Culinary and Kitchen-Related Pet Peeves

[Pam R]

As an owner of a little market I've been afraid to read this topic, but as it turns out we're doing pretty good 

Word.

In response to the paying by credit card comments, as a small shop, everytime you swipe your card, I pay 25 cents US and a small percentage of the cost of the product.  I'm sure bigger stores get better deals from their credit processors, but if you bought a $1 candy bar (which don't exist in my store), it probably cost me 50 cents, and a swipes takes off let's say 29 cents, then the remaining 21 cents is lost to overhead.  So that's the reason to pay cash or check whenever you can.

I'd say 90% of our customers use debit or credit cards - and I don't mind them at all. We pay an average 1.85% on credit card transactions and a flat 8 cents on each debit transaction. Yes, if a customer is buying one chocolate bar, the charge bites, but it averages out with the customer that comes in and spends $300 (8 cent debit charge on that is great). We've also set up our debit/credit machine so that it runs on a high-speed internet connection and processes the charge faster than the cash register prints the receipt (or faster than it takes to make change).

Cherries bother me most of all because I like my cherries a specific ripeness level and want to be able to select just the ones I want.  Yes, I can solve this problem by shopping at farmer's markets etc., but that's not practical on a day-to-day basis.

I tossed $8 worth of cherries out two weeks ago. Since then I have decided not to buy the bags as they have them - I'll take an empty bag and go through the pre-bagged cherries and grapes to choose the ones I want now. The problem is when they come in the plastic containers and are priced per container - I haven't figured out what to do there. But, I do open the containers and check them before buying.

* And a minor beef, people who don't put the divider down behind their stack of groceries even though they know there is someone behind them.  I mean, how hard is it to extend a little courtesy to the world around you?

Double word.

I also hate finding containers of yogurt left out on the shelf, right across the isle from the yogurt cooler. Grr. We have a small store, nothing is very far from wherever a customer is standing at any time - why can't they put things back if they change their minds?

And, why, or why, do things need to be tossed allover the place in the freezers and coolers? I get it - we all need to check for the best before-by dates - but there's no need to rearrange my shelves.

[dockhl]

OHHHHHHHHHH.........................

the people who open up the freezer door and stand there for 5 minutes trying to decide what pizza to get !!!!

[nessa]

Grocery stores wo do not provide the little shopping carts. Either the mini-carts or the two-tiered numbers. I'm dreadfully short, and have a really hard time reaching the bottom of the normal mega-carts. I have to put all my stuff in the little kiddie seat thingamajig. So, I make it a point to shop where they have my size carts.

[BekkiM]

I just thought of another one... People who leave their carts just sitting in the parking spaces after they've emptied them--even if they're only a few steps away from the cart corral. How lazy can you be? A) it takes up parking spaces, B) it results in loss/damage to carts which is only going to be passed along to all of us in the form of higher prices, and C) it's just plain rude!

[Porthos]

I just thought of another one...  People who leave their carts just sitting in the parking spaces after they've emptied them--even if they're only a few steps away from the cart corral.  How lazy can you be?  A) it takes up parking spaces, B) it results in loss/damage to carts which is only going to be passed along to all of us in the form of higher prices, and C) it's just plain rude!

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I wish the major chain store I shop at offered cart return places. There are 6 aisles of parking at at the end of 2 is a small area demarcated by some curbing and it isn't big enough for the larger of the 2 cart sizes available. I do return carts when I can but the store needs to provide the place to return them.

IMHO Kroger = Kheap.

[BekkiM]

I just thought of another one...  People who leave their carts just sitting in the parking spaces after they've emptied them--even if they're only a few steps away from the cart corral.  How lazy can you be?  A) it takes up parking spaces, B) it results in loss/damage to carts which is only going to be passed along to all of us in the form of higher prices, and C) it's just plain rude!

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I wish the major chain store I shop at offered cart return places. There are 6 aisles of parking at at the end of 2 is a small area demarcated by some curbing and it isn't big enough for the larger of the 2 cart sizes available. I do return carts when I can but the store needs to provide the place to return them.

IMHO Kroger = Kheap.

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You're so right.

The corolllary to my original pet peeve, therefore, is... grocery stores that do not provide cart corrals or a decent place to return your cart.

[HungryChris]

When you get deli meats and cheeses in the little plastic bags and they make sure they put the printed price sticker along the seam so that opening the bag at home without tearing it open is problematic. I am sure it is a shoplifting prevention measure, but it sure annoys me.

HC

[Frog1879]

I think one of the most annoying experiences of moving to the UK has been the grocery stores. Just finding some items can be a complete nightmare.

- The plastic wrap and aluminum foil are by the freezer section rather than by the rest of the ziploc bags, aluminum trays, etc.

