I wish i could understand supermarket mentality here, i really do. Like the driving I`ll never get used to it.
For example today I went at a quiet period, arrived to an near empty car park and someone had decided to park across one of the lanes of the car park in a big 4x4 toyota truck right in front of the entrance. They must have thought the wide grey area between the white lines wasnt where cars drive but in fact where 4x4 owners can park their big trucks and egos. Quality!
So anyway, went in to do our weekly shop. Tried to find carrots and potatoes, none on the shelves!? Went to get onions, they looked like theyd been run over on the route somewhere. Went to get some blue cheese nothing, terma - none, cornflakes - nada,Thoughts of Venezuela were creeping in.
Finished shop and went to the checkouts. 20+ tills and only two were staffed. About 6 people queuing, I check their trolleys to work out which might go faster. First 2 people in our queue went quite fast and then , theres always one, the guy in front of me with the full trolley. The cashier started putting all his goods through and he was just watching. Then when the Kilimanjaro mountain of food in front of his face got too much and things started to fall off , he decided he`d start bagging up, as slow as is possible. The cashier then started to help him, I was thinking of helping him aswell, she filled 5 bags whilst he was still confused about what he should put in his first empty bag, the big bag of cheesy puffs or his brains that had dribbled out of his ears earlier. So he gave up, confused, still holding the cheesy puffs and went back to watching the cashier fill the rest of his shopping into bags.
Meanwhile, I was putting the contents of my trolley onto the conveyor belt, I was taking it slow as it seemed we`d have all day, so the guy behind me thought he`d try it on and start putting his shopping on the belt as well even though I still had half a trolley full to unload. So I had to ask him to push back his shopping to get all of mine on the belt.
Then once the guy in front had all his shopping bagged up, he realised he`d forgotten some toilet rolls. So off he went . A minute later he came back with the toilet rolls and 3 women. These women and their 20 items of shopping all came past me , not a word was said, and then the penny drops, they were all one family. Its the good old Argentinan trick of getting someone to queue up and then when they get to the front of the queue, in come the rest of the family for a cheeky shopping drop at the last second. Its like the "hand of god" for supermarkets/banks/post offices/airports/delete as applicable.
Then to add to my disbelief ,a couple of items of the wifes part of the shop didnt have bar codes on. So the shop staff had to go and find replacements. They paid , partly with a credit card, partly in cash , just to speed up the process and left. Again not a word, no gracias, no disculpas, nada. I mumbled "de nada" under my breath as they left.
The staff didnt say a word neither , 45 f*@king minutes I was in the queue! Not a single apology, not a comment, nothing!
Today was the extreme but its not the first time and it does seem like inter-human pleasantries and customer service havent arrived here yet.
I left to go back to the car with my defrosted shopping, and who did I see getting in the 4x4 pickup. You guessed it. I had to laugh/cry.
For example today I went at a quiet period, arrived to an near empty car park and someone had decided to park across one of the lanes of the car park in a big 4x4 toyota truck right in front of the entrance. They must have thought the wide grey area between the white lines wasnt where cars drive but in fact where 4x4 owners can park their big trucks and egos. Quality!
So anyway, went in to do our weekly shop. Tried to find carrots and potatoes, none on the shelves!? Went to get onions, they looked like theyd been run over on the route somewhere. Went to get some blue cheese nothing, terma - none, cornflakes - nada,Thoughts of Venezuela were creeping in.
Finished shop and went to the checkouts. 20+ tills and only two were staffed. About 6 people queuing, I check their trolleys to work out which might go faster. First 2 people in our queue went quite fast and then , theres always one, the guy in front of me with the full trolley. The cashier started putting all his goods through and he was just watching. Then when the Kilimanjaro mountain of food in front of his face got too much and things started to fall off , he decided he`d start bagging up, as slow as is possible. The cashier then started to help him, I was thinking of helping him aswell, she filled 5 bags whilst he was still confused about what he should put in his first empty bag, the big bag of cheesy puffs or his brains that had dribbled out of his ears earlier. So he gave up, confused, still holding the cheesy puffs and went back to watching the cashier fill the rest of his shopping into bags.
Meanwhile, I was putting the contents of my trolley onto the conveyor belt, I was taking it slow as it seemed we`d have all day, so the guy behind me thought he`d try it on and start putting his shopping on the belt as well even though I still had half a trolley full to unload. So I had to ask him to push back his shopping to get all of mine on the belt.
Then once the guy in front had all his shopping bagged up, he realised he`d forgotten some toilet rolls. So off he went . A minute later he came back with the toilet rolls and 3 women. These women and their 20 items of shopping all came past me , not a word was said, and then the penny drops, they were all one family. Its the good old Argentinan trick of getting someone to queue up and then when they get to the front of the queue, in come the rest of the family for a cheeky shopping drop at the last second. Its like the "hand of god" for supermarkets/banks/post offices/airports/delete as applicable.
Then to add to my disbelief ,a couple of items of the wifes part of the shop didnt have bar codes on. So the shop staff had to go and find replacements. They paid , partly with a credit card, partly in cash , just to speed up the process and left. Again not a word, no gracias, no disculpas, nada. I mumbled "de nada" under my breath as they left.
The staff didnt say a word neither , 45 f*@king minutes I was in the queue! Not a single apology, not a comment, nothing!
Today was the extreme but its not the first time and it does seem like inter-human pleasantries and customer service havent arrived here yet.
I left to go back to the car with my defrosted shopping, and who did I see getting in the 4x4 pickup. You guessed it. I had to laugh/cry.
