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jayjayuk
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17 Apr 2014, 4:01 pm

Besides hating supermarkets, their stupid fluorescent lights which seem to set off major panic attacks, and other shoppers, how does your shopping experience go?

Can you shop without knowing what you're going to buy? Or do you have a specific list and you stick to that?

I'm terrible. I tell my partner to stay at home, because when she comes I can be very controlling. She'll put something unexpected in the trolly which gets to me, and I end up putting it back. I have to stick to what it is I went in for, and nobody else can put anything in my trolly. If she holds the trolly, the experience is ruined and I'll just go home. She's a sucker for these "bargains". I try to explain how these "bargains" have been carefully positioned to suck people like her into fooling for them.

If I shop without a list I get the shopping home, then feel like I need to go back out and shop again, but this time for items that I actually want.

I also tend to pick the heaviest item out of the selection. If I'm buying crisps it has to be the heavier bag with the most "crisps" for the money. You would never catch me choosing a packet of Quavers. Rip off's those are. It's like choosing Marshmallows over a chocolate bar. Urgh.

I can get very horrible to people too. Can not stand shoppers that just stand there when they can see your trying to get past. MOVE! And the lady at the till that asks "Would you like any bags". I always reply with "No your ok my shopping walks itself home". Of course I want bags. Then she has the nerve to charge me for them. Why do they charge for a necessity? Many times I've left the shopping and told them to put it all back if they are going to charge me 10p for 10 bags when I'm spending £140 on shopping.

Btw, never pick items from the front. They have the shortest sell by date.

I could go on, but I'd love to hear others gripes with shopping.



IG88
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17 Apr 2014, 4:08 pm

I hate grocery shopping, well, really, being jammed together with slow-moving people who block rows with their baskets and their uncontrolled children. I do not like children.

I usually go with a list most of the time and usually stay within budget.

Also, I find the best time to go for me is 6:00AM-- No one is there besides staff! I have the whole store to myself.

Also, I wear headphones and listen to Death Metal the entire time. That helps, too.

Matthew



jayjayuk
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17 Apr 2014, 4:15 pm

IG88 wrote:
Also, I wear headphones and listen to Death Metal the entire time. That helps, too.


I do this, but I always think people are talking about me and I can't hear them. But then without them all I can hear is that horrible noise of lots of people chattering and bustling about. Out of everything in the store that's all I can hear. That has to be the worst sound ever.



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17 Apr 2014, 4:35 pm

jayjayuk wrote:
And the lady at the till that asks "Would you like any bags". I always reply with "No your ok my shopping walks itself home". Of course I want bags. Then she has the nerve to charge me for them. Why do they charge for a necessity?


Some people bring their own bags or have few enough items that they don't need a bag. Providing bags costs the store money, so they charge for it to cover the cost. A store-provided bags is not a necessity.



jayjayuk
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17 Apr 2014, 4:45 pm

starkid wrote:
jayjayuk wrote:
And the lady at the till that asks "Would you like any bags". I always reply with "No your ok my shopping walks itself home". Of course I want bags. Then she has the nerve to charge me for them. Why do they charge for a necessity?


Some people bring their own bags or have few enough items that they don't need a bag. Providing bags costs the store money, so they charge for it to cover the cost. A store-provided bags is not a necessity.


No, that's a daft business model. It's only the large stores that do it, the smaller stores I have never been charged for a bag. They know they get that many shoppers they can make a profit from the bags. It's only recently stores have been doing this.

Of course a bag is a necessity, and the cost of the production of bags was already accounted for years ago. But they didn't announce to their customers that if they bring their bags to the store they'll get a reduction in food costs because the customer isn't contributing to the production of bags.

It's all to save money for the company, it has nothing to do with the benefit on the customer. And before you say "They do it to reduce pollution", no they don't, this is their marketing edge to attract all the eco friendly shoppers and to make it look like they care about the earth. They pollute the earth in far worse ways than the production of plastic bags - some supermarkets have their own petrol stations. It's purely for profit. Lets not forget the battery farms, and poor living conditions of the animals on the farms they buy their meat from. And the poor meat content of their reformed meat products.

