Grocery stores -- the positive side
Yeah, we've covered the ill-mannered. But what about the pleasant surprises? Have you ever done something for someone that has spontaneously pleased them? Have you ever been the recipient of something unexpectedly nice?
On one occasion, I encountered an older woman contemplating the cost of corn dogs and I suddenly felt an urge to let her spluge. When I got to the cash register (this is a small mom 'm pop store) I described the woman to the clerk and handed her some extra cash and asked her to use that to pay for some of the woman's groceries. I don't know why that woman's penny-pinching touched me so much, but I just felt a need to help her afford a better meal.
I've also, on occasion, offered to take care of just-emptied carts for young moms wrestling with groceries and kids. I'm sure it's hassle to deal with loading the kid(s) and and groceries in the car and then have the empty cart. What are you supposed to do? Leave the kids alone while you return the cart? Leave the cart running loose in the parking lot? When I see a mom like that, I usually offer to take the cart back along with mine. It's not a big deal for me to snag an extra cart with mine.
So, have you gotten unexpected help from strangers? Have you offered unexpected assistance?
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17 Comments:
I am very short (5'1") and I am forever having to ask clerks for help with high shelves, but as I am sure you all know, clerks are not always available. I have no shame in asking a taller person in the aisle for help, but often people offer long before I have to ask. It's awesome, as I seem to keep wanting stuff high up!
I love running into someone and having a foodie talk, whether they or I are buying a fun, new, or interesting item and the other wants to know how to make it, eat it etc. I have been known to butt into a conversation about a neat food item too if I know what to do with it...but that is just me being a nosy food addict! :)
Since I am short I don't mind being asked to be the one to get down on the floor and reach way into a bottom shelf for someone who can't, and I will offer if someone is having trouble.
I am forever seeing people take each others' carts, and give a hand to older folks/watch out for the motorized carts. I almost never see rudeness there.
One of my most frequented stores employs people with disabilities, and I actually find that makes for a more pleasant shopping experience. They have never bagged my items wrong (like the other stores often do...grrrr) and are unfailingly polite when speaking. Several remember me whenever I go in (which is like ten times a week!) and are always very kind.
I love love love grocery shopping anyway, and rarely have problems, but these things make it all the nicer.
sadiepix at 10:19PM on 07/17/08
I have been friends with the staff at my favorite grocery store since before I got my drivers license - and it's no small store, either.
I'm a regular for late-night run ins for vegetables (especially bulk mushrooms, because I'm an addict) and both the produce guys and the cashiers always smile at me and joke about my vegetabley ways.
They've employed some people I've known since elementary school, many of which I happen to not be too fond of... but hey, aside from those few, I absolutely love their staff.
my favorite (and very knowledgeable) produce stocker sees me coming and stops what he's doing to try and persuade me to buy a 5 pound case of mushrooms... because he knows every so often I'll give in. free fruit and vegetable samples are always, always offered to everybody- and always, always accepted!
gretchenx5 at 3:28AM on 07/18/08
oh and @sadiepix - I always offer my two cents about interesting foods!! I love it when people ask me questions or don't mind answering mine - its always refreshing to know i'm not the only foodie weirdo in the vicinity!
gretchenx5 at 3:30AM on 07/18/08
When I was at Whole Foods in Tampa once, the produce guy asked me how I was going to cook the arties I had in my cart. They take a long time to cook and that constitutes a long time to explain but he listened raptly as I explained it.
I was in Idaho for Christmas one year and stopped to buy lobsters for Christmas Eve Dinner. I asked the seafood counter girl (hardly a fish monger) for females. She looked at me blankly. I told her to hold them up and I'd tell her which were female. Another customer asked me why I chose female lobsters and I explained the benefits. By the time I was finished talking to that customer, I realized there were quite a few other customers gathered around, not to mention the counter girl. It was fun. I felt like an ambassador of Italian Seafood Cookery.
therealchiffonade at 5:13AM on 07/18/08
I'm 6'2" so am frequently asked to reach things on the top shelves for people. I enjoy swapping ideas with other shoppers about various foods and how to prepare them. Can't walk in the door without visiting the various managers -- Marcel in seafood, Jerry in produce, Calvin in dairy, Cindy in the bakery. I've been yakking with Marcel long enough that we share family stories, and we always have recipes to talk about. Grocery shopping is a social break for me in my busy week.
ride&cook at 7:53AM on 07/18/08
Most recently, I passed a man repeatedly in different aisles, talking on his cell phone with nothing in his cart, looking more and more frantic. I finally eavesdropped for a moment and discovered he had been sent to get some really obscure items and was trying to get directions from someone over the phone. I gestured to him to follow me and while he talked and confirmed the items I led him around the store to find them. It was fun and we were giggling pretty hard by the end.
I had lots of fun exchanges with people when I used to shop in my chef coat too.
Cary at 9:02AM on 07/18/08
I try to always offer to help older ones reach high and also those in wheelchairs. I broke my ankle yesterday and had to go to the maket to get some meds from the doc and i was in a motorized wheelchair and i had a nice woman reach high for me without asking. Niceness makes me smile. FYI i am one of those people you hate with 2 kids(fighting) and a full cart possiably blocking you. (I always say sorry-it's not on purpose)
love2cook at 10:32AM on 07/18/08
I'm in my local grocery store on a daily basis,
I'm 5'2", so when I can't reach my favourite brand of chicken stock on the top shelf--it makes my day when someone random gets it down for me instead of me struggling to climb the shelves!
On the flip-side; Last week a gentleman in a wheelchair was trying SOO hard to reach the Shout on the top shelf. I didn't want to see him struggle any more so I walked over and handed it to him.
