Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Oh, Teeter...you so crazy...

So I just got home from Harris Teeter (one of the better grocery stores in Charlotte, much like Dierbergs for any of you people in STL....okay...I mean, "It's like Dierbergs, mom.") and I can't decide if it's just me or is everyone acting a little weird lately?

I had an intense craving for a taco salad, so I was just going to run into The Teet for the fixins. It wasn't terribly busy (since every other week I manage to get off work before every other person in the world), so I thought it would be a quick trip. Yeah. Not so much.

Odd situation #1: A lovely lady asked if I knew much about beans. Apparently I look like a bean aficionado. That's cool. So, I gave her every bit of bean knowledge that I know. My main question here is....who uses beans to make tomato soup?????  I really should have questioned her on this subject, but I just smiled and said, "Anytime."
Which actually brings up another question. How should I have responded to her "thank you, sweetie"? It's not like I'm going to see her in the bean aisle again to answer her bean quandaries and I certainly didn't hand her my number so that she can call me in the middle of the night when a bean question stumps her once again. Oh...I hope her tomato soup (with BEANS! GROSS!) turns out okay...

Odd situation #2: As I'm walking up and down the aisles, searching for all of the ingredients for my taco salad (which, btw, is a lot unhealthier than a real salad...you know this is true because all of the ingredients can't be found in the produce section), I kept coming across the same Harris Teeter worker. Keep in mind...I never once made eye contact. The first time she passed me, I saw her with another Harris Teeter worker and I thought she was talking to her when she said, "How are you today?" 
I looked up and just smiled at the two of them, not knowing if she really was talking to me or if she had just stumbled upon her friend and was greeting her. I didn't give much thought to it until I was going down the next aisle. The same girl repeated, "How are you today?"
This time she was alone, so I said, "Good...how are you?"
No response.
Fine...whatever. This happened TWO MORE TIMES. What the heck? Enough with the pleasantries! FOUR TIMES this girl said to me, "How are you today?" and never stopped to hear my answer! I should have yelled after her, "I'm HORRIBLE now! I was good...not so much anymore. Now I'm quite BAD!"  
I saw her one more time on my way out the door. She said, "Have a good day!"
I didn't respond.

Odd situation #3:
You have to understand that recently I've been on a "clean out the pantry" kick. I'm eating random stuff for dinner like a can of refried black beans and mediocre oatmeal. You know...the stuff that you bought 5 months ago with full intentions of actually eating or making something with, but it just kind of got lost amongst the good food. When I go to the grocery store I'm usually restocking my beverages of choice (always the same....Minute Maid Light Lemonade, Diet Coke, water bottles, Smirnoff Ice, and Sugar Free Red Bull), so there really isn't much food in my cart. So I'm checking out and the cashier just says, "This much Red Bull is going to be expensive."
To which I reply, "It's on sale. Thanks."
Ummm...do I need a lecture from a pimple-faced 19 year old? No. Thanks for that, though.
And for what it's worth...I only bought three 4-packs. For some reason they were on sale, but the 12 pack wasn't. Whatever...I'm savvy...I can do math and save money. 
He then proceeds to comment about EVERY ITEM IN MY CART. Do you know how much longer it takes to check out when someone wants to say things like, "Cool! I've never seen these before!" and "Where did you find this?" after every item he picks up???
Yeah. A lot longer.
Even stranger....after having the bagger kid put all of my groceries in the other cart for me to take out to my car, the cashier tells him, "I'm not going to lift this (pointing to my case of water), you're going to have to put her groceries in this cart (my original cart that had only my water left in it)."
The bagger then starts to transfer all of my grocery bags over to the other cart.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Even if the cashier is an idiot, wouldn't you think that the bagger would say, "It's okay...I'll move the water."
No. Of course not. He'd rather take 5 minutes and move my bags (one by one, mind you) over to the other cart. After this shocking display of idiocy, the cashier hands me the receipt and asks if I need help to my car.
Does it look like I need help to my car?? It seems as if I'm the only person around here that can  lift WATER!
And to be perfectly clear, I'd like to say....I blame our school systems. The critical thinking skills are going downhill at a fast pace. 



PS. My taco salad was de-lish! Thanks for asking!



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are a bean aficionado since you had black beans for dinner last night. Did you know how to spell aficionado or did you have to spell check it? Because I just had to copy it from your blog. I hope you got yummy stuff to make for Friday too. I made the little pumpking tealight candle holder thingys tonight.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I pseudo-knew how to spell it. I originally spelled it with an "o", but it didn't look right. You know...I'm studying for a spelling-bee type activity so that I can take on Chris. He's a master in the ways of spelling...

Unknown said...

I love that I posted my comment twice (how did I do that?!?!) and when I deleted one of them, it now says "comment deleted"....like it was a vulgar comment that I didn't want anyone to see. :)

Commodore Lerve said...

How are you doing? - It's probably the most oversaid and insincere phrase ever. Because you're right, the vast majority of the time that people ask it they really don't want to know unless you're doing well. But yeah, 4 times is pretty ridiculous.

I worked at a grocery store for 6 years. While I enjoyed it, there isn't much to it. So yeah, you won't be getting the Einstein's of the world checking out groceries.