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I Hate Shopping

RIGHT! I am an easy-going chap. Reasonable sense of humour and seldom gets ruffled. However, I have spleen to vent! Do not read this if you easily offended.

I like to think that I try to keep abreast of technology so when I saw the new 'Scan and Shop' jobby at Tesco's, I thought to myself,'Yep, I'll have a bit of that. Save the long queue at the checkouts. Thumbs up.' What a mistake to make!

First I had to register the Clubcard. No problem here; the scanner easily read my gnarly, screwed up 'Clubcard on a keyring' without setting off any alarms. The nice lady supervising the operation smiled sweetly at me and off I went with my little hand-held scanning widget.

Ginger root, chillies, onions. potatoes, piece of p***. Then the bloody thing started playing up. The carrots wouldn't scan ... or the parsnips ... or the broccoli... OR THE FRIGGIN' CAULIFLOWER!!! I read the leaflet. 'If your items do not scan, place them in a separate part of the trolley and an assistant will help you.' Blinding. Soon, however, I had racked up twice as many non-scanned items. I went back to the nice lady.

'This thing doesn't work.'

'Are you holding it at the right angle?'

'I think so.'

'Let me have a go.'

Carrots. Beep. Parsnips. Beep. Broccolli. Beep.

'It seems OK to me. Why don't you have another go with the cauli.' Silence. Didn't work. She tried it. F***ing BEEP!

'Maybe you're holding it too close or not close enough. Maybe the scanner isn't lined up properly. Maybe you're holding the button for too long.'

'Maybe I'm going to trash the thing and boot it into the middle of next week,' I thought.

So, after a lesson in how to scan stuff (remember I had no problem with my skanky Clubcard) and after declining the nice lady's offer to have her accompany me round the store like I was some kind of educational retard, I set off again. I managed to scan a few things after this but it took me ages to scan each one. People whooshed past me. People also avoided me as I had began talking to myself, muttering obscenities to the hapless scanner. I tried all different angles and distances; I considered sticking the thing up my arse to see if that would work any better. No. After 3 aisles (yes, just 3) I gave up and paid for the measly 2 bags' worth of stuff I had collected. The whole pantomime had wasted 45 minutes of my life!

The nice lady was most apologetic and was disappointed that I chose to end my shopping experience.

I went to Lidl instead.

Merry Christmas.
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amethyst1 · 36-40, F
Don't you think it's funny how self service things need to be supervised/people often need help with them and they play up. Against the whole point.
SW-User
My point exactly. I sometimes go to the self checkout if I only have a few items and I don't mind that. But I bought my daughter some posh gin as part of her Christmas present, using this method of checkout, and the nice lady who checked that I wasn't under-age forgot to take the security tag off. Embarrassing!
amethyst1 · 36-40, F
Checked that you weren't underage lol.
I've known quite a few people be ID'd in their late 20s and 30s.
SW-User
Those days are long gone for me, I'm afraid.😥
amethyst1 · 36-40, F
I think I may realise it's a good thing to look young too late. Well, Im ok with that. It's when people assume or tell you you look half your age, which is school age/'under age', it just feels a bit weird.
SW-User
I have come full circle. I was a bugger for trying to get served in pubs underage when I was young and the devil in me is beginning to think I may... just may...be able to blag my way into a few underage OAP discounts😇
amethyst1 · 36-40, F
Ooh my mum was/still is on the lookout for those discounts. There used to be a thing in my village I think for elderly (though the age range may have changed for the definition of that now) people who lived on their own. Free Christmas hamper. That has stopped now, as with many other things round here sadly.
I'm aware of cheaper train subscription (not the right word. I often can't think of right word)
Free bus travel?
Mum went to some w.i. meetings but they are all older than her.
I dont know if it's a nationwide thing but university of the third age might be worth looking up.
Might be worth saying youre 65 for some little things like something you want to see on a day out just to see if you get in free!
By the time I'm that age there probably won't be anything, boo.