Sunday, April 23, 2006

Movie review and a complaint

I took my son to the movies this afternoon before he goes back to school tomorrow from his April vacation. We went to see Ice Age: The Meltdown. I wasn't sure how he was going to like it, but he enjoyed it and sat through the whole movie. He was getting tired and sleepy already at the start of the movie, so I thought that maybe he was going to fall asleep but he didn't. I think the squirrel scenes kept him interested. He laughed several times at the slapstick comedy which put a smile on my face. I'm hoping he'll enjoy The Three Stooges when he gets older.

We went to the grocery store to pick up a few things before going home. I absentmindedly went through the self-checkout line thinking it was going to be quicker. Boy was I wrong. I am never going through those things again. It took like 15 to 20 minutes to scan properly $50 worth of groceries. Throughout the scanning process, Sally Suckbag computer voice kept complaining "there's an additional item in the bagging area" or "an item has left the bagging area, please put back the item". Lady (and I'm talking about the computer), how am I supposed to bag my other items if I don't take the bagged items out first. Bi-atch.

Plus, it looked like two of the sale items didn't take. I found out through the help of one of the actual real associates that the discount for one of the items were at the end, but the other I noticed didn't register. She asked me what the price was and I mentioned that it was in the section where it says 2 for $7.00. (it was toilet paper) She looked at the flyer and pointing to it said "no, this one and this one are on sale. Do you want me to see if we have any?"
"Sure" I said. We waited what seemed like five minutes before she came back with several packages of butt wipers. She scanned them in to make sure the sales price registered and asked me if I wanted any of them. I picked one and she voided the others out. After I paid and got my sales receipt, I made sure everything was kosher before heading out. Bloody self serve check out line. As we were leaving, there were two or three registers open. Oh, I almost forgot, during the whole "item not found in bagging area" crap and me first noticing the possible pricing mistake, I was just fed up at that point and just wanted to cancel the order and go through a regular checkout line. It only allowed me to cancel one item at a time and after I cancelled the first, Ms. Computer wouldn't let me continue before someone how to authorize the void. It was at that point, when the associate asked me about the sales items, etc. What a freakin' hassle.

3 Comments:

At 4/24/2006 1:34 AM, Blogger Elsa said...

I saw commercials for Ice Age: Meltdown and it looked cute. Glad you liked it. And maybe J takes after a certain uncle, which means he'll be "nyak nyaking" in no time! :-)

I've used those self-checkouts a few times and I've found that the ease of using them depends on the place. It seems some places' (like Wal-Mart) check-outs are very sensitive (much like the problems you mention - yuk), while others (Stop & Shop) are pretty user-friendly. I feel for you - it sucks when it takes you longer to check-out than it did to do the shopping!

 
At 4/24/2006 12:52 PM, Blogger Tam said...

Ed, you are a good daddy to take J to the movies and to pick up groceries on the way home! 2 thumbs up for you!

I'm sorry you had the check out hassle but I would like to thank you for reminding me of one of my current favorite commercials. "Wart remover, WART, WART, WART, WART, WART....." hehehe, I crack up everytime I see that one!

 
At 4/24/2006 9:52 PM, Blogger Ed said...

Elsa - We'll try to keep J with our humor and not a certain uncle's. :-)

Tam - Thanks! That commercial is funny. Too bad I didn't think of it. The experience would have been more tolerable. They should do a follow-up commercial and have the Muppets in it where Miss Piggy accidently scans the Swedish chef... "Bork! Bork! Bork!".

 

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