Oh me nerves: Supermarket Edition
In the first of an ongoing series of posts, I’d like to share with you, dear reader (singular), what boils my blood, what grinds my gears, what gets my goat. Some may think I’m easy going but there are many things that get on my nerves. And this is one of them.
I like grocery shopping. I like making the list, and then ignoring the list as I load up on ice cream and cookies and whatnot. But there are a few things about this semi-weekly outing that drive me nuts:
- People who bag bananas. Bananas come pre-bunched. And in peels. WHY do you need to further protect them by putting them in a plastic bag? A plastic bag, I might add, that is good for practically nothing once it is done transporting your precious bananas home. Really. They’re not that fragile. They survived growing on that tree out in nature, and the truck from Belize to here; they’ll survive the ride home. Oh, and I hold this same grudge for people who bag one apple, orange, green/red pepper, etc.
- The lack of grocery selection in the grocery store that sells me motor oil. Okay, I don’t buy motor oil. Someone else takes care of that for me. :) But if I did, would I buy it whilst buying my strawberries and Havarti? Probably not. Some probably find it handy or convenient. But when I need andouille sausage or dried hot peppers, it’s frustrating to know that the store doesn’t have it, but hey, they have Monopoly and a large selection of light bulbs.
- No one knows where to find the toothpicks. Toothpicks fall into a category of goods that the fine folks who organize grocery stores don’t know how to handle. So they don’t. Instead, they place them randomly around the store in hopes you will buy other things while looking for them.
- SUV-sized carts. I’m generally not interested in buying groceries to fill my bomb shelter. Why is my cart sized specifically for that purpose? The basket is too small. The cart is too large. Oh, for a happy medium.
That is all.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:21 am
I do bag solitary peppers or apples (although I usually buy apples in threes), but primarily for cleanliness purposes — the baskets in the grocery stores I go to here in Toronto are… not the cleanest, shall we say. And while I do wash them before eating, it’s not like I use soap or anything, so the less filth they come in contact with, the better.
But, for bananas, it’s stupid, because you don’t eat the peel.
(At least, I hope not….)
December 11th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
But why do you assume that the green pepper has not already been in contact with something worse than the bottom of the basket before you picked it up, Mr. House?
December 12th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I do, actually, but I have to stop that line of thinking. If I go too far down that road, my OCD would become paralyzing. So I kind of function on the ignorance is bliss principle.