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I Hate The Supermarket
Jul. 10th, 2012 05:25 pmAnd I Am Pathetically Non-Resiliant
So at the supermarket today this is what happened: the self-checkout terminal was malfunctioning. I like the self checkout area because the counter is down lower than the regular checkout, so I don't have to feel like I'm a little kid barely able to see over the counter, and also I prefer not to have to stand in line (because people push into me with their carts - honestly, I thought this was a normal thing, is it?![[livejournal.com profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zeegeek says NOBODY ever does that to him, but he lives in Seattle where everyone is nice. I live in Philadelphia where everyone is mean. East-coasters? West- coasters? Care to weigh in? Do people push at you with their shopping carts?) and I prefer not to have to interact with the cashier, in order to minimize stupid comments made by both the cashier and the other people in line.
Well. Foiled. The self-checkout terminal wasn't working properly. The touch screen was registering my touch about an inch up and to the right of where I was actually touching. Fine for most stuff, but when I was trying to key in my produce it was a disaster. I was trying repeatedly to hit "L" for "lemon" but it rang up as "organic golden delicious apples" because that was the key above the "L." So... after much contemplation, I finally gave in and hit the "attendant" button. Even though I reallyreally did not want to interact with the attendant. My screen blinked and gave me a message to remove everything from the scanner. I turned around, thinking the attendant had misunderstood, that the terminal was just jammed or something, and tried to make eye contact. No dice. So I touched the button again. He came over, and immediately grabbed the bag of lemons out of my hand and said, "here, do you need help?" and began keying in the code for lemons.
"No, it rang up as apples!" I said, reaching for my lemons back. He voided the apples off and disappeared immediately, leaving me, again, unable to select "L" for lemons because it wasn't registering my touch properly. This time I got cabbage. I pushed the attendant button again. Before he could snatch anything out of my hand, I said, "something is wrong with the screen. I don't want to use this terminal, it's not registering my touch right, the screen is off and it keeps selecting the wrong thing, can you just cancel this and I'll go wait in line?"
But... he's already taken the lemons out of my hands (again) and says, "I'll just do the rest of it for you." He keys in the lemons (which I guess he has the code for memorized, since he works there, and does not need to look it up alphabetically, which is the feature that is malfunctioning) and then keys in my jalopenos incorrectly as long hots (I don't care, if there was a price difference it couldn't have been more than 20 cents anyway, but it's just the principle of the thing - he snatched them out of my hand and then rung them in incorrectly anyway) and I (of course) had to point to the screen and show him that it had rung up "cabbage" instead of going to the "L" screen and please take off the cabbage. Then he scans my scannable items too, because of course I can't scan my own stuff, and presses all the payment buttons for me too.
On my way out I was FUMING but tried to say as politely as possible, "you need to go set that one as out of order, the lookup screen does not work, every button you hit it picks up the one above it, something is wrong with it."
I feel like I speak another language sometimes. Like I say "something's wrong with the terminal" and someone hears "I am not physically able to ring up my produce, do it for me."
And... I am turning into one of those bitter, mean disabled people who hates everyone and everything. If I stay away from the supermarket, will I turn back into myself? Or is that like the ultimate in giving in, and I really AM one of those people if I can't even handle something the self-checkout attendant says to me?
So at the supermarket today this is what happened: the self-checkout terminal was malfunctioning. I like the self checkout area because the counter is down lower than the regular checkout, so I don't have to feel like I'm a little kid barely able to see over the counter, and also I prefer not to have to stand in line (because people push into me with their carts - honestly, I thought this was a normal thing, is it?
zeegeek says NOBODY ever does that to him, but he lives in Seattle where everyone is nice. I live in Philadelphia where everyone is mean. East-coasters? West- coasters? Care to weigh in? Do people push at you with their shopping carts?) and I prefer not to have to interact with the cashier, in order to minimize stupid comments made by both the cashier and the other people in line. Well. Foiled. The self-checkout terminal wasn't working properly. The touch screen was registering my touch about an inch up and to the right of where I was actually touching. Fine for most stuff, but when I was trying to key in my produce it was a disaster. I was trying repeatedly to hit "L" for "lemon" but it rang up as "organic golden delicious apples" because that was the key above the "L." So... after much contemplation, I finally gave in and hit the "attendant" button. Even though I reallyreally did not want to interact with the attendant. My screen blinked and gave me a message to remove everything from the scanner. I turned around, thinking the attendant had misunderstood, that the terminal was just jammed or something, and tried to make eye contact. No dice. So I touched the button again. He came over, and immediately grabbed the bag of lemons out of my hand and said, "here, do you need help?" and began keying in the code for lemons.
"No, it rang up as apples!" I said, reaching for my lemons back. He voided the apples off and disappeared immediately, leaving me, again, unable to select "L" for lemons because it wasn't registering my touch properly. This time I got cabbage. I pushed the attendant button again. Before he could snatch anything out of my hand, I said, "something is wrong with the screen. I don't want to use this terminal, it's not registering my touch right, the screen is off and it keeps selecting the wrong thing, can you just cancel this and I'll go wait in line?"
But... he's already taken the lemons out of my hands (again) and says, "I'll just do the rest of it for you." He keys in the lemons (which I guess he has the code for memorized, since he works there, and does not need to look it up alphabetically, which is the feature that is malfunctioning) and then keys in my jalopenos incorrectly as long hots (I don't care, if there was a price difference it couldn't have been more than 20 cents anyway, but it's just the principle of the thing - he snatched them out of my hand and then rung them in incorrectly anyway) and I (of course) had to point to the screen and show him that it had rung up "cabbage" instead of going to the "L" screen and please take off the cabbage. Then he scans my scannable items too, because of course I can't scan my own stuff, and presses all the payment buttons for me too.
On my way out I was FUMING but tried to say as politely as possible, "you need to go set that one as out of order, the lookup screen does not work, every button you hit it picks up the one above it, something is wrong with it."
I feel like I speak another language sometimes. Like I say "something's wrong with the terminal" and someone hears "I am not physically able to ring up my produce, do it for me."
And... I am turning into one of those bitter, mean disabled people who hates everyone and everything. If I stay away from the supermarket, will I turn back into myself? Or is that like the ultimate in giving in, and I really AM one of those people if I can't even handle something the self-checkout attendant says to me?
