More Shopping Stress

I understand that when I bring an item that has no bar code to swipe to cashiers, they might have a little trouble. But what I don’t get is why they act so surprised and look to me for help. The question “What kind of fruit is this?” is tolerable but “How much is this?” seems a little whacked or “Do you know what the five digit SKU code for this was?” I tell them that I have no idea but then they stand there and wait as if it will somehow come to me. Look, my job, for which I am not being paid, is:

1. to gather the items,
2. put them in little bags,
3. and pay for them.

Your job is:

1. to figure out how much your employer wants to charge me.

I’m not doing your job; I’ve done my part. I’m not walking back to see what the per pound charge is on the pistachios.

Today I got about a cup of black beans from a bin. The guy didn’t know what they were or how much they cost. I told him what they were but that I didn’t memorize the price. He started leafing through his dog-eared sheets looking for black beans. It was not in alphabetical order and somehow he couldn’t find the listing among the 46 pages and 17,000 lines. He asked me again if I knew the price. I still didn’t. We were at an impasse. It might have been $0.99 a pound. I don’t remember! He was waiting. Customers in line behind me were buying more gum. Look, Darren, me consumer--you vendor. I’ll give you a buck for ‘em. No dice; he needs the code. Maybe they should have a button for "Do not know price, stubborn customer won't go back but has offered a dollar."

His supervisor came and also couldn’t find the price for black beans but (showing why he got the promotion) he suggested using the pinto bean code. He asked me if I was OK with that – $0.69 a pound. My total came to $0.17. Yeah, I’m good. I realize that somewhere in the global information cosmos, my credit card number now shows that I bought some pinto beans, but just for the record I don’t like pinto beans, and I did not buy any. Darren was relieved.  I was happy that I saved $0.83.