For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 04, 2022

Around here, chicken is sold by the pound so it wouldn’t help to check the price on another chicken.

now y’all know how I feel as a utility clerk at my employed grocery store: get carts from parking lot to lobbies, clean up spill, get carts, carry-out a shopper’s groceries, clean up spill in liquor department, get carts, clean/restock bathrooms, take a perishable grocery from a cashier back to its shelf, get carts… it’s madness!

Looking busy is more important than BEING busy, of course…

Look busy? he is very busy, you idiot!

The sharp ones are always in management

Uggghhhh that brings back memories from my working days, running around from this to that and they tell you it’s not good enough!

Actually, the canned and jarred goods should go at the bottom of the bag.

THEN the produce; THEN the boxed goods, and THEN the delicate goods, like eggs, on top.

And don’t forget to double the bags!!

Take your own advice geek!

I don’t know how they train baggers lately. We always end up having to tell the bagger things, like, “Don’t put the milks on their sides & pile stuff on top of them!” “Please lay frozen dinners flat.” “You can put more than 1 or 2 things in the bag.” (We bring our own bags; they’re the big square ones.)

OMG! There is always a guy (or gal) like that in every work place to make our life a little more interesting, shall we say?

Every affluent teenager should have a job like this when they’re young so they understand how real people live.

Reminds me of my first year(1964) working at my local A&P. Uniform was white short sleeve shirt with bowtie and black slacks

Yes sir. Will do. ………..dick

Yep. Every job has a manager like that. I use to work Wendy’s when I was in college and the boss liked to have the take out window answered and taking an order in 20 seconds. Between window customers it was my job washing salad bar containers in the sink at the back of the store. One day the window bell rang when I was up to my elbows in suds. Now the fryer was working all day and an oil would slightly build up on the floor over the day. So now I was racing for the window, then sliding down the hall, in passing I wiped my suddsey hands on the bosses apron as I slid past him, landed at the window fast enough I almost flipped through it with the standard Wendy’s greeting “Welcome to Wendy’s! May I take your order?”. Boss almost fell down laughing.He wasn’t all bad, but in his defense he had to be pretty tough with most of the workers because they’d slack off if he didn’t put the fear of God into them.

So many packers don’t know how to pack properly these days.

They never see you when you’re working.

Uhh…

P 4 ( mikes voice): “… you too, skippy…”

“Where would you like your bag of milk?”

There is always a wise guy!

Is that Rhetta? I can’t remember if she comes into the story yet.

The last few years it’s been hard for stores to get enough workers. I hope that they are more encouraging than this to the ones who show up each day. As a shopper, I try to show appreciation.

Wait until after shift, Mike. THEN punch the guy out!

For the most part I bag my own groceries these days. Either I shop at WinCo where they don’t bag your stuff at all or use the self-check at the stores that offer it. The only problem with that is the computer knows what something should weigh, so if you use your own canvas or plasticized bag it will tell you to remove the “extra” item from the bagging area. I’ve been known to leave all the groceries piled up in the bagging area until the transaction is complete then pack my canvas bags. Of course the other customers in a busy store just love that. Thank heavens for Wal-mart where they don’t care what bags you use or if you put already bagged stuff back in the cart. (They will also recycle your old one-use plastic bags for you.)

Typical comment from a “boss”

i hate coworkers like this

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

Totally inaccurate. That guy should be holding a cup of coffee and his cell phone.

Seriously, jerk? Mike’s doing a great job!!!