I Hate The Supermarket
Jul. 10th, 2012 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
exhilarationAnd 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]](https://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?
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-11 02:13 am (UTC)And no, I have never seen anyone touch anyone else with their cart without apologizing profusely. And some times people apologize even if they just get close to hitting someone.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-11 03:32 am (UTC)So... maybe I should start polling people HERE in philly to see if only *I* get run into by carts or what!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-11 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-11 06:58 pm (UTC)At the movie theatre I usually go to, there are 4 ticket kiosks, and only rarely have to actually wait for one - more likely it's just that I don't want to go all the way over to the other side of the lobby to use an empty one so I CHOOSE to wait five minutes for one to free up - but the lines are always mobbed. I always thought it was something to do with people preferring to pay with cash (I don't even know if you can put cash in the kiosks or not, hm...) but yeah, I wonder if all those people in line don't really know what the kiosks are for.
Also, I used to buy my subway tokens from a machine even when there was a window open in the station, and more than once I have had the attendant SHOUT at me to come to the window, that the window is open, that I don't need to use the machine because the window is open - what else do I prefer that is automated... I like the order screens at the Wawas where you just order what you want on the touch screen and a ticket prints out and you go pick it up when it's ready. This avoids, one, the counter person (again) SHOUTING at me when I'm far, far, FAR away from the area you order your food from (and taking care not to make eye contact) CAN I HELP YOU? WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE? MISS! MISS! WHAT CAN I GET YOU? MISS! YOU CAN ORDER NOW! MISS! HELLO! MISS! CAN YOU HEAR ME? HELLO! and it also avoids me having to politely refuse constant upsells (no, I don't want a larger size than what I ordered, no, I don't want more than what I ordered, no, I don't also want this that and the other thing, and so on and so forth...)
Hmmm. Is shouting like that also unheard of in Seattle? Like hitting people with shopping carts? (I have been watching, and I have asked other people - it is NOT just me who gets run into with carts on a regular basis, especially when in line)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-12 01:24 am (UTC)Never experienced the shouting, but then again, we don't have Wawa's here either... or subways. We do have light rail, but they don't have manned attendant windows, just automated machines.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-12 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-14 07:06 pm (UTC)Maybe think about it this way, if an able-looking walkie was using the self-checkout and saying the exact same thing you said, do you think the employee would have stood there and kept doing the process and refusing to listen to them?
no subject
Date: 2012-07-15 08:15 pm (UTC)