The good thing about Hillmomba is that I can pop into Save A Lot or Country Mart for a few items, without driving the extra five miles to the Devil's Playground, and traipse across a half-acre to find something, then stand in line 15 minutes to pay.
The bad thing about Save A Lot is that they don't have a lot of brand-name items that I might want. Or the version I desire. Like sweet banana pepper rings. Country Mart has them, so that's where I went. The bad thing about Country Mart is that you really gotta watch 'em.
Country Mart is where I've encountered the most expired foods on the shelf. And noticed that despite their proclaimed "sales," the price on the receipt doesn't always show the discount.
Tuesday, I needed those sweet banana pepper rings to go with a pot of beans I'd just made. They were right down an aisle close to the door and the registers. I grabbed them without incident. On the shelf across from them were some sugar-free candies. I picked up three varieties for Farmer H. One of them was a little bag of coconut candies, chocolate covered. They come in a variety pack from The Devil's Playground. Country Mart only has the individual bags. This was one I hadn't seen before.
I was second in line at the register. The lady ahead of me was complaining that she did not get the sale price on something. The Gruff Voice Old Checker apologized, and gave her a refund. She said she'd be sure to let the people in charge of that know.
Gruff Voice Old Checker rang up my peppers, and two of the candy bags. She couldn't get the coconut variety to scan. I told her it didn't matter.
"You can set those aside. I don't have to have them. I was getting them for my husband as a surprise. No big deal."
Gruff Voice Old Checker said she'd get it. She punched in the code numbers on the bag. Twice. Still nothing.
"Really, it's okay. Just set them aside. I'll do without."
No way did I want to stand there waiting for a price check. Gruff Voice Old Checker finally set them down, saying she'd have the people who were in charge of that check into it.
I'm not blaming Gruff Voice Old Checker. It's not her fault. I don't know who's in charge, but it didn't help matters that two gals and a guy were jacking around at the end of that aisle, knocking canned goods off the display they were setting up on the back aisle, having a good ol' time.
Pretty sure whoever was in charge of these errors is quite a bit younger than Gruff Voice Old Checker. Yet she was two-for-two in having to deal with their lackadaisicality.
Peanut butter fixed your beans. It fixes gum in hair. Perhaps smearing the floor of Country Mart (in the area where the goof-offs were) with it would slow down their shenigans?
ReplyDeleteDo your checkout operators have in-store phones beside the register so they can call for price checks and other assistance? We have them here and I used mine quite a bit when the weekly specials were not scanning at the reduced price. "whatever" department, price check on checkout one please" or whichever number checkout I was on. That way they knew right away there was a problem with a particular item and would get the reduced price entered into the system. Because if it isn't entered and scans wrong all day, ALL those customers get refunded, free items. Our bosses hate that.
ReplyDeleteSioux,
ReplyDeleteI think it might. I'm pretty sure that being EXPIRED would not affect peanut butter's effectiveness for that task!
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River,
The Devil's Playground does, but I don't recall anyone from Country Mart doing that. They may HAVE the phones. Whether they work is another matter...
I think Country Mart is willing to take a chance on their customers not looking closely at the receipt.