- No canned broth! Yeah homemade is better, but homemade is a pain when you've got a little freezer and no space for effective cooling. You can buy good stock in pouches but that's about 2 pounds 50 (5 dollars) for a pint of stock.

- Carts with four caster style wheels. Load these things up and fight them all the way to the car to keep them from careening into another car.

- The Sunday rush. Grocery stores here can only be open for a few hours on Sunday (normally about 6) so they're normally open from only 10 am until 4 pm. Makes for a mad rush of people trying to get their shopping done. Who am I kidding? It's a mad rush all the time at grocery stores here.

- Almost complete lack of Italian cheese.

- In a country that seems to be very concerned about global warming there is a complete waste of energy in the freezer sections. All the refrigerator sections stand completely open the worst of which is where the milk goes. It's just a cooler on top that they wheel the carts with the milk into. Cold air pooring out the bottom.

- Running out of completely random diet staples. I don't know that I've ever seen a grocery store in the US run completely out of milk. I've seen it a couple times here and of course those were the times when I really needed milk.

- And the coup de grace: restocking always taking place during the Sunday rush. I don't think they've figured out the concept of having workers there before the doors open to restock the shelves thus causing the already narrow isles to become even narrower with the restocking carts cluttering the place up.

I feel better now and I say bring on the little old ladies writing checks, the lackluster baggers, and the random carts in the parking lot. Just give me some low sodium Swanson chicken broth and I'll be a happy man.

Frog

[Kouign Aman]

When I lived in So Florida, the packaged produce drove me nuts. Now it shows up more and more in So Cal and still drives me nuts.

I dont WANT 6 apples. I want 3. and I dont want those three.

[Pyewacket]

Ok here are a few peeves of mine that haven't yet been mentioned here:

The bloke who fills his/her cart with a few things and gets in line to check out, THEN decides to do more shopping while leaving said cart still in the check out line. Somehow, I ALWAYS end up behind them. On a couple occasions I've moved their cart out of the way when the cashier opened up and the jerk was nowhere to be found. Then I had the pleasure of being dressed down by jerk when he comes back to find they're not in line anymore and have to start over.

The folks who believe it's a great idea to bring the whole famn damily (Mom Dad, 4 kids, Grandma and Uncle Zippy) to the grocery store and block every aisle as they amble around.

Those stupid kiddie car carts that are six times longer than any reasonable grocery cart and the Mom with 1 kid riding in the kiddie car who parks the thing at the edge of the end-cap blocking the end of the aisle.

This is a classic and granted, I've only seen it once, but what a sight! I parked near the entrance of a Walmart superstore. As I was walking to the entrance, a van pulled into a handicapped spot and no less than five 300 pound+ family members got out and made their way to the entrance. As they entered each of them commandeered everyone of those mechanical carts for the handicapped. I'm sorry to sound so unforgiving, but since when is a 300 pound 13 year old really handicapped and not just a lazy fat ass and why does the whole family need individual carts? Can't they share one or even two, trading off when they become out of breath?

Stores that inject 10-15% saline solution into their meat "for extra flavor" indicating the fact in very small print on the label. Thank you, I'd like to salt my meat myself, please.

The unavailability of large quanitities of fresh sprouts-alfalfa, clover and mung being my favorite. Now you can only buy them in those little plastic boxes and they're usually slimey in the center anyway.

Since a lot of my time is given to grocery shopping ( a vocational necessity) I make a few more additions later.

[MarkIsCooking]

I'm totally with you on the pre-packaged produce. I went to the store today to pick up 2 bananas for a banana cake (killer recipe, by the way) and the store (Market Basket) forced me to buy 6. I get so upset when I see how much food we waste in this country and it seems this whole pre-package thing creates even more waste.

-Mark-

[Porthos]

The folks who believe it's a great idea to bring the whole famn damily (Mom Dad, 4 kids, Grandma and Uncle Zippy) to the grocery store and block every aisle as they amble around.

Or course it doesn't take the whole family being there to block an aisle. How about the shopper who places their cart against one side of the aisle and then stands on the other side of the aisle to look at the products they're interested in completely blocking the aisle by doing so. I try really hard to remember to put my cart on the same side of the aisle I am standing on.

[ruthcooks]

The "bag boys" take the prize. Ranging from a girl teeny bopper to an old guy with white hair, they all get it wrong. Most recently, I scored with a closeout of casserole dishes for half price. I didn't notice that the teeny one did not individually wrap each one in a plastic bag, but triple bagged the lot! This was the bag I was carrying the day I tripped on the stairs and fell down. Also bagged that day were two cartons of eggs in different bags with canned goods, etc.

Worst case is two teenagers working together, a girl cashier and a boy bagger or vice versa. They flirt and chat while you are unloading the cart, THEN they start to work reluctantly when you make your presence known.

