I'm sorry there's no fourth option where some man bags your groceries for you, wheels them out to the car, and loads them into the family limo for you and you drive off without so much as a thank you because that kind of service is 'expected'.

I wish I could spend a few hours working in the supermarket you go to. I'd make it my mission to see if your angry little personality could explode. It would be fun.

Do you ever buy reduced price stuff I could put through at full price? Do you buy small things that I could accidentally beep twice? Maybe I'll pretend one of the barcodes doesn't work and wait patiently for a colleague to tell me how much that weird bread roll actually costs. KaBOOM!

Sorry, but that is a little far removed from my original comment that I would like someone to offer help to pack instead of staring at me whilst I do it... but fine, whatever. Oh yes, and if that fourth service was available I would love it. Are you offering it personally? It really is a brilliant idea and you should be applauded.

No doubt I would mistake you for a spotty little teenager and ignore your antics like grumpygrapefruit suggested. By the way, you sound awfully familiar with the ways of the checkout. Perhaps it was actually you that served me today.

The problem with that being...?

the problem with that being that you have taken me out of context -try reading the next sentence of that post, rather than trying to make out that I have little regard for that profession.

You made that pretty clear from the first post in this thread.

Some of us have real jobs, you know, and get a little tired of the sniping of little princesses like you who have probably never done an honest day's work in their lives.

So think on, young lady.

Hilarious!

What exactly led you to that conclusion? Yes it might might the convenient one to draw in your tiny little mind but, no problem.

If complaints offend you why are you reading posts in the complaints corner? Perhaps you should go read something calming, say, in the family section or something. It would be better for your blood pressure.

If having a moan about having my groceries shoved and crushed, and thinking that for spending my money I deserve a little service makes me a 'sniping princess' then yes maybe I am one. But I'd much rather be a sniping princess than have a low, pathetic attitude like yours.

Low and pathetic is accusing honest, hard working people of laziness.

Have you ever worked in a shop? Do you have any idea what it's like?

I am, because they're very simple. Which is why I also understand you. KaBOOM!

There's a commercial currently running on ITV at the moment (can't remember what for so can't Google it - power of advertising, eh?) - showing a young couple on a first date, out for dinner - each line spoken is a progression in their relationship - engagement, marriage, kids, affairs, bitterness, divorce, etc.

Sorry Jasmine, but the development of this thread, somehow reminds of it.

Time for bed maybe.

Yeah, yeah - I know you don't watch TV, DB.

"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? .........Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out." Rodney King

It's a free-for-all !! Whooooo !

I personally don't like supermarkets period. Buying from small places you get better quality. So some of you will say and the cost rises. So don't buy so much, it is all swings and roundabouts but small places have to try harder and customer care is usually but not always superior.

DB - Unnecessarily patronising and aggressive - I'm sorry to say. She may have a different view and be up for a fight, but not sure that making life and personality judgements is the order of the day, esp from an EF grandee like yourself. Pick on somebody your own size, or get the facts before you draw conclusions about somebodys upbringing and background.

Or maybe it was hitting the Pedigree cupboard on a Saturday night of a long weekend

You're wrong with this by the way (although you and facts seem to have an interestingly distant relationship on occasion, i thought i'd try) - the big supermarkets are Coop and Migros and they have different strategies and product lines. Coop contains all the brands you know and love, Migros is 80% own label (or Migros owned brands) and only has certain flagship brands that people tend not to trust to be sold as own label eg toileteries and breakfast cereals. Migros also doesn't sell alcohol in its own stores, but only through Denner (a convenient way of getting around their no-booze philosophy).

Customers who bag their goods as they go thru the till ....?

Everything gets put straight back into the cart, and you bag it at your car.... or away from the busy area.

When buying put all the delicate soft goods at the rear end of cart so they get offloaded last.

I always recognise when my stuff is at the end of being checked out (while I`m sweating stacking it all in order in the cart as it arrives) by the loaves of bread, vegetables, biscuits, etc. And I finish as the cashier finishes!

I used to have a nervous breakdown about running out of time at the German Aldi and îmagined everything landing on the floor as the cashier speeded her way thru the scanning! But bagging it instantly?...Impossible!

I'm an American so used to people bagging stuff in a zillion bags, also annoying. Lots of surly, mumbling people working there too. However. I was used to no bagging from the Netherlands and I don't see much difference between here and the Netherlands except that on NL you can only pay with cash or their proprietary chip/pin system in a lot of grocery stores. My husband is from a town in the east, so this is not amsterdam or other more internationally focused places.

But anyway, if there's no passebene in Ticino, have you thought to split your shopping into two segments. I always do the heavy, non perishable and some frozen stuff via online shopping. If I don't have to pick over it, then it can be delivered. Plus you can set up a list of standard items and save that in you account.

Then, I buy soft goods, perishables, things I want to inspect in the store.

For the rest, I haven't found checkout folk to be all that rude. I'm not trying to be patronizing but sometimes I wonder if I live in the same country as some of you.

Still, if you are unhappy with the service, why not complain.. In a constructive, non defensive manner, or figure out a workaround you can live with.

I think the answer is to do what the Swiss do which is as follows.

- Stand next to the checkout girl as she lobs your purchases down the conveyor belt.
- Pay for said purchases
- Only then start packing your stuff
- Take your time and ignore all tuts and other negative noises from the checkout staff and/or other customers waiting in the queue for the till

...AND...if you are one of those in the queue for the till or the checkout girl....

- Make tutting noises and other expressions to convey impatience and negativity at the dawdler taking ages to pack their shopping.

Cheers,
Nick

__________________