Supermarket Travails

October 10, 2007 - 3:23 PM by

Israeli supermarkets are the bane of my (and most non-native-born Israeli’s) existence.

We will never understand the folks who walk into the supermarket, park their shopping cart on a checkout line as a place-holder, and then proceed to wander around the store casually picking out items.

We will never understand the people who walk into the meat department, tap someone on the shoulder and say “I’m after you” and then go off to make other purchases… then swoop back into line 20 minutes later, pissing off all the frayerim (suckers) who were dumb enough to actually wait on line.

…We will never understand why Israeli supermarkets haven’t figured out that the only remaining bottleneck in the check-out process is the additional time everyone spends bagging their own groceries. This single task defeats all the speed and convenience gained by the bar-code scanners. After scanning a cartful of groceries in recored time, the cashier can’t complete the transaction or go on to the next customer until the previous shopper’s goods are bagged and off the end of the conveyor belt.

This comes from treppenwitz and it doesn’t stop there and unfortunately, neither do the supermarket tales…*sigh* Makes me tired just thinking about it.

Tags: • Category: Blogging, Food, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness 

Comments

2 Comments on Supermarket Travails

  1. nicky on Thu, Oct 11th 2007 9:36 AM

    2. And what about those little ‘next customer’ signs that you put between your shopping and the one ahead or behind at the checkout?
    Can Israeli supermarkets not stretch their budgets to buy some?
    How many times have I been held up while the till assistant has to delete the shopping she added to my bill from the customer behind me.
    Instead we have to hover over our purchases (not bagging anything in the meantime), telling the assistant “stop at the toilet roll, or the eggs, or whatever else the last item is.

  2. Stephanie on Thu, Oct 11th 2007 9:48 AM

    3. lol…ahhh, the supermarket. And my personal favorite: “When will you be getting mineral water/cheese/olives/anything in?” “Later”…Later like tomorrow? This evening? In two hours? “Later. I don’t know. I’m just the manager.”

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