The End

This will be my last post. I have come to realize that there are many crazy things that happen in a grocery store, but I have also realized that there are not as many crazy things that I thought when I began this blog. I had a few silly stories and I always think that I am going to have something odd happen to me at work, but since I started the blog it seems that not as much had happened.    

                I also think that since it was the winter, not as many people came in as if it were the summer time. I think that in a month or two I will start to get more crazy stories because there will be more people coming through the store. Plus, I have only worked two days out of the seven in a week so I did not have as much time in the store as I have before school, so that may have played a role in the decline of weird people and stories.

                I am glad I was able to maintain this blog, although at times I had to think hard of past stories that have happened. I will probably save these stories and look at them a few years from now and get a good giggle from them. If this summer gives me a good amount of stories I may continue this blog, but I would have to expand more on it and I am not sure if I want a blog to be like a part time job.

                Well hopefully these stories have made you laugh a little bit and made you feel a bit smarter. Thank you for reading=]

Oh no...my keys!

            This weekend something happened that was, no so out of the ordinary, but the woman that it happened to was definitely out of the ordinary.

            I was working customer service, like usual, and a woman came up to the desk and told me that she had locked her keys in the car. This scenario has happened in the store a few times, so I was not alarmed or anything. I asked her if she had AAA or anything like that, that could help her unlock the car. She said she had AAA but her card was locked inside the car with her purse. Also, the car was running. I could not imagine how this woman had managed to do that, but I told her that we can find out the number.          

            I finally got ahold of the number and dialed it for her. She was on the phone for about 15 minutes and when she finally hung up she told me how it would be about an hour and a half until they would get here. She asked if there was any way that someone from the store could drive her to her house right around the corner since she had an extra key. I called the manager and he said it was okay so I asked one of the employees in the bakery if she would mind. She said it was no problem, but the woman would have to wait a few minutes.

            The next thing I knew the woman was telling me how she did not want a ride now and to tell the bakery girl never mind. I asked her why, and she explained that she had locked her house keys in the car too and that her house was locked. So she decided to just wait for AAA.

            I am back a customer service and about 10 minutes later the girl from bakery came over and said she was going to bring the woman to her house to see if she may have left her house open. I was confused at why she would even do that now since AAA should be almost at the store, but I let it go.

            Eventually the woman got home after AAA came and unlocked her door. I just could not believe how extravagant the woman’s problem was. She locked herself out with her purse and keys in the car, while it was running. I had a little giggle out of it, but I was glad she got home.

Lottery CANNOT be closed!

As I have stated in another blog, I have come to learn that people love lottery. There was an incident about a week ago where I actually got attacked because I closed down the lottery machine at the end of the night. That story goes as follows.

            Every night the person working behind the service desk goes home at 8. Before they leave they have to make sure lottery is counted out and that all the transactions match the amount of money in the draw and that things are even. Therefore, lottery needs to be closed down about 15-20 minutes early in order for the counting to be done. I usually close it down about 20 minutes before 8 because I sometimes miss something and need to recount everything.     

            So one night I closed down lottery and had just finished counting everything out and finding that it was perfectly even, when a man walked up and asked if lottery was still open, which happens a lot. So I told him no and that I am sorry. He looked at me and told me that I had to open it back up because he needed to get tickets. I told him that I am sorry for the inconvenience but everything is all counted out so I cannot open lottery back up. He then went on to tell me that it is not 8 yet and I am not allowed to close it until that time. I explained to him how I am only there until 8 and I need to count out lottery before I leave so it needs to be shut down early so I can do that. He then told me about how he was here last week and a woman sold him a ticket 5 minutes before 8 so I should do the same. I again explained to him how everything was already counted out and that if I had just started or was in the middle of counting I would have stopped and sold him tickets and then recounted, but I was completely finished and it was perfect. He went on for a few more minutes about how I am not allowed to do that and how I need to open it for him. I still continued to explain how it is all done and closed. I kept saying that I am sorry, but I did not help. He finally, after about 5 minutes, walked away.

            I wish that lottery could stay open until 8 so things like this will not happen, but when I need to be clocked out by 8 it is hard to do that. I have had people make a sigh sound when I tell them lottery is closed, but this guy was by far the worst that I have experienced.

April Fooool's

            As you all know, April fool’s day was this past Friday. I worked behind customer service, just like I do every Friday. I was expecting some of the older people to try and play some jokes on me, or at least tell me some jokes. I was surprised to find that two hours into my shift that no one was saying anything about April fool’s day. Finally one man showed the April fool’s spirit and played a joke, but not on me, on a customer.

