Pages

Wednesday 21 December 2016

Stuck at the checkout



More on Sainsbury's from Wiggia

Yesterday I took my wife to Sainsbury's. The checkout queue was long, an area Sainbury's for some reason never make an effort to improve. Self check?. But I digress, nothing seemed to move and there was a lot of activity in the till area so it didn't make sense.

A few minutes later still no movement but I could see the elderly couple loading their trolley at the front and thought Christ they must have purchased a lot as they were filling two trolleys. This made me look more closely and I realised they were shopping for the street. Several dividers on the belt were shopping that was all theirs or was all for their friends.

I am not sure how many separate lots there were as I was late to realise but certainly four and as I watched the progress, the last two involved not just separate payment but vouchers as well that all had to be validated. We jumped ship at that point as they belatedly opened another cashpoint but I watched across the aisle as they plodded on filling filling filling. 

Then a voice of despair from the back of the queue, "whats going on, get on with it."

They really should have a warning notice they can flash on checkpoints that have shoppers buying for everyone in the street, something like avoid, flashing in large red capital letters, or alternatively make them go to the back of the queue for each separate load.

6 comments:

James Higham said...

It is that time of year though. I'm expecting that sort of thing on Friday.

Sam Vega said...

I love our local Sainsburys at Christmas. Being in the centre of Cambridge it is relatively empty, as all the students have gone home to mum for Christmas. I went there earlier this evening, and we only waited about thirty seconds at the till.

It's lovely over the summer as well. Even tourists aren't as bad as students. The really bad time is early October, when hordes of completely lost 18 year olds mill about and pretend that this isn't the first time they've ever been shopping on their own. A friend of ours has been known to intervene in a mumsy way: "Put three bottles of that wine back, make sure you've got some fresh veg, and do you know that you've just bought coffe beans rather than ground? You need to eat something other than pizzas, and do try to write a shopping list in advance!"

Edward Spalton said...

Reminded me of Christmas 1981, which was unusually snowy, in our local co-op at the bottom of our street where Sainsbury got a mention.

The shop was full and, as usual, only one till was operating.

The lady shop assistants were all of a certain age and had been introduced to the trade during rationing and austerity.

One of them put us right .

" Speak up now! Let us hear it! We don't have to wait like this at Sainsbury's, do we?
You lot are only in here because it's snowing"


It could have been a Les Dawson caricature or an Alan Bennett sketch.

Mind you, this way of running things had advantages for locals. Some time later there was a bakery strike. The co-op was not involved.
All the bread went under the counter. Locals could ask and get it. Strangers were told there was none.

Scrobs. said...

Last summer, I was promoted to 'Sweet Pea' by our favourite checkout girl.

Sh always admits that she can't remember everyone's name, so someone is called 'Honey', another 'Darling' etc etc..

But she told me with a wink that 'Sweet Pea' is for her favourites, so I'm in for a good Christmas aren't I!

I must check with Mrs O'Blene what she's been called lately...

wiggiatlarge said...

I ventured forth with No1 today for my cheese fest at Waitrose, it was not really crowded but for some reason there was panic in the air ! as customers scuttled around with that worried there wont be anything left look and amongst them, the Tristrams and Henriettas plus retired Colonels who only come out once a year, were some of the rudest people I have encountered in a supermarket, upper class my arse !

Whilst waiting for an elderly lady to negotiate her way clear a man behind me shouted "whats going on I'm coming through and pushed old lady shelf stacker woman with enormous filled trolley out of the way and tried the same with me but I was to big for him, unbelievable and he was still muttering as he strode off, there were other I'm first your last no acknowledgment types on parade as well.
Quite extraordinary as there was a crowd for a normal day but it was like the January sales.

Sam, when we lived near Saffron Walden we used to shop in Cambridge, and the difference when the students went home made it a unique shopping experience as you say, they used to have a very good Oddbins in Regents St as well.

A K Haart said...

James - grit your teeth and promise yourself a drink afterwards.

Sam - our Co-op is always quiet and there are never any students. We should go there more often.

Edward - we used to have a Co-op at the bottom of our street too. One day the manager had to sort something out and my wife noticed he had a hole in his trousers. We've had a soft spot for the Co-op ever since. Not that soft, but softish.

Scrobs - it's "my duck" round here. Sometime "sweetheart" but not often.

Wiggia - so Waitrose is rather rough in spite of the prices? Maybe I'll stick with the genteel Co-op.