When I shop a bag is a necessity. I should not be expected to take my own bag, or charged for a bag to take my shopping home. And I'll always refuse to pay for them, if they want to restock my £140 worth of shopping on their till over 10p for 10 bags then thats fine by me. It'll cost them more to do that.

Places like Asda in the UK do it best. They give you free normal bags, and charge 10p each for the strong reusable bags. Now that's fair. But it's not fair to automatically expect the customer to pay for a bag.



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17 Apr 2014, 5:00 pm

I like to shop. It gets me out of the house. I never use coupons. I hate coupons. And those special plastic cards. I never have a list. I usually always have a certain amount to spend in mind, and for some strange reason, I just guess, and am usually within 2 dollars of that amount. Sometimes it is just a few cents. As for those awful fluorescent lights. It is like I can hear, and feel them. It's like a flickering fog in my mind. I dont like them either. Neon bar lights are worse. Not into disco ball lights either. However, I love chandeliers. Waiting in line, and balling children is not my forte either. The autistic kids probably make the most noise. I usually go on an off time or day when there is not alot of people.



tetris
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17 Apr 2014, 5:05 pm

I tend to go 7-9pm it's usually very quiet then. I prefer to go by myself as I can go in get everything I need and pay for it within 15-20 minutes, whereas if I go with someone else then it takes an hour. Which is too long in a supermarket. I don't understand how people can wander up and down every aisle, it would be a disaster if I did that. I go in and know exactly what I need. I also use the self service checkout, they're perfect up until there's an unexpected item in the bagging area.

Also, the only shop in the uk I have found charges you for bags is marks and sparks, then they are sightly stronger than usual bags, Aldis might charge but they throw things at you so fast when you check out I never get a bag.



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17 Apr 2014, 5:15 pm

I came into this thread with plenty of issues with shopping loaded up and ready to go, but after reading your first post, jayjayuk, I realized that people like you annoy me far more.

The cashiers have absolutely zero control over store policy, so by acting like a c*nt when you check out, you make their minimum-wage job even more unpleasant than it has to be. Get some decent canvas bags and take them with you, and you'll have an easier time transporting your groceries home. If you care about the environmental harm done by supermarkets, then by all means, emulate Good Neighbors, aka The Good Life, and stay away from them.

If you like Quavers better than other snacks, then Quavers are the best value for you. If value per pound is all that matters, then live on boiled cabbage.

Sometimes sale items make sense, sometimes they don't. If you don't have the intelligence to decipher that, then you probably should avoid them.

My many complaints about supermarkets and the people who shop there never stood a chance when confronted with the type of monumental selfishness you expressed in your post.



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17 Apr 2014, 5:24 pm

jayjayuk wrote:
Besides hating supermarkets, their stupid fluorescent lights which seem to set off major panic attacks, and other shoppers, how does your shopping experience go?

Can you shop without knowing what you're going to buy? Or do you have a specific list and you stick to that?


I have a list that I keep to fairly well. I do grab item not on my list, but generally because I forgot to put them on the list. Sometimes I list general items like "need vegetables" and I grab what is there on sale, unless I have a dish planned that requires specific veggies. Same for fruit.

As for sensory problems in the store I have two things I must do. I wear earphones and listen to music from my ipod, and I wear sunglasses inside the store.

As for the question of bags, some of the places I shop do not include free bags. For those places, if I know before hand, I bring reusable bags or old paper bags. The bag fee is less about store profit, which could be handled by marking everything up a few pence, but an environmental move. Stores are putting a fee per bag on to encourage people to use re-usable bags. Plastic bags specifically are a major litter, pollution source.


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jayjayuk
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17 Apr 2014, 5:28 pm

tetris wrote:
I also use the self service checkout, they're perfect up until there's an unexpected item in the bagging area.


Then you have to wait for the assistant to come over, and put it through. She walks away, and it does it again! Got to love them.



jayjayuk
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17 Apr 2014, 5:36 pm

jrjones9933 wrote:
I came into this thread with plenty of issues with shopping loaded up and ready to go, but after reading your first post, jayjayuk, I realized that people like you annoy me far more.


