…inspired by today’s trip to Trader Joe’s.
For customers: Fish money out of your wallet, purse or pocket while the cashier rings up your purchase. Don’t wait until he says, “$52.18, please” to start rooting around for cash.
If you pay by credit or debit card, swipe as soon as she registers the 1st item. There is no need to wait until the end (or to stare at the swipe device as if you’re George H.W. Bush seeing a scanner for the 1st time).
For cashiers: Hand change to customers coins first, then bills. It’s spectacularly inconvenient to receive change on top of bills. You don’t like customers doing that to you, do you?
(The reason: because today’s registers show you the total amount of change. In the old days cashiers figured it out themselves — change first up to the dollar, then bills. Ah, progress.)
What are your New Year’s resolutions? Click the “comments” link, to share with the “06880” community.
The more nit-picky, the better.
And while you're at it, bag your own stuff.
Start a new campaign to respond, “You’re Welcome”, to Thank You, instead of the substitute, “No Problem”.
Thank YOU, Charlie.
You’re welcome.
No problem.
If I didn’t know better, Dan, I’d swear this post was written by one of those impatient New Yorkers whom Westporters like to grump about. This could have been written after a trip to Zabar’s.
What really bugs me is when they put in your hand 1. first the bills, 2. then the paper receipt, 3. then the change. Try sorting out that sandwich before the impatient person next in line (probably a transplanted New Yorker) begins to grumble.
It takes one to know one. I grew up on the Upper West Side.
Please do not STAND three inches away from me while I am checking out when you are next in line. I have nothing in my wallet that will interest you and standing there is NOT going to speed either me OR the cashier up OR the sacker who seems to think I need four paper bags for five items.
You asked for nit picky, you got nit picky:
Ms. Cashier, when I hand you the $3 and tell you I have the exact change–23 cents–ring up the sale and put the bills in the drawer while I dig the two dimes and three pennies from my wallet. Don’t just stand there looking at me–multitask or something!
Feminist.
Thanks for the compliment! Feminists like me make sure that Ms. Cashier earns as much as her male peers.
But they don’t. 70 cents on the dollar. Let me hear you roar?
The problem occurs when you pull a quarter out of your pocket, the cashier will need to cash register to figure out how much is due back to you. A sad commentary, but too often true.
I resolve to buy groceries at Stop and Shop in Norwalk where I can have my purchases bagged in strong, environmentally friendly, easy-to use plastic bags- that I will bag myself.
PS- if you are still using cash you deserve whatever inconvenience and incompetence you get. If you pay by check- well, move.
Yeah forget cash. Join the average American family that is $9,000.00 credit card indebted. Those elusive reward points are well worth it.
A debit card is the same as cash. No muss, no fuss. Try it.
Hmm: I will bet that even with a debit card, people spend more money than they would normally. I have counseled bankruptcy clients, the swipe of the plastic is not the same as pulling your last $20.00 bill out of your wallet.
If people don’t spend every last dime, how will Obama get the economy moving again? Business investment in Brazil? He is counting on the consumer. The Fed is hoping to increase the velocity at which money turns over; spending only cash won’t help. Are you advocating economic stagnation? Shame on you.
Here’s another, Dan. I stopped in Stop and Shop around noon yesterday and parked the car about 75 yards from the front door. Up drives a nice Porche SUV with a 40-something fashionable couple in it. He, the driver, parks the car right in front of the door where it clearly says, “No Parking” and leaving his well dressed wife in the car enters the store goes shopping. A few minutes after this a large white Toyota jumbo-SUV pulls up in front of the other door and out hops the wife while he sits right in front of, you guessed it, a No Parking sign. Bot cars were there for a good 20 minutes or so while everyone else did the right thing. What is it about these creeps? I guess when some people move to Westport, they take on some kind of entitlement attitude….. Happy New Year.
At least they didn’t park in the handicapped spots.
Over the last 30 years or so, Westport, has be transformed, not for the better, by the sort of people you describe; the nouveau riche with no breeding and a sense of entitlement. No amount of border security will keep them out and you can’t send them back.
It is the transformation of our affluent culture. The noveau riche
(are we all aristocrats here?) of the 50’s/60’s were all not perfect either. A lot of drunks and adultery going on then in Westport. Perhaps not as arrogant but the seed of entitlement ran deep. Beneath the upper crust of rude, lies the real Westport that remains much the same: middle class values and full of compassion.
Our nation has been affluent for almost 100 years. The transformation in behavior patterns is more recent phenomenon, and it is a matter of degree. The arrogant nouveau riche have been an element of the Westport community and many others for a very l0ng time; now they are the dominant element. The ridicule of this group has a rich tradition in most cultures. BTW no one minds drunks and adulterers as long as they don’t park in the fire lane or handicapped spots at Stop and Shop.
I don’t think they are the dominant or majority element. I think that is the image. Most folks here are hard-working, love their kids and are very polite to others. It is the hot shots,in a big hurry dopes that get the attention. Much like the sports arena, the common journeyman who makes up the team does not get the spotlight. It is the star who is normally a bozo since birth that gets the attention.
So nothing has changed? I don’t buy that conclusion. I have lived in Westport only for 32+ years. The difference is clear to me.
And I since ’53. The elite back then were more polite for that was the culturiological norm. As stated above, it is cool to be a dickhead now and thus the flock of those entitled follow the Gordon Gekko standard.
It’d be great if they say “No, thank you” instead of “I’m good”. Not only it’s annoying, it is open to misinterpretation.
For example:
“Do you need another bag?”
“I’m good”
No worse than “No problem.”
Cut them a break. At least they are acknowledging your question is what they think is a polite response.
But it is not a proper response unless you are in the Caribbean.
That is the point.
Money drives this town. And there are a lot of people who make a lot of money here. Money=Entitlement. It’s the American way. You wanted it, you got it.
I disagree. Money+lack of breeding = entitlement.
Lack of breeding? “They” won the sperm lottery. It is an unfamiliarity with the woes of the common folk and also culturiologically cool to be dickheads. Ask Gordon.
Good breeding may refer to:
Manners, the unenforced standards of conduct which show the actor to be cultured, polite, and refined
Does this help? I did not intend to reference an accident.
I disagree. Money+no breeding= entitlements.
You both seem to want to blame the parents for those entitled. I think many learn it at college and the work space and/or just play the game of wannabe “players” to duplicate their peer group.
I too, worked my very first job at Chubby’s at the beach. I worked hard, learned to get along with others, learned to deal ‘charmingly’ with demanding customers, AND, most importantly, learned how to run the cash register and count out change. When the summer ended I moved up to the restaurant next to the New Englander Hotel, (now the Westport Inn) and waited on the likes of Paul Newman, among others. It was a great job and an invaluable education for me! Thanks, Chubby.
I agree. These high school menial jobs may not make your resume shine but it tells you what you don’t want to do and also makes you interact with people.