21 April 2007

Shopping. Warning: This post is ranty

There was an ad on TV for 10% off at Careffour (=big supermarket) this week. Hmmm. The last time I went there we did all our shopping, having followed my carefully prepared shopping list, selected the best vegetables (without plastic gloves on), chose the longest sell by dates and best offers etc etc. Good to go. However, when we got to the checkout, we saw that the queues were *enormous*. After waiting 10 minutes in the queue without moving even *an inch* forward we decided “enough!”. We left the trolley there, muttered a few angry words and went home, foodless. Teach them! - Hard as it was on our empty stomachs.

The business sense there leaves so much to be desired. They never seem to open more than 30% of their tills. Plus the workers at the tills are either on a cannot-be-fired-for-any-reason contract or are the daughter of the owner and so will never be fired either. This means they move at snail pace and just don't care. I’ve worked on a few checkouts in my time and when I did I would get the queue down as fast as possible because I didn’t want the people waiting to start complaining, plus I liked it when my checkout was free. I could show them how it's done :)

DIY checkouts could sort the situation a bit. I'm not sure how they'd go down here though...

You’re heavily conditioned as to when and where you can do you’re shopping here. Saturday morning is to be avoided completely. I look at the deli counter queue and think there’s no way I can join that. Walking back home from work the other day I wanted to buy bagno schiumma at the detersivi shop. A simple task you may think, but again it was so busy and the man is sooo slow in there, so I have to wait until I catch the shop empty. Some of the shops I go in, like the detersivi shop are so small too, packed with boxes, you can barely fit in there. If another customer turns up whilst you’re in there, that’s it, you’re blocked in with no escape.

9 comments:

nikinpos said...

There's self service check out at Auchan in Pompei! I know what you mean though. The old man in the deli here is so slow that either I have to read out all the prices to him or the girl behind the counter gets fed up and takes over shooing him away!

Giulia said...

I love going to Carefour only because of the convenience of shopping for everything in one place. But I have to agree with you on the checkout lines. Don't even get me started on what it's like around the holidays! I hope you weren't one of those people who left their carts (out of frustration because of the long lines) with perishables inside? That's another thing I can't stand seeing when I go shopping. I could go on and on... but I'll be good. ;)

Delina said...

Self service in Pompei hey? Great.

I agree completely about being able to shop for everything under one roof Giulia. It's just the queues that I can't stand. The trick is to go at a quiet time - easier said than done though :(

Karen said...

I love the ipermercati like Carrefour for the convenience but the crowds and the lines are so frustrating. We've begun to shop "all'ora della pappa," when they're almost empty. There's always good parking then too.

Delina said...

Good tactic KC. We try to go as soon as the supermarket opens.

Cherrye said...

See, you guys should just come on down to Calabria. We don't have self-service, but we don't have the issues (normally) that you guys do!

Tracie P. said...

the clustering is so bad at the regular salumeria that i just couldn't imagine wanted to undergo that torture at the ipermercato...you're a brave donna.

Gil said...

Checkout is no better at wal-fart - lines arew long and slow!

Marmite Breath said...

Are you talking about the Carrefour in Casoria? Because the best thing about that place is the junk food vendor outside. I don't normally eat from those kind of places, but God! The fried biscuitty things with chunks of ham and cheese (also, I don't usually eat hot cheese). I am drooling about missing that. When people ask me what I miss about Naples, I feel ridiculous about saying, "Fried antipasti type crap" but it's true!