Annoying characteristics of supermarkets.

Their are many things about supermarkets I dislike. 

Things like the car park, the layout of and constant rearranging of the layout, people not being prepared to pay for their comestibles after waiting in the queue and then waiting until everything is rung up before hunting for their purse, the long queues, far too much choice in brands of goods.  But my gripe today is about bread.

There is always plenty of sliced bread.  But I don't like sliced bread except to toast.  I like a nice fresh bakery loaf. Most times.I bake a loaf myself using a breadmaker.  Bit with no yeast I found myself looking in the supermarket a full two hours before it closed both last night and today

And what did I find? The instore bakery had sliced all of a full score of loaves, both wholemeal and white leaving no loaves uncut.  When I asked about this, I was told they 'have to' slice the loaves when they have finished the day's baking which put me close to meltdown. it does not make any sense to me as I am sure that many  other customers would also prefer an unsliced loaf. I refuse to have a sliced loaf. I like my bread cut three inches thick so I can delight in the texture of the fluffy inner, feeling it melt away in my mouth. If I want sliced bread there is plenty of choice of sliced loaves, and I am quite capable of cutting it myself. Even a loaf sliced from the bakery loaf tastes totally different when it is cut into half inch thick slices rather than the chunks I like.

On both occasions they have lost a customer and I made do with a bowl of shredded wheat instead. And I will get some.yeast and continue continue to bake my own bread which will only be sliced at tje point of eating, and I can savour the flavour of a nice chunky piece.

What do others find annoying about supermarkets,, or is there anyone who thinks supermarkets are like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way.

Parents
  • Not a fan of supermarkets, either.  It's not just the awkward car parks, the jostling crowds and the noise.  It's also the way they destroy High Streets, take money out of local communities, hold producers to ransom and create a standardisation of products under the guise of offering 'variety'.

    I live in a town with a population of just under 40,000 people.  But we have a big Morrison's, a big Aldi's, a Co-op, two Tesco Metros, a massive new Sainsbury's.... and now Lidl seeking local approval for a new mega-store (and apparently most local people seem to be in favour of it!)

    I worked for a short time in the Morrison's.  It was a slave camp.  The worst part about it for me was the need to cut corners all the time in order to meet deadlines.  So I suppose I can see things a little from that side of the fence.

    I wrote this one day...

    SHOPPING CODES FOR SUPERMARKET CUSTOMERS (AS OBSERVED BY A SUPERMARKET WORKER)

    If you pick up a product anywhere in the store, then later decide you no longer want to buy it, it’s fine to put it anywhere at all other than back in the place where you picked it up. DVDs, for instance, can easily be placed between milk bottles or on a stack of apples. This also applies if you are less than 3 yards away from the original place. Chilled or frozen products can literally be placed anywhere other than a chiller or freezer. Conversely, tampons and teabags chill down quite well if you put them in with the pizzas or ice cream

    Similarly, if you pick a whole basketful or trolley-full of shopping and then decide you want none of it, it’s okay to abandon the basket or trolley anywhere at all in the store – though preferably in the middle of an aisle where people can fall over it. Don’t worry – the staff will happily put it all back for you

    If you see a product without a price, ask a member of staff if they could go and check the price for you. While they’re away doing this, put the product back on the shelf and go somewhere else

    Never pick a bunch of bananas that’s exactly the right size for you. Always pick a bunch that has one too many bananas, then tear the excess banana off and leave it in the pile of single, torn-off bananas that no one else wants (they’re usually browner than the rest)

    If you come to the ‘Reduced Items’ section and someone else is there in front of you, it’s okay to reach across them and take whatever you want without asking

    If you have children, shout at them a lot

    If the product you want has already been bought by all the people who managed to get to the store ahead of you, ask a member of staff why there aren’t any left, then complain that they don’t order enough

    If you see a member of staff waiting to restock a shelf, place your trolley in front of it and stand for ages looking at a swede or a can of soup so as to stop them from doing their work

    Never look left or right at a check-out queue in case you happen to see the person standing beside you who was actually there ahead of you (before you decided to join the queue at the wrong place) and who is now looking ready to rip your throat out.

