5 things supermarket employees find very annoying
Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: 5 things supermarket employees find very annoying.
You probably mean well, but with these five habits in the supermarket, you should really stop. Why? It's incredibly annoying, that's why.
Some people do their shopping so efficiently, they are already on their bike before anyone has noticed they were in the supermarket. You could call them supermarket ninjas: fast and silent. On the other hand, you have people who see their shopping round as an individual expression of their unique personality. And what do you call those people? Annoying. If you recognize your own behavior in one of these five points, stop it immediately.
#1: You share tips and recipes
You can cook amazingly well! And you love to share that art with everyone around you. People at home are completely done with your Masterchef-like feedback on everything that comes to the table, from speculaas to mashed red beets, but beyond your front door lies a whole world that craves your wisdom. You think. That's why you approach people who look surprised at a celeriac and tell them about your incredibly delicious celeriac with rosemary and sage, what you can do with a cantaloupe, and what always goes wrong with roasted vegetables. Hold on: did someone ask for your opinion? Do they need your help? Not really, so just leave that unsolicited advice alone.
#2: Your ethical compass is off
You always pay close attention to what you buy and what not. Products that are not fair trade you leave nicely on the shelf. And eggs from battery hens? Please no, you know exactly how those chickens are kept. When you see someone with a jerrycan of milk in their cart and a few packs of cheap ground meat, you can't help but point out that with that purchase they are contributing to animal suffering and the decline of Mother Earth. You also know exactly where the health food aisle is and which local products are for sale in this supermarket. You are probably right, but that know-it-all behavior is excruciating, so just stop it. As a critical consumer, you might be better off focusing on writing reviews online or doing an undercover job for the Consumers' Association.
#3: The divider is your responsibility
Someone places their groceries on the conveyor belt, but the divider – you know, that triangular thing to separate your groceries from those of the neighbors – isn't there yet. You know what, you lean over the cart of the person in front of you and place the divider so you can start unloading your items. You're welcome! Uh, no, because that bag of cat litter that was in cart number one, you overlooked. And the fragile items still need to be placed on the conveyor belt. What you are doing this way is pushing other people to your hyperactive pace. Relax, leave that divider alone and give other people time to calmly display their groceries.
#4: Just clean up the mess
Not a pretty sight: that rack with brochures and free magazines is a mess. And all the shopping bags are mixed up. You intervene, you neatly stack all the brochures and scrapbooks, sort the empty boxes right away, and throw away the leftover receipts. Hold on there, Truus the Ant, because with your fuss you make the cashier feel like she has been working in a pigsty until you came along to set things straight. Good job! And no, you don't need to tidy up the bulletin board with the advertisement flyers, and leave that newspaper stand alone. What's wrong with you, a bit neurotic?
#5: Please, a cart!
You see a teenager in his supermarket shirt with a long line of shopping carts driving from the parking lot to the revolving door and you think: I'll just give him my cart so he doesn't have to go back to the parking lot again, nice right? But such a moving train of carts has no brakes, the cart boy is already sweating profusely between his shoulder blades and then he still has to say ‘thank you‘ to you. Don't do that, just place the cart neatly at the collection point in the parking lot and let those people do their job calmly.
