
After a month and a half, I believe that I have accumulated enough experience to comment on certain "topics of interest" regarding working at a so-called grocery store. I was going to turn this into a sort of daily mini-series. However, I also was going to start much earlier than this, but the monotony of going to work and coming back home again has really made the summer fly by. So, instead, I'm just going to mine this hole until I hit some granite. Enjoy.
Confessions of a Carryout #1 (COAC 1): Introduction
My chief duty at Leppink's is being a bagboy. What's different about being a bagboy at Leppink's, other than the fact that such persons are known as "carryouts," is being in a tiny hick-town in the middle of nowhere. As such, the store itself isn't much bigger, and it employs no more than twenty to twenty-five people, only about ten of which work at any one time. This means that the intra-store duties are rotated around, depending on who happens to be working at the time. Since I am only employed over the summer, I will never do anything more than bag, and face (starighten and fill shelves), because by the time I actually learn anything about how the store operates, I will have to leave for school. Therefore, there isn't much point in giving me any of the more crucial tasks.
Due to the size of the store and the local area, the carryouts typically do as the name implies: carry out croceries to the customer's cars and load them. Personally, I say that this is only because anyone with this position will typically have nothing better to do other than haul carts and sacks around. Which is fine, I guess. It does keep said persons occupied...
Regardless of how bagboys happened to become carryouts, this is my task. During the course of providing my services to the customers, I have noted many things about what goes through a person's mind, or rather, what doesn't. The first item of interest I will share with you tonight. Other thoughts and ideas will be presented in later entries as I happen to make note of them.
A large portion of our customer base happens to be the elderly. There are a lot of old folks out here who happen to live on their own for whatever reason, and they need groceries on a regular basis like everyone else. I understand and respect this. Whenever an elderly person checks out, I treat them with care, respect, and friendliness, because many of those that come through our doors are also physically disabled. Many of them have bad hips, canes, junky knees, and other stuff related to the natural deterioration of the human body. Some of them aren't capable of carrying out a week's worth of groceries to the car, so this is one of my primary responsibilities when the situation arises. I have no complaints about this whatsoever, and am happy to assist.
What really invokes my ire and confusion, however, is when an elderly/disabled individual is accompanied by a younger, more able-bodied person. In my mind, the presence of the latter should remove the need for the priemier. If "Grandma" has her family around to help her, then there is no reason for her to be bumming around the isles, getting in everyone else's way, and being a general nuisance or potential health risk. She doesn't need to come in and pick out her own fruits and cereal. That's what grocery lists and advertisments are for. The family member should have asked her what she needed before he/she left the house. Also, the excuse of getting her out of the house for some exercise and fresh air is not valid, as there are plenty of other ways this can be accomplished without having to irritate the general public.
It's like those weird people who bring their dogs along, just for the sole purpose of leaving it in the car. The dog serves no practical purpose, and by bringing it along, the poor mutt is faced with the risk of heat exhaustion and/or dehydration, just from needlessly sitting in the hot, steamy, unventilated automobile. The dog, like Grandma, would be much happier and healthier at home.
If I live to be eighty, happen to have family members around, and one of them wants to take me to the store, I will staple a grocery list to their forehead, and whack them with my cane until they leave.
Do you ever wish you could bag in the nude?