Grocery-store Karma maybe? lol
hungrychristel at 12:00PM on 07/18/08
@Love2Cook, it's not that I dislike the kids. After all, they're just being kids. And if the mom is distracted by enticing label reading, that's understandable, too. What irks me is when the mom sees me coming, sees the kids dashing in and out like squirrels playing in traffic, and she doesn't rein them in for the few seconds it will take for me to pass by them. And in the back of my head is the thought that if I was paying as little attention as the mom was, I would run a kid over and it would be my fault. And that scares me a little bit. I don't want to hurt a kid.
dbcurrie at 12:17PM on 07/18/08
I am a Negative Nancy so I find it funny how slow the traffic is on "good" threads versus the irate ones.
I tend to keep away from people at grocery (any) stores. Depending on the question, I act like I don't understand English. I hate nosey people who ask me about the stuff in my cart. I don't like being approached at all. It's the reason why I stopped carrying my fur bag (that sounds awkward). People kept approaching me asking if they could feel my purse. My husband with the dirty mind would always smirk.
Anyway, good happenings at the market. Well, it's not me doing the good stuff, unless you consider obsessively parking the cart inside the corral so there is no possibility it'll roll out. Everyone should be doing this! It annoys me when lazy @#$#@ just leave their cart everywhere. Oh no, I'll have to take 10 whole seconds out of my day to park/return the cart.
My husband compliments good baggers. They are so few in number.
I'm one of those people who turns around and pushes the cart into the person who nips my heels with the front of the cart and says, "Pay the fck attention." An apology isn't good enough. More times than not, they're on their cell phone, so I'm considering it my good deed since most people start paying attention after that.
A few months ago, my husband was shocked when I picked up a cane on the floor that someone had dropped. I usually walk over stuff that falls to the ground in public areas because I do not like to touch stuff that touches the ground where people could have shuffled over dog poop, public bathrooms, etc.
My husband usually helps people reach for stuff. He's used to that being with me since I'm almost 5' tall and he's 6'3".
Cassaendra at 12:25PM on 07/18/08
At big grocery stores with loyalty cards, I like to be able to offer to swipe my card for people who don't have one. Once I was behind a man who didn't speak much English and was only buying a gallon of milk but was counting it out down to the penny. The cashier tried to get him to ask me if he could borrow my card, but he didn't quite get the idea. It was so easy to save someone a dollar or two! It would have been nice to do more, but everything starts small.
scornell at 1:34PM on 07/18/08
Oh yeah, that reminds me of the time a cashier swiped her store card when we didn't have a card. I was visiting my parents in Hawaii and wandered in looking for some snacks. It saved me $5.
I'd offer to do that for people here and it's a win-win situation. They get cheaper food, I get $ discount for gasoline. $2 off per gallon used to mean almost free gas...
Cassaendra at 2:24PM on 07/18/08
I almost always enjoy going to the grocery store. For some reason, none of the things in the "negative" thread really bother me. I like to see my neighbors, and spend some time picking out the best produce. If the checkout line is long, I use the time to catch up on my thinking(!), or read trashy magazines. I like it when the cashier says thank you, have a nice day, and I tell them the same. I also love it when I only have one item and someone offers to let me go ahead of them in line.
So yeah, I'm a big grocery store dork.
Kerosena at 3:50PM on 07/18/08
Holler of thanks to you tall folks! (@ride&cook)
I wish I could get into more foodie talk at the stores...I love picking people's brains over food!
My poor DH hates grocery shopping, and gets grumpy as heck, but for some reason feels like he has to be with me to do it (like I will think he is making me do "women's work" if he does not go...goober) so that dampens my fun.
I like to zoom around the store, I don't care if I have to go back and forth a few times for forgotten things, and I really like to just peruse each aisle and look at things!
I even like going to three or four stores in a day....it feels like a treat to me!
Some folks like to shop for clothes and shoes....I want produce and good cheese! :D
@cary--I know what you mean! I have been at the stores in my whites and those must just be a sign to ask questions! I had to keep explaining I was not a "regular chef" but a pastry one, though I was a foodie and would talk as long as they wanted.
For those of you not loving shopping, do any stores near you offer grocery delivery? I know that is becoming more widespread now, and might help those of you who are completely adverse to humanity.
sadiepix at 4:51PM on 07/18/08
sadiepix, we are averse, not adverse :)
stumbler02 at 7:58PM on 07/18/08
I remember grocery shopping one very hot afternoon after a very long and tiring day at work, with my then 3-y/o son in the cart asking for everything we passed ("But Mommy I NEED it!"), and every checkout line backed up halfway into the aisles. After I finally made it through the checkout with my piled-high cart and whiny kid, the woman who had been in line behind me followed me to my car, helped me unload all my groceries while I bucked my son in his car seat, and took the empty cart back for me. It literally brings tears to my eyes thinking about it, and that was two years ago. That woman, whoever she is, will forever be stamped in my memory as an ANGEL and deserves a special place in heaven for her random act of kindness!!!
buffy at 7:18PM on 07/19/08
One time I decided to go all out for our little shindig and have condiments for the drinks and whatnot; One of the special cocktails I wanted to prepare was a mojito with a stick of sugar cane as a stirrer. Here in NYC where does one get a sugar cane?... Whole Foods! The produce staff in whole foods were SO nice and helped me select a nice sugar cane stalk, and demonstrated how to pick, process it and even gave me some tips on how to store/use the sugar cane. Mojitos never tasted better!
arathi at 11:18PM on 07/19/08