Skip to main content

Thoughts on Shopping

I have noticed a trend among shoppers that really slows down the checkout process. This is what I have observed. I was at Walmart the other day, but I have seen this at many grocery stores as well. This person had a cart full of clothes and food. Items were being rung up and placed in the plastic bags in the bag-go-round device. When the clerk was all done running up the items, she announced to the purchaser that the total was $275 and change. At that moment, the woman buying the items, took her duffle-bag style purse off her shoulder and began searching for a payment method. She was pulling out loose $20 after loose $20 and when she was done handing cash over to the clerk, the clerk said that she was $45.00 short. The woman then took all the cash back and threw it into her purse and began rummaging around and came up with a credit or debit card. She inserted it in the chip reader and pulled it out too soon, so she had to place it in again and it finally worked, she was charged the proper amount, and the clerk helped load the many bags into the cart.

What bothers me about this, all too common, occurrence is that no effort was made to even decide what payment method would be used until the total was given. Cash could have been counted and cards could have been secured while the person was in line, or at least as the items started getting rung up.

At the grocery store, there is a group of people that will just stare at the clerk as things are bing rung up and when the total is announced, then they fumble around and pull out a checkbook and then find the unused check, fumble around for a pen and then begin writing the check. If a person is going to write a check, everything but the amount can be filled in prior to the total being given. Everything but the total can be filled in before they leave their home.

I suppose this is simple common courtesy to keep the line moving as fast as possible. It is rude to be the bottle neck. Granted, there are times when the customer is not at fault. The other day, items were being rung up at a grocery store and right in the middle of the process, the cash register rebooted. When it came back up, those items were hung in some limbo transaction state, so I picked up my items and moved to another register. Things happen, I understand, but people need to do their best to not be the bottle neck any line, whether it be a grocery store or a Walmart or a fast food establishment. We need to figure out what we want and how we are going to pay for it before we get up to the counter. Please!



#Thoughts on Shopping#

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts on Father Brown

There is a show on the BBC that is on American Netflix called Father Brown.  It takes place in 1955 in England, so World War II is still fresh in their minds.  Father brown was in the infantry in  World War I, then became a priest and was a chaplain in World War II.  Now he is an overweight, blading, gentle priest in a small British town. The humor of each episode is that when a crime occurs, the police are notified and Father Brown is usually already there for some other reason.  So Father brown gets involved.  The police jump to conclusions, arrest the wrong person and Father Brown, amateur sleuth, pokes around and figures out the truth and the police look foolish. Once he was arrested for obstruction of justice, during his time in the jail, he figured out who sabotaged the town race and solved the crime.  The district police gave him a commendation, so now the local police tolerate him better. In this show, having a priest as a main character ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thoughts on the 2017 iPhones

Apple released the iPhone 8 a week or so ago.  Apple will release the iPhone X on November 3, 2017.  This is part of Apple’s current annual release of updated phones with better screens, more battery life and a better processor.  I bought my iPhone 7 plus on release day in September of 2016.  I went to the Apple store and bought it.  When thinking about whether I need to update my phone this year, I need to consider a few things. First, is my phone functional or did I break it?  My phone is in good working order.  The screen is not cracked, the non-existent home button still works.  Volume and power and silent switches work.  Mechanically the phone is in good shape.  It took the IOS 11 and IOS 11.01 updates without a problem. The next question is this:  what do I use my phone for and will a faster phone with a better screen help me do these things? Podcasts:  I listen to many podcasts on my phone.  I listen to a mix ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Church Regulation in California

The first part of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States reads Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; Everyone always jumps to the second and third and fourth part of this amendment  and screams about freedom of speech or the freedom of the press.  However, the reason the original people came to America was to get away from religious persecution.  Therefore, the first protection against the government (which is what the amendments are), is about freedom of religion. In California there is a move, ever since 2010 the reduced the number of churches.  Actually, they don’t care if two people meet in a home and call it a church, they want to remove the large church meeting buildings.  This is because church buildings do not pay property or use tax.  Many churches in California, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, have been in their current location for a cen...
Post a Comment
Read more