Am I A Grumpy B'stard?

[Norcon]

A bunch of moaners the lot of you. How many of you have ever gathered your food off a field with the rain pelting down knee deep in muck or pulled a chickens neck and then gutted it out ready for cooking. Or milked a cow by hand ?. You would all be clueless without your cosy supermarkets to go to and wandering around like headless chickens. lol

 

[securespark]

Au contraire, mon ami!

I have (and still do) wander round the woods surrounding Alderley Edge harvesting such delicacies as laetiporus sulphureus.

I have also milked several quadrupeds, including goats, sheep & cows. I have gutted many a chicken (though not killed one) and, afore my vegetarian days, have deprived a bull of his test icles and then promptly fried and scoffed them.

So there.

 

[chainsaw_masochist]

I have gutted many a chicken (though not killed one).

I am utterly appalled that somebody could even consider gutting an animal that is still alive.

 

[tim west]

bet the bulls gutted about it aswell

 

[Donkmeister]

have deprived a bull of his test icles and then promptly fried and scoffed them.

Is that what made you vegetarian?

I mean, I like to hear my beef go "moo" when I stick the fork in, but even I draw the line at emasculating my dinner, or indeed teabagging by proxy.

 

[tim west]

when I stick the fork in

Ok hands up how many male readers winced at this point

 

[oompah]

, have deprived a bull of his test icles
.

Did he not notice.

 

[raebhoop]

I pay cash...hate and detest banks and everything they stand for...with good reason after the last couple of years.

Robotill?....forget it.I refuse to use them,if they want my business they can supply a human to take my hard earned money.
The supermarkets are making Billions,self service tills are nothing to do with service...just profits.

They could help the environment by swapping from plastic bags to paper like the Yanks...but they won't.It's all down to greed.
Where possible I buy from markets and the high street...they appreciate my business.


PS....when using supermarkets I carry empty boxes in my motor...transfer the goods to my boxes and leave their trolley full of all the excessive crap packaging. Let THEM get rid of it.

 

[wreckedit]

Don't you think that by serving yourself you are getting the best service in the world
P.S.
Thanks for the post it is getting boring and I don't believe you!

 

[RigidRaider]

1 - I haven't set foot in a supermarket for months and neither has Mrs RR; we get our shopping delivered to our door. It costs £5.00 but works out cheaper because you don't wander around picking up all the 2 for 1 offers and things you don't really need then throwing the food away uneaten at the end of the week. You also don't have to drive to the supermarket, which saves time, temper, fuel and wear on the car.

2 - If I did go shopping I'd rather the cashier used spit to separate the bags; her spit is likely to be pretty clean unless she's got a throat infection or a cold whereas a dirty little sponge will be crawling with bacteria from all the filthy fingers that have been stuck in it.

 

[joinerjohn]

The worst thing about the self service checkouts are,, In no particular order.

Any item that is age limited eg wines, spirits, knives, scissors. The annoying machine then displays. " Please wait for an assistant."

Any items that require weighing, eg loose fruit and vegetables. The display changes to "Look up the item on a list." (what's to stop unscrupulous shoppers, selecting an item that's cheaper?)

If you don't place the item in the bag quick enough, the display comes up with " Please wait for an assistant." (again). You can press "Skip Bagging as much as you want, It just won't let you without an assistant.

Any item that requires the issue of a guarantee, eg electrical items. "Please wait for an assistant." comes up yet again.

"Item not recognised." WTF their computer system doesn't know what it is? "Please wait for an assistant."

Once you have managed to scan and pack all of your items, then you get the payment options.
Select cash at your own peril. "Please insert notes into the slot provided."
In the money goes,,, only to keep returning back through the said slot.
You start to wonder if the bank has given you funny money by mistake.
After the fourth or fifth attempt, you try to pay by card transaction, only the damn machine doesn't give you the option as you have already selected cash. "Please wait for an assistant." starts flashing again, only this time it seems to be flashing more urgently. (probably waiting for store security and the police to arrive).

Finally, once you have successfully navigated all of the menu's, weighing tomatoes, waiting for the ubiquitous assistant half a dozen times, then have made the necessary payment. You collect your shopping and the machine now shouts out.. " Thankyou for using the FAST ?? Lane."
It's then you wish you had purchased the sledge hammer on special offer in aisle 3.

 

[wreckedit]

I would like to discuss this supermarket checkout problem with you but my misses said I must finish my chores first.

 

[merlin50]

self service takes to long for me as i must look like a shoplifter

 

[joinerjohn]

self service takes to long for me as i must look like a shoplifter

You could try getting treatment for the shoplifting Merlin.
If it doesn't work, there's a nice 54" plasma tv in Curry's I'd like you to get for me.

 

[Mickymoody]

The three biggest costs for a big retailer are energy, transport and staff.

Transport cant really be helped, once they have the stores being served out of their closest warehouses and using new lorries to cut down on diesel etc.

Energy can be helped. My local Morrisons has just got shut of a load of HID spotlights and replaced them with HI fluorescents. Similarly, my local Asda has recently replaced its entire (ancient) refrigeration stock with brand new high efficiency units.

Staff, again, can be cut back. One member of staff can man four self service checkouts or more (though my local Asda pays some old guy for standing by the front door with a radio Mike making PAs - perhaps he used to work on one of the old checkouts) A self-service checkout costs the same to run as a home PC (effectively all a till is), a hundred watts maybe. This is a fraction of the cost of paying a person to man a normal checkout. Customers like self-service, its novel and new. The kids like it.

Having said all this, at my store we recently got new tills. Our old tills had two 2-line displays, one for staff and one for cutomers. Now we have two LCD screens, one 9 inch for customers, and one 12 inch touchscreen for staff. Much more energy. The UPS has an extra light on its load indicator. Though in our defence, the company is the largest purchaser of green energy in Europe, running all 4000+ of its UK outlets / offices on green energy.

I don't understand the logic there? A PC, running with USB devices attached is more power friendly than a LCD touchscreen PC? I used to repair these, for the manufacturer.

Self checkout is new, and trailling RFID systems, but it is just not customer friendly, or reliable, and needs to be monitored by a member of staff per 4 tills, so the shop needs to employ 3 less people.

Vacuum 12v 2 line displays don't take much energy to power, via a custom PC with a 400W computer, but LCD touchscreen with USB, far less.

I challenge anyone to open a static charged plastic bag, without whetting their fingers first. Although a human bite is worse than an animal bite, as we contain more harmful bacteria, than animals. Therefore I must think twice before turning a page in a book, that has been read before.