A part of my duties as General Manager is to go shopping for the hotel. Due to the lavish breakfast and dinner served, I go to the store three days a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are the days when I have to buy endless amounts of Bananas, Yogurt, Apples and Milk. For the most part, my trips to the store go off without a hitch but Wednesday, every damn Wednesday, I have to go to one specific store that I like to call 'Dumb and Never Ending'. I mostly don't like it because I have to buy so much stuff when I go there. The reason I buy so much on Wednesday is because I'm not going to do this again on Monday and Friday. On Monday and Friday I normally buy between three and six items but Wednesday I get a full work out in with grocery shopping. That's one of the major problems because the people who work there are fine but the biggest problem I have are the other customers.
I've gotten it down to a science, I go in at the exact same time every Wednesday and my list is in the order that I go to get to the check out line fastest. You would think that with all that preparation I wouldn't have such a hard time getting through it, you would be wrong. I like to think of it as a video game:
I am the character and my mission is to get everything on the list, which is normally between 40-50 items, in the fastest amount of time as possible. The problem is that standing in my way are obstacles normally in the form of other customers. I am taller than they are, stronger than they are and faster than they are but they outnumber me 50:1. Can I make it out without getting arrested?
First Time
For my first trip to the store I took the housekeeping manager with me so she could tell me exactly what to get the first time and I would know each time thereafter. We were in the large walk-in freezer and she was showing me the yogurt. I personally don't like yogurt and it's all the same to me but we have to buy a specific brand. We had already gotten a few things like bagels, salad, bananas, etc. As we picked up the large boxes of yogurt to put in our cart, we turn around to see a woman taking things out of our cart and putting them into her hand basket. She was shopping out of our cart.
I have told a few people this story and they always ask: "Well was your cart like on the other side of the room or outside of the freezer? The Answer: NO! Our cart was directly behind us. My hip was touching the cart at the time.
Working Girl: Hey! Put that shit back!
Woman: Oh, Oh. Sorry.
After she put it back, she scurried off and the housekeeping manager was laughing so hard at my reaction that she had tears streaming down her face.
Is That What I'm Here For?
This happened before I even got in the store. I was walking from my car to the front of the store to get a cart. As I walked up, a woman tried to get my attention the worst way.
Woman: YOU HELP ME!
She was pointing at me. What she was trying to say was that the carts were stuck together and they wouldn't separate. She wanted me to help her pull it out.
Working Girl: I help you? Oh! Okay, you pull and I'll hold the other cart still.
Woman: YOU DO BOTH!
Working Girl: *sigh* No, you pull and I will hold the other cart still.
Woman: Okay.
So we get the carts separated and she has her cart and I have mine. As I'm pushing my cart towards the door, this bitch SHOULDER CHECKS ME!
YOU WANNA GO, BITCH!?!?
I Honestly Don't Know
The problem with going to the store and buying a cart full of items that includes eight giant boxes of yogurt, two bags of five-pound salad, seven bunches of bananas, 12 bottles of toilet cleaner and 30 more items, is that you get people staring at you.
I'm fine with that, I know it's not a normal grocery shopping haul and therefore I do get looks when I'm struggling to push a cart to the checkout stand but do not ask me how much each item is in my cart. I get this every single time I go to that store. I'm always asked "Is that on sale?" "How much is that?" "What do you need all the toilet cleaner for?" I really don't know the answers to most of your questions. I can tell you that I work in a hotel but that's about it. I don't know how much any individual item is in my cart nor do I know if it is on sale. The only thing I know is that I have to buy this.
It's hard not to feel like an animal at the zoo when people are just staring at you, so when someone asks me a question I'm really not trying to be rude but I can't take it anymore. I normally just answer with "I don't know" so then they take it upon themselves to take the items from my cart and look for a price tag. That's when my head explodes.
Put It On My Tab
I was in line putting the groceries on the conveyor belt and I noticed that as I was taking stuff out of my cart, the shopping cart wasn't becoming any more empty. That's when I realized the woman in line behind me was putting her stuff in my cart. This is one of those scenarios that I have to laugh about but at the time I was furious.
What did she think was gonna happen? Did she think that after my 100th trip to this store I didn't know what I bought? Did she think I was going to pay for her groceries? Was she "resting" her food in my cart? WHAT? WHAT!? WHAT!!? I don't understand.
In my rage, I said not a word and I picked up her shit, and dropped it on the floor. If she had at least said something to me prior to her just putting her groceries in my cart, this would've gone completely differently. But she didn't, she wanted me to drop her shit on the floor obviously. There is no logical reasoning behind that.
Candy
As I said earlier, the people who work there are fine. They are friendly people who are just as annoyed with the rest of their clientele as I am. Originally they got on my nerves too because they would always ask me the same questions that the other customers did, but then they got to know me and now we are all very cordial to each other and sometimes talk as if we are not complete strangers....except for one person.
The security guard. He doesn't bother me necessarily but I feel like he should probably be off securing shit as opposed to following me around and hitting on me. For the most part he would just stare, wave and say hello.
I normally buy candy for the candy jar at the front desk. I spend a bit of time there because I like to get different candy each time. The treat is mostly for our guests but there is no harm in us diving in to get a sweet treat as well.
One day when I grabbed two or three bags of candy and put them in my basket, I turned around to see the security guard standing in front of me.
Security Guard: Mmm, can I put some candy in your basket?
WHAT!? EW! NO!
I politely laughed it off and awkwardly ran away but really? That's how you speak to a customer? Even if you were going to harmlessly flirt that would be better than you making an obvious sexual innuendo to me. I have no time for that and now I need to avoid any and all eye contact with you from here on out.
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