The old guy acts like he has given up on the world and doesn't care how he does anything.

[Kouign Aman]

That aisle blocking thing... I went thru several months of taking the cart dead-center down the aisle. The munchkin was old enough to reach and grab and not yet fully trained. I was shocked at just how long that reach was! I apologized to all who had to wait while I moved to one side, but I was not willing to have aisles completely blocked by tumbling stacks of cans. And occasionally, despite having a munchkin, I needed a moment to study the selections and choose. This was particularly the case in produce. I bought a dozen bruised apples the day I learned the awesome reach of a cart-ensconced smallbody. I didnt want to buy the entire nectarine display.

I'm in no way trying to say it wasnt irritating as hell to those who were inconvenienced. Just saying, its not always thoughtless. Sometimes we do irritating things on purpose.

[GlorifiedRice]

"* People who stand at the checkout counter while their enormous stack of groceries builds up in the bagging area because baggers are becoming an endangered species--for goodness sake, get off your fat ass and load some stuff in bags. But, noooo, they just stand there while the entire order is rung up, then stand there some more while the single checkout person bags all their stuff, usually during the evening rush when I'm late to get home to make dinner... I warned you that I have a disorder... rolleyes.gif "

OMG! I hate those jerks!

Ill bet you Paris Hilton does that, and giggles!

[vogelap]

Blocked aisles... Yeah... I hate it when folks take the time to park their carts _just so_ they block all traffic around them. And they're usually on their ear-mounted Bluetooth phone (in my kitchen, we call those "c*ckrings").

This may be a bit more than you asked, but there is a WONDERFUL grocery store near me that CONSTANTLY changes their layout. It seems like they change it every third month or so... It makes me a little be crazy!

[Porthos]

That aisle blocking thing...  I went thru several months of taking the cart dead-center down the aisle. The munchkin was old enough to reach and grab and not yet fully trained.

Fortunately my daughters are kinda of past that at 20 and 26 years old.

This kind of situation I can understand and appreciate. Those people to whom I was refering have no mitigating circumstances such as children in the cart. They are either unaccompanied adults or sometimes 2 adults shoping together. Which leads me to a peeve that is more my problem than others. I see, say 3 people, shopping together and there isn't much in their basket so I get in line behind the at the checkout stand only to discover that they are making 3 separate purchases which adds time to my wait. If each had their own cart it would alert other shoppers that if there are other, shorter lines they may want to choose them.

edited because I hit the post button instead of the preview button,

Edited July 25, 2007 by Porthos (log)

[Kent D]

1. Pre-packaged fruit - if it's being sold by the pound, my wife opens the bag, pull out what she needs and approves of, and puts it in another bag. It's hardly fair for the grocery store to list grapes at 99 cents/pound, and the only bagged grapes weigh 4 pounds and you can see the slimy, mashed icky grapes in the middle.

2. Going into the store on a Sunday afternoon, when it's busy, and having only 2 clerk-staffed lines open and a long line in each, but 8 of the self-checkout lanes empty, which I refuse to use, because it just encourages them to NOT staff the checkout lanes.

3. I hesitate to even mention this, for fear of being called an insensitive monster or worse...the well-intentioned but totally useless hiring of "handicapable" persons as sackers who will either put one item per bag or bag up an assortment of canned products and then drop them in the cart on top of a previous bag full of bread or produce or get so flustered that the checker has to stop what they're doing to show them how to sack groceries. And these are "long-term" sackers.

[Kris]

1. My biggest pet peeve is when my groceries scan higher than the price on the shelf/sticker. Related to this is peeve, is when your store discount card is scanned and it doesn't deduct the sale discounts from your order.

Other pet peeves are:

2. Rude and unhelpful staff.

3. People who have more than the specified number of items for the express lane.

4. When I have a big order and someone stands behind me with one or two items just HOPING that I'll let them get ahead. That's what the express lane is for buddy.

5. Lousy and overpriced produce - this seems to be a trend in my local supermarkets. So I mainly buy produce from fruit and vegetable markets.

6. Checkers who don't know how to pack your grocieries. When I was a teenager, I was a supermarket cashier and there was definitely a skill in packing the customer's groceries properly. This was 20 years ago, back when paper bags were still in use. Not only that, we actually had to put the bags in the customer's cart. Nowadays, these supermarket checkers don't even bother to put the bag in your cart.

7. When advertised sale items are out of stock.

[jsmeeker]

number one peeve is stores that rearrange their stores, moving everything around. I have to re-learn the whole store.

Grrrrrrr...

Hate that.

I know why they do it. They want me to wander around the store hunting for stuff in the hopes I stumble upon something I wasn't really looking for but will buy anyway.

