy (and young) people using these spaces because they are only going to be in the store "for a minute" and then someone who is handicapped comes along and has to park and walk to get to the store. I really wish they would enforce those spaces more.

I am pretty understanding when kids are crying because they are tired and cranky. My kids are grown but I remember times when I didn't have a choice. You have to go to the store when you have to go to the store. You can't necessarily plan a "special trip". It's not like when you are going to a restaurant (which by the way is where I am pretty intolerant of screaming kids), you don't have to go to a restaruant (if your kids do act up while you are there, you can always get to go boxes), you have to go to the grocery store and sometimes you can't plan it around their nap. Now kids running wild is another story....
 
Re: bagging, I must second Jeekinz in that I place my groceries on the belt the way I want them bagged. Let's face it - checkout folks are probably not neurosurgeons in training. They've taken a job they need & most probably aren't out to win the "Best Checkout Person" award. That said, I put my cold & frozen items together, veggies & fruit together, fragiles (eggs, chips, etc.) together, etc., etc. Seems to end up okay.

Re: handicap carts - I do wish more people would WAKE UP & help these folks out. I'm not patting myself on the back when I say that several times a month I make a point of helping either someone in a handicap cart or an elderly person without enough "reach" get something from a high shelf. I mean, really, are you in such a big rush that you don't notice the person in the cart staring up at a bunch of beets or whatever in produce that they can't possibly reach? Or those beans over in canned goods? It probably takes me half a second, yet the good feeling lasts all day.

Re: out-of-control children, I fully agree with Uncle Bob. I'm completely against abuse, but man my parents would have tanned my little hiney if I acted half as obnoxious as I see kids act today. Thus, not only were we very well-behaved & got to go shopping & to very good restaurants at a very young age, but we never felt "abused" & didn't grow up to be serial killers, etc., etc., because of our few well-deserved hiney-smackings - lol!!

Edited to add: Re: handicapped parking. Yes, I too despise folks who use handicapped parking WITHOUT THE PROPER TAGS. However, if a car does have the proper tags, you have absolutely NO business deciding what constitutes "handicapped". I had a serious problem that still made me look like I could jump thru hoops, yet I was instructed by my doctor to walk as little as possible, thus had handicapped tags. I'm sure many ignorant folks (such as the previous poster) wanted to shoot me, but I certainly wasn't going to paste a copy of my medical report on the windshield to justify my parking.
 
There are two things that annoy me more than anything else...
Not enough checkouts when it's busy and also having to listen to some idiot's loud cell phone conversation while waiting in line.
 
Alrighty. I took a deep breath and had a beer.... I'm chill now.

1. Stocking mid-day. They can't put the pallates over to the side a little more.... better yet isn't that what the night-stock shift is for?

2. Running out of very popular sale items, like buy 1 get 2 free..... DUH like somebody isn't gonna pass on most of that??

3. Where I shop you bag it yourself. I prefer it that way. However they do have on weekends different fundraising groups, usually kids, come in to bag and you put your money in the box on the way out. I do not like anyone touching my stuff or packing it. I tell them no thanks but drop $$ in the box anyway.
Here's 2 bucks, have a nice band trip, don't touch my stuff.
 
Alrighty. I took a deep breath and had a beer.... I'm chill now.

1. Stocking mid-day. They can't put the pallates over to the side a little more.... better yet isn't that what the night-stock shift is for?

2. Running out of very popular sale items, like buy 1 get 2 free..... DUH like somebody isn't gonna pass on most of that??

.

Hmmmm let's see. You don't want them to stock during the day so how are they going to re-stock an item that they're out of? Maybe there's more in the back room but somebody has to bring a pallette out and stock it.

I just can't get excited by any of the stuff that makes so many people angry at the grocery store. So someone is talking on the phone, I do too because sometimes I HAVE to take the call, so you're driving a handicap cart and someone doesn't get out of your way, I used to drive one and every one bent over backwards to help me. So someone is blocking the aisle, just say "excuse me please" and they will move. If you're not using a handicap parking place why would it bother you that someone is even if they don't look like they need it? I have a handicap plate on my car because I used to be handicapped. I very seldom use the space but I feel guilty for taking a space that someone else could use if the lot if full. I can park in anywhere, that other person can only park in public spaces. As long as the bagger doesn't put my eggs underneath my watermelon I could care less how things are bagged. They're all going to get put away in differnt places. Have a little compassion for the poor woman who has to shop with a crying child. She has enough on her plate. Having to wait in line at the checkout counter is my time to "come down" and relax. I just stand there and either people watch, or plan the rest of my day. It's calming for me to wait. Everyone in the store is carrying some kind of load try to help make that load lighter for them by being kind.

Chill out folks, life is too short and getting angry at these things you feel so strongly about will only make your life shorter. I take my time, shop to my heart's contend and don't sweat the small stuff. Shopping for food can be a fun and an uplifting experience. Stay happy. ;)
 
...Chill out folks, life is too short and getting angry at these things you feel so strongly about will only make your life shorter. I take my time, shop to my heart's contend and don't sweat the small stuff. Shopping for food can be a fun and an uplifting experience. Stay happy. ;)



There's nothing wrong with talking about things that bother you. No one here is saying these are major issues in their lives. It's just an opportunity to vent.
 
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