Self-Checkout

As I waited in line I looked to see how many shoppers were behind me. There were four. Only one cashier was on duty but the self-check out aisle, next door, was alive with customers acting like the employees they were not.

I asked one gentleman to go ahead of me but he declined. The woman between us should go next but she was not here. So we stood. As my turn began, I packed my groceries as quickly as possible, hoping to expedite the process. The shoppers behind me were busy people and waiting for one cashier to get moving was not helpful at all.

I approached customer service to inform the manager of this day's visit to the store.

“I understand the philosophy of self-checkout. In the beginning, it was a novice way for shoppers to get out quickly when a few items were all they had to buy. Self checkout made sense. Line-ups do not serve business or the customer base well.

Nowadays, however, while one 'assistant' cashier serves to help those customers use these high tech registers to get moving quickly, others are waiting patiently, waiting to check out at the other cash register lane. Have you no respect for your customers, Mr. Store? It is Thursday the day before the weekend is to begin. What is your reasoning here? I'm curious - one cashier for the remaining customers, some of whom will never use the 'self-serve' way. You are hoping, perhaps, to instill this mind set to others not wanting to work for nothing while abdicating your responsibility to staff the store adequately.

A hostile climate is building for those customers stuck in the only 'professional' check out lane when one shopper has a full cart and others do not. Letting people in helps for a while. But eventually the ice-cream product I have in my cart will melt and I need to go home. Then what? There goes your profit, the slim margin under which you operate." That is simply unacceptable.

You are taking advantage of your customer base and you know it! We are now your employee for the duration of our visit to your store. Where's the discount when we do the work of your trained cashiers not on duty? One cashier on duty is a total disregard to the people who shop at your store. Keeping us waiting like we have nothing better to do is a total lack of respect for us. Eventually, however.......

On the job training is not what we expect when we grocery shop. Stop the manipulation. One cashier on duty in the other lane is a slap in the face to those who are left behind with some groceries warming up and others slowly melting." 

Getting shoppers out quickly should be your game plan. Respect us or we will go elsewhere.  And what are you telling your cashiers? Hours are slashed; benefits, too. How do part-time wages pay for full time living expenses. Think about what you are doing. Your customers and staff deserve that much. Have a good day.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Caper

It finally happened. Over 50 years of pet ownership of retrievers, the do not feed list hit us without warning. A tray of chocolate chip cookie balls, ready to be baked, got the attention of gentle Mr. Wiggles. I was mortified. Was he going to collapse before me?

I had been reformulating a recipe and simply forgot to refrigerate them. But Mr. Wiggles, our 85 pound yellow retriever with a platelet problem, had not. He thought he'd help, too, devouring 9 one-inch balls of raw dough. Panic set in. Had I accidentally killed him? Dark chocolate is a potential killer of dogs, a no-no on the don't feed this to dogs list.

The online recommendation to not induce vomiting at home was easy. I wasn't going to do it. Why would I? How would I do it and what would I use to do it with, anyway. I had never done this before and wasn't going to start practicing now on my precocious pup. Watch him, I was told. So I did till 3:00 am the next morning, treating him like a patient with a concussion. I woke him every 2 hours simply to observe him in all manner of movement. If he stumbled, fell, cried out, vomited etc., a trip to the hospital would be warranted.

It was 8 hours later and he seemed fine. But what do I know? The chocolate chips and raw dough were now inside of him inflicting damage upon him, somehow, I reasoned. A sample of his urine was brought in that morning to the animal clinic for observation. I figured any biological sample might aid in determining any colour abnormalities in the urine, 6 hours old. It all made sense to me. A brief check-up and blood test soon followed. A new urine sample next week would be tested, just to be sure. The U.S. Poison Control Center had been a critical first step in this investigation and they were not concerned. So far everything seemed fine.

The 3 day long weekend made the medical emergency more unsettling. Pet emergencies only seem to happen on those days inaccessible to the family veterinarian. We watched him 24/7 till the clinic opened in two days.

I am now waiting further results of another follow-up sterile sample just to be sure. No surprises are expected. Cookie monster has passed the test with flying colours and made me happy that my carelessness did not hurt him or worse. At least the dough was organic and gluten-free. In this instance, it did not matter.