            I had just finished taking care of this one man, and he went to walk away, but turned back around. He looked at me with a little smile and said “Just so you know I put a fake winning lottery scratch off ticket on the floor over there”. I said that was ok and hopefully someone will pick it up. Not even a minute later a man came walking buy and picked it up. He was an older gentleman. He stood there looking at the scratch off for a few seconds and then walked away slowly.

            The man who had planted the ticket was standing to the side watching this man as well, and once the man with the ticket left he came back over to talk to me. He explained how the man who picked it up had an empty cart so it seemed like he was about to start grocery shopping, but once he had the ticker he booked out the door. I found it kind of funny, but then I did feel bad for the guy if he really did think that he won about 3 million dollars. But, I am not sure what ended up happening because the man with the ticket never returned to the store to try and cash it in or anything, so I assume he either went home to show his wife or he found out it was fake and threw it away.

SELF scan

One thing that has come to bother me through the years of working at Stop and Shop is the ignorance of the elder people. You try to explain thing to them, but they do not understand, or they try to tell you how to do your job, but it is completely nothing like you need to do it. The biggest pet peeve that I have with ignorant elder people is when they use self-scan. There are a good number of elder people who go through the self check out with no problems, but there are a few who have completely no idea what is going on.

One time I had a woman just stand in front of the self check out machine for about five minutes. I went over to her and asked her if she needed help with something. She looked at me and said she was waiting for the cashier to come ring up her items. I explained how it was self scan and that she would have to do it herself if she wanted to use it. She walked away.

I honestly do not mind when people do that, and there have been times that I will scan there few items for them because they look so sad that they were waiting for nothing. The people that I mind are the ones who come up to self scan and say “Oh I have never done this before you are going to have to help.” I show them the basics, but then they tell me to just ring everything up and bag it. I do not understand why people who do not know how to work self scan, mind you it is pretty self-explanatory, even come to the lines. It is not that I do not want to help them, I just do not like the fact that they know they cannot understand the concept of the machine, yet they still insist on using it.

The Strange Bagger

I was sitting at the computer; wondering what I should write for my blog this week and then out of nowhere and event that happened about a year ago popped into my mind. I do not know how I did not think of this before. The following story is something that caught me, and the manager, off guard one night.

I was working behind courtesy one day and I noticed a young man hanging around the registers. He ended up being one of the cashier’s cousins. The cashier told him that he had to leave and that he could not stand there with her. Plus other customers were complaining about someone helping them bag who was a random stranger. He left about ten minutes after he was told to leave, but before he walked out him and another young kid, who was shopping with his mother, got into a little bit of a verbal bicker.

The next thing I know the phone rings. So I pick it up like usual and I hear this woman’s voice on the other end yelling. She was telling me that “That kid that was hanging around your cashiers who does not even work here just ran after my son and tried to beat him up. I am calling the cops and coming back inside now so have your manager downstairs so I can speak with him.” I said okay no problem, hung up and got the manager downstairs.

The fight did not end up happening and I do not believe any cops ended up coming, but the randomness and adrenalin from the chaos made this event something crazy and entertaining.

Creepy....Part Two

In the last blog I talked about creepy old men hitting on me. The next story I am about to tell is a bit more direct and freaked me out even more than the first instance.

Last week I was working at customer service and a regular customer came in. I see this guy every week and he always says hi to me and asks me how I am doing. I never found that odd until this day, since many of the regular customers say hi and ask how I am and I do the same in return. So, I see the guy and we wave to each other and he comes over to say hi and whatnot. We were talking and since it was slow and no one was coming up to customer service, he was talking to me for a little longer than usual. We talked about the tsunami and earthquake in Japan and other things that he brought up. Then, out of nowhere, he says “so maybe we can get some lunch together sometime”? I kind of was not sure of what had happened because he mumbles a bit and I was not sure if he was talking to me or about him and his wife getting lunch. So I just dismissed that he even said anything. But, then what he had said was confirmed when he said “so, um, should I get your number or something”? I laughed a little and he said “oh are you too busy?” So I told him yes because I have school and work and I do not have time for anything else. He looked at me and said ok and walked away. I seriously had no idea what to do. I am now scared to talk to that guy, but he is always in the store. So I guess I will have to come up with some sort of plan to avoid him or something.