    Never care about anyone else in the store, ever – including the minimum-wage hacks who are there to serve you. Your interests are all that matter because the customer is always right.

  • I hate it when people just dump stuff on any old shelf, it seems so rude. If I change my mind about something I have to put it back in the right place, not doing so feels so incredibly wrong. 

    For me the main thing I dislike is the noise, especially those stock cages rumbling and clattering. The local sainsburys is otherwise pretty good as it has nice wide aisles and diffuse lighting although any place sucks when busy. 

  • I hate it when people just dump stuff on any old shelf, it seems so rude. If I change my mind about something I have to put it back in the right place, not doing so feels so incredibly wrong. 

    I can totally understand it when you've spent 2 hours battling around the aisles and the correct location to put it back is a 5 mile walk against the flow pushing a 200kg wayward trolley - for a 20p item - just dump it.  

  • Honestly, it batters my brain,  just give me some yoghurt JoyJoyJoy although I have found that Tesco do an amazing vegan strawberry yoghurt, at least I think it was Tesco! But now I’m going to be doing my shopping on line, I might never know, as I’ll be doing shopping at Morrison’s, just because that’s where my support worker does it! Joy I’ll go with her recommendation and if it turns out to be rubbish, I’ll try somewhere else, but yeah, I love walking but not round those massive, lifeless superstores and they can be very seductive if you’re not careful. No wonder people have little money left at the end of that week, they spend it all on things they don’t need but that they see and are taken in by in the super stores. I guess we’re at an advantage in that respect, because we dislike supermarkets so much, we tend to be in and out as quick as possible so we don’t fall into their traps to make us buy more. :) 

  • Yeah - who needs 300 different types of strawberry yoghurt? Can't be bothered looking.

  • JoyJoyJoy that’s how I felt about the huge hypermarket they had where I lived in Bournemouth. My partner at the time, quite liked going there late at night when it was quite, but I wasn’t on board with it because as you said, you had to walk, what felt like, several miles past massive tv’s etc, just to get to what I wanted and then they had ridiculous amounts of choices for the same thing. It freaked me out. I wasn’t into it at all, no matter how quite it was.  

  • Agreed ~ who’s got the time or patience to walk around putting things back where you got them from! 

  • We have hyper-markets around here.  Way too big to be bothered with.  When I go for a loaf of bread I don't want to have to hike through LCD tvs, pots & pans, BBQ equipment, gardening tools, car accessories, toy department, clothes and furniture on the way to the bread aisle.

Reply
  • We have hyper-markets around here.  Way too big to be bothered with.  When I go for a loaf of bread I don't want to have to hike through LCD tvs, pots & pans, BBQ equipment, gardening tools, car accessories, toy department, clothes and furniture on the way to the bread aisle.

Children
  • Honestly, it batters my brain,  just give me some yoghurt JoyJoyJoy although I have found that Tesco do an amazing vegan strawberry yoghurt, at least I think it was Tesco! But now I’m going to be doing my shopping on line, I might never know, as I’ll be doing shopping at Morrison’s, just because that’s where my support worker does it! Joy I’ll go with her recommendation and if it turns out to be rubbish, I’ll try somewhere else, but yeah, I love walking but not round those massive, lifeless superstores and they can be very seductive if you’re not careful. No wonder people have little money left at the end of that week, they spend it all on things they don’t need but that they see and are taken in by in the super stores. I guess we’re at an advantage in that respect, because we dislike supermarkets so much, we tend to be in and out as quick as possible so we don’t fall into their traps to make us buy more. :) 

  • Yeah - who needs 300 different types of strawberry yoghurt? Can't be bothered looking.

  • JoyJoyJoy that’s how I felt about the huge hypermarket they had where I lived in Bournemouth. My partner at the time, quite liked going there late at night when it was quite, but I wasn’t on board with it because as you said, you had to walk, what felt like, several miles past massive tv’s etc, just to get to what I wanted and then they had ridiculous amounts of choices for the same thing. It freaked me out. I wasn’t into it at all, no matter how quite it was.