[WHT]

  Not only that, we actually had to put the bags in the customer's cart.  Nowadays, these supermarket checkers don't even bother to put the bag in your cart.

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The reson for that is so that the checker does not hurt themselves. I guess the part about walking to a better posstion to do this would draw fire. Some of this is covered in the job discription as well as Union contracts.

[Jamie Lee]

Okay, just had to add my two cents..

One of my local chain markets (rhymes with "safeday") has apparently recently enacted a "we're the friendliest market in town" campaign.... every employee greets you, asks if you need help, follows you around to provide additional "service".... etc.

Not so bad on the surface, but I hate it. Last trip: Paused for a moment while deciding which frozen shrimp to buy, I was accosted by the "butcher" (butcher my pork butt - I've asked this fellow questions at the meat counter, and got totally inane answers)... he proceeds to try to steer me to a particular product, even after I clearly expressed my desire for jumbos, he tried his best to sell me the "on sale" 30-45's. Not for me. I tried to thank him politely and move on.

He appeared next to me a few minutes later in the "automotive section". I was looking for silicone spray for a stubborn car lock, and was totally capable of looking for it myself, but he butted in, and asked to help. A bit (more) chilly, I informed this "gentleman" that I could find what I needed if they carried it. Forced into some further polite conversation, we ascertained that they did not carry said silicone spray, and he offered the extremely "helpful" advice that I may find what I needed at an auto supply store. Duh, never thought of that one.

I exited quickly, after offering polite (but understated) gratitude for his help, and proceed to the olive oil section to refill my dwindling supply. As I stood comparing prices, quantities, thinking about likely uses, etc.... Up shows my "butcher".... "What are you, a quart low?" He about splits a gut laughing at his own joke.

ARRRGGHHHH. Leave me alone! I grab a generic EVOO bottle and flee.

Last stop is produce. Again I am greeted by a produce worker cheerily, asking to assist. No thanks, I reply. Later, stunned by the total lack of quality produce, I ask where I might find shallots....

She replies, "I know I should have ordered more, but we have a few." Shown to the meager supply (literally 5 or less shallots), she quickly pockets a moldy speciman, and suggests I check them thoroughly before purchase. No shit Sherlock. They are all soft, blackened in parts and digusting.

Guess she should have spent more time managing the produce and less time blowing smoke up the skirts of would-be customers.

To add the final insult, I did buy some onions, some garlic and a few jalapenos. I did this because I was tired and needed to get home. Of course, you know the end of this story: The worst, hottest, most bitter aromatics known to man. I ruined a panzenella salad due to firey-hot, aged onions and garlic, and after tasting the jalapenos, can't use them in much either. (I'm not a weakling when it comes to spice, but a bad onion, garlic bulb or chili is just hot and no flavor - gross.)

I'm all for friendly staff, knowledgable specialists who can answer my questions, a clean environment, yada yada. But this store has obviously forgone any valuable additional services for fake, lip service customer "service" and forgotten the thing that will really draw customers back into the store - good product, good value, REAL service.

OBTW: I also (like a fool) bought a small fresh mozz cheese ball, and it has mold all over two days after purchase.

Safeday - at least in my neighbourhood - you've lost a customer for life. And yes, before you ask, I have contacted the store management with my complaints.

Whew! Thanks for letting me vent!

Jamie

[Jaymes]

Yes- "all of the above"!  The one that gets me almost every time is the newly designed counter that apparently in order to be ADA compliant has a cut out for the wheel chair and there is no longer a large enough spot to set my purse. So...I set it in the seat part of the cart, pull my wallet out, and routinely the bagger yanks my cart away and out into the aisle before he or she even starts bagging. I have pulled it back only to have them repeat the yanking. This is at every checkstand, not just designated ones.

Or when I'm clearly standing there digging through my purse and they yank the cart away. Or when I'm standing there actually holding onto the cart and they pull as hard as they can to wrest it away from me.

Geez.

[Ted Fairhead]

I just thought of another one...  People who leave their carts just sitting in the parking spaces after they've emptied them--even if they're only a few steps away from the cart corral.  How lazy can you be?  A) it takes up parking spaces, B) it results in loss/damage to carts which is only going to be passed along to all of us in the form of higher prices, and C) it's just plain rude!

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I love the way they handle this problem in France, at least in the stores I've seen when visiting. You have to put a Euro in a slot by the handle to release it from the line of carts. Then when you return it and push it into its place, the euro pops back out. Its a small amount but it does encourage cart returns.

[jayt90]

Some supermarket chains in Canada have tried that approach and abandoned it. All it takes is one person to leave a cart in a parking space, forfeiting their coin, and soon there is a whole row of carts attached to the first one.

The CEO of a major big box chain has always had carts gathered by a lot crew, as a matter of customer service.