Contrary to industry practice the supermarket nearest my home puts their best checker at the express register. She is the master of multitasking and can carry on a pleasant conversation with the elderly lady who has no one to talk to while she checks her out. Good checkers are a rare treasure, if corporate give them a new mantra go with it. And thank them for being good at their jobs. It's getting less common every day.

Yeah, it's hard to miss those phrases that were obviously put out by some marketing study to its customers. I swear I'm gonna scream the next time I hear some doofus in an advertisement try to tell me about "this weird trick" that is supposedly going to improve my life.

Have you noticed that it's usually phrased as "this 1 weird trick"?

And on checkers. My wife got started talking to one of the checkers at our local supermarket, and found out that her husband nearly died of cancer last year, and that they live in a mobile home that's heated solely by a wood stove. She's a good checker too, not grumpy with the customers, and I'm not really sure I'd even notice if she started saying "Thanks for coming in".

A bitter heart cannot reveal the Spring that love remembers.

Sheba pet food. Oh, (inexplicable) "meat" processing discards?
Chives. Oh, those purple flowers I mow over?
Wait, that works out to HOW much a pound?
Fast food workers DEMAND a wage suitable to afford to buy pet food, and chives.
OH LOOK! ATM, credit card gas pumps, and self check out scanners! Education, "on line"!, because "our" children are "used to" electronic
"aids" in their classrooms.
That push the icon "wellness" triage keyboard from "Idiocracy", along with ID/billing "processing" via. number (bar code) tattooed on ones arm, get's closer and closer.
Considering the actual value of academia's "communal" price-per-initial credentials, maybe it's a good thing.
Somehow, It's all for "our" children.

Gerard, you're being uncharitable. I don't care where or how the checkout clerk learned to utter a pleasant greeting or goodbye or what the words are. It is sufficient that the encounter be a pleasant one. Why bash people, whether clerks or motivation consultants, for trying to make our lives within a bureaucratic, technological society more pleasant?

I'm not bashing clerks. I have infinite respect for them. If anything I'm bashing the corporate clones who force them to mutter banalities and slogans and requests for extra money, "Would you like to donate a dollar to end world hunger?"

I qyote myself: "It's bullshit of course, but retail and marketing in the food industry needs a constant stream of fresh bullshit if it is to keep its profit line up."

The next time one of them cretins asks, "Would you like to donate a dollar to......?", I'm go all the way over the top and punch someone, anyone in reach, right in the face.

After dodging demolition derby carts, grabbing shit off the top shelf for 4' tall old ladies, waiting for the 400lb lardass in the free electrowheelchaircartto unass the A.O., deciphering or just trying to find prices on stuff, being disgusted with the 30% per year inflation in food, I just want to get the hell outta there.

And then there's the motherfucker that picks your shit up, scans it, then while holding it says, "Mmmmmm, I just LUVVVV these!!!"

WAMMM! Right in the eye.

I have been very fortunate over the past decade. My house is about one mile from work. Kroger is about one mile from both. I go home for lunch. And over lunch I stop by Kroger.

How wonderful to get all I need and put it away - and eat lunch - within an hour.*

*The drycleaner is within the same arc, as is the tire store, gas stations, and the dealership body and service. My office will be moving this summer - much to my regret.

Most of the cashiers in my local markets encourage me to "Have a good one." So far I've been able to restrain myself from asking, "A good what?"

I do believe all of the ideas you've introduced for your post. They're really convincing and can definitely work. Nonetheless, the posts are very brief for newbies. May you please extend them a bit from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.

At least they say thank you. The 'thank you' has been replaced with a 'there you go'. Arggghhh... Millennials.

Speaking of *thank you*.
Have you noticed that when you say thank you to anyone under the age of say 30 or so they reply, "No problem."

Makes my skin crawl.
The implication that my politeness might have been a problem.

Makes you just wanna ball both of em up and react like restrained spring steel.

I am always impressed with the variety and quantity of good food at my local supermarkets. I have even taken pictures of the produce counter in awe of the mounds of fresh fruits and vegetables. We are very lucky to live in both a country and a time where this is possible.

I like strawberries and blueberries in the Winter. I understand that some smart businessmen made a deal with airlines to use previously unused cargo space on regularly scheduled flights to get produce from South America and other locations to markets in North America. A win/win. The airlines made this available at a price that made it practical and the farmers in South and Central America opened up a viable market for their goods. And I get to eat fresh strawberries in January.

Publix: "Where shopping is a pleasure." I love this place.

chasmatic, at 5-18-14 9:58PM, lives:
'A bitter heart cannot reveal the
Spring that love remembers.'

As someone ready to go out the door in about 10 minutes to utter some of those corporate bullshit phrases...I say Thank You Gerard!

The ubiquity of tramp stamps does not alter their significance. It simply means that more tramps are publicly self-identifying.

Back when they still said, "Have a nice day!" my standard response was, "Thank you, but I have other plans."

Speaking of tramp stamps, I learned that in Germany they are known as ass antlers which is a perfect description.

In response to "how is your day?" a reply along the line of with this purchase my plan for world domination is set in motion knocks the mindless patter right outa the clerk.