Thankfully you don't work at the stores I shop at, you'd dislike me as a customer :D

jrjones9933 wrote:
The cashiers have absolutely zero control over store policy, so by acting like a c*nt when you check out, you make their minimum-wage job even more unpleasant than it has to be.


That's hardly my problem. I am not going to get ripped off because someone doesn't like their minimum wage job.

jrjones9933 wrote:
If you like Quavers better than other snacks, then Quavers are the best value for you. If value per pound is all that matters, then live on boiled cabbage.


Boiled cabbage is nice.

jrjones9933 wrote:
Sometimes sale items make sense, sometimes they don't. If you don't have the intelligence to decipher that, then you probably should avoid them.


Yes "sometimes" they can. Rarely for me, hence MY opinion - which seems to clash with yours. I think you'd have to lack intelligence to be suckered into their forceful in store advertising. It's generally the non intelligent types that fool for them. There's always a reason behind their marketing tactic to shift their products. It takes intelligence to understand why, not the other way around.

jrjones9933 wrote:
My many complaints about supermarkets and the people who shop there never stood a chance when confronted with the type of monumental selfishness you expressed in your post.


I fail to see how being smart about shopping, and avoid being ripped off and suckered into tactical marketing ploys is selfish?



Last edited by jayjayuk on 17 Apr 2014, 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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17 Apr 2014, 5:37 pm

jayjayuk wrote:
No, that's a daft business model....

Of course a bag is a necessity,...

It's all to save money for the company, it has nothing to do with the benefit on the customer. And before you say "They do it to reduce pollution",


None of your comment responded to anything in my comment. I never claimed that the policy was a good business model or that it was for the benefit of the customer. And if you think that a bag provided by the store is a necessity, and wonder why you must pay for it, reflect that the food is a necessity, and you must pay for that.



tetris
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17 Apr 2014, 5:39 pm

jayjayuk wrote:
tetris wrote:
I also use the self service checkout, they're perfect up until there's an unexpected item in the bagging area.


Then you have to wait for the assistant to come over, and put it through. She walks away, and it does it again! Got to love them.


I know, though you still don't need to speak to them, because the machine is shouting what is wrong.



jayjayuk
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17 Apr 2014, 5:42 pm

starkid wrote:
jayjayuk wrote:
No, that's a daft business model....

Of course a bag is a necessity,...

It's all to save money for the company, it has nothing to do with the benefit on the customer. And before you say "They do it to reduce pollution",


None of your comment responded to anything in my comment. I never claimed that the policy was a good business model or that it was for the benefit of the customer. And if you think that a bag provided by the store is a necessity, and wonder why you must pay for it, reflect that the food is a necessity, and you must pay for that.


I'm paying for the price of the bags when I buy the food. Supermarkets are smart. They price their food to account for the production of the bags, which is what I said in my last post. I'm already paying for that. As I already said, do they offer discounts to customers who bring their own bags because they don't contribute to the production of bags?

They likely take the common items such as bread, milk, butter, baby products, toothpaste, soap etc and use those to ensure they get a definite return on the production of bags. The 1p per bag is just complete profit.

There's an article on it somewhere that explains it better than I can. I'll find it.



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17 Apr 2014, 6:47 pm

The grocery store along with other places I get taken to is one where I'm usually wearing a hat shades and ear buds, and stay as close to a parent as possible. Lots of times They will leave me in the magazine section to browse, which I like.



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17 Apr 2014, 7:41 pm

I dislike you already, jayjayuk, as I would dislike anyone who enjoys getting irate at people who can't fight back, and who considers 10p worth ruining his own day -- let alone someone else's. I have no patience with someone so fragile that he can't stand his lover putting an unexpected item into his shopping cart. Self-centered might make my point better than selfish, although both apply, but I expect that you consider the center of everyone's priorities your natural position, and self-centeredness your natural right. Narcissists have that kind of immunity to reasoned criticism.

I can't wait to see what kind of conspiracy theories you have been reading to come up with these bizarre ideas about their business model. You might Google up the floating island of discarded plastic bags while you look for it, although I suspect that you consider that kind of thing "not your problem" as well.