zzrmark

When you get drugs that say 'take half a pill' and said pills have no snap line so you have to try to half them with a sharp knife...

scrubbedexpat091

I prefer using a pill cutter. But everything I take is in capsule form, so no cutting necessary.

Maste

I don't remember the last time I've had to take drugs.. so there may be a reason, and this may sound a silly comment but...

Why don't they just make the drug half it's size in the first place?

Bob

The bags of rice we like to get. The small bags have the zip lock sealing thingy, but the big bags don't...the ones that you really need it for :/

moneypenny20

The big bags of Basmati I buy are cotton with a zip. Great idea but quite entertaining when I decant some into a tub. I tend to make sure the kitchen is spotless so when it goes all over the place I can scoop it up and still use it.

Steerpike

f**king chain store 'rewards' program signups at the checkout!

I was at Cost Plus World Market yesterday, and picked up a few items. There was just one person ahead of me at the register, and one register operator, but - he asked the dreaded question of the customer 'are you a member of our rewards program?' (no); 'would you like to sign up?' ... 'it's free and you'll get x discount'. So the lady said yes, and thus ensued a lengthy process of gathering details (name, address, blah, blah) ... which the register operator typed at a snail's pace. I left my purchases at the register and walked out. They should have a rule - if only one register open, no sign-ups!

This reminds me of a previous encounter at a Cost Plus; back then, a roving sales assistant was trying to get signups from customers browsing the store. These things must be worth a lot to the stores.

SultanOfSwing

How hard would it be to have them pay for their items, then send them to customer service with their receipt, where they can then sign up and get a cash refund in the amount of their discount? Nobody gets held up, the customer gets the discount (which, let's be real, was the only reason they signed up to a program they may never use again) and we can all go on our way.

Also, isn't it about time the US gets with the mother****ing program and drops the drinking age to 18 like a normal country? Where I usually buy my groceries, there are no checkout operators who are over 21, so you inevitably get stuck behind someone with a bottle of wine, while they then have to find the one roving floor manager to approve the purchase. That's some backwards shit right there.

BenK91

YES.

This has happened numerous times with alcohol, ammunition and also some razor blades I was buying from Home Depot a few months ago. Literally infuriating.

The razor blade one was particularly annoying, you'd think with the 50,000 members of staff that seem to roam any one particular hardware store it'd be quick once they called for someone else but... nope.

SultanOfSwing

The only thing that ever happens with razor blades for me (and most recently a flash drive) is that the checkout person doesn't know how to open the little anti-theft box they keep them in. I can excuse that though because I don't know how to open them either.

scrubbedexpat091

I try and shop stores that have self check out.

Eliminates a lot of the issues when in line with a cashier.

The self checkouts never ask to sign up for anything either.

Self check out at home depot can be a pain though if your buying oversized items.


Almost all booze here is sold in liquor stores so everyone working there is 19 or older.

scrubbedexpat097

l try to avoid self check outs.

Self check outs mean a lot less hours and cut backs for people that need jobs.

zzrmark

Does your Home Depot not have barcode 'guns' at it self checkouts. The ones round here have a bank of supermarket style machines and then a pair of larger stations ( opposite two identcal machines that are assistant only operated, complete PITA as I just head for an empty machine without reading the overhead notices and often have an assistant glide up and takeover). Those larger machines are the ones with both fixed and wandering barcode readers.

As for threatening much needed jobs, I appreciate the sentiment but today's society has long past that point. Mechanisation was a nineties issue that most people didn't want to know about, they just want stuff as cheaply as they can get it regardless of how many people could be employed if they were prepared to pay a few more pennies on the dollar.
We visited the Sierra Nevada brewery in Greenville SC recently and it was quite depressing to see only two people on the floor of the bottling plant - bizarrely enough both of whom were placing the inserts in the boxes that separate the bottles, other than them the plant was deserted, not even a spanner monkey on the floor keeeping an eye out for tricksy machines.
Having temped in my younger days in some factory settings, the dairy was quite similar in setup to the brewery, it was easy to appreciate the beauty of machines working in effortless harmony and the same time the dismal impact machines have had on employment opportunities at factories across the modernised globe.

Besides it just means Home Depot has dozens of staff aimlessly wandering the floor, most of whom suddenly disappear if you need assistance or supermarkets with baggers as well as checkout operators.

SultanOfSwing

One other thing that really ****s me off is that they never enforce the '15 or less' type rules at express checkouts. I counted 30 items in someone's basket while in line once, and another time while doing my own check to make sure I wasn't over, the cashier told me not to worry about it. Why even have the rule if you're just going to pussy out over it?

lizzyq

Yes I would love them to flash and beep loudly when a customer tries to scan the one after the maximum stated quantity. For us the worst time is in mid to late August when 8000 new students have arrived and some of them are doing their own grocery shopping for the first time ever. I had never realised how hard a self checkout was to use......

chawkins99