Grocery store Archives - I Hate Working In Retail


The 11 Worst Things About Working In A Supermarket

No matter how many people tried to warn you, you’ll often find yourself stuck back in your part-time supermarket job after graduation.

Not exactly what you were hoping 3 years of hard work would result in, and time goes on with still no sign of that dream job you were hoping to land.

“Well at least you’ve got a job”, “Think of the money!” come the cries of your friends and family. Though they make valid points, you can’t help but feel a little disappointed. Especially when you find yourself hating certain details of your supermarket job…

1. You walk into work and see this:

Mount Doom

2. The soul-destroying overtime

You find yourself accepting more overtime than you intended to, because you could do with the extra money.


3. The interrogation you face from your family

Their questions are endless and near-impossible to answer. “How’s the job hunt coming?”, “Have you applied to any jobs recently?”, “So, when are you going to get a real job?” A real job? Back. Off.

4. Graduate schemes

The moment the Managers come up to you and say “You’ve worked here a while now, have you thought about getting on the Graduate Scheme to become a Manager?” is the moment you soul completely leaves your body. You know you’ve worked there far too long.

5. Your years of service

And it gets worse when you’re handed that new work badge informing you just how many years of service you’ve clocked up.

6. Seeing old friends

Is there anything worse than seeing an old friend from School who you’ve not seen in a while? Two choices cross your mind: I could greet them with a big smile, or run and hide. Of course, there’s only one option:

7. Realising that they will always shop at your store

You can’t avoid them forever, as much as you try. So you casually assure them that you’re only there part-time while you find a job relating to your degree (do such things exist?).

Meanwhile, they tell you how well everything is going in their life.

8. Seeing them again, months later

You lock eyes, they see you’re still working there, you see that they’ve seen you’re still working there and you just accept the emptiness you’re left feeling.

9. Your Co-Workers:

Everyone has annoying co-workers, but Supermarkets have a particular brand of annoying co-workers. And there are so many of them, like:

Smelly Pete

Every Supermarket has a smelly Pete. Name interchangeable.

The one who thinks they’re hilarious

They will not leave you alone until you acknowledge this hilarity in some way.

The co-worker who just loves fancy dress days.

The couples.

Is there anything more annoying than a workplace romance? Nobody wants to know, everyone has to listen.

10. The Customers:

Customers are the single worst part about working in a Supermarket, whilst also being the whole point. Generally they’re fine and pleasant, but you’ll always remember the ones who weren’t.

Like the ones who complains about everything

Like you’re the owner of the supermarket or something.

The drunk ones

They venture in at 10 AM looking for more alcohol.

The old, obnoxious and inappropriate ones.

No, I don’t wish to listen to your outdated, narrow-minded, unfunny ‘jokes’.

Or the incredibly good looking one

You can never flirt with then because you’re in a disgusting uniform.

But the worst thing is being nice to rude customers

You’re never in the mood, but you have to do it.

11. When friends leave

They’ve finally managed to bag themselves their dream job while you’re stuck there. You’re happy for them, but gutted they’re going – it’s one less person to keep you sane.

But at the end of the day it’s all made worth it when your shift is over and you’ve got time off to do what you want. Definitely going to make the most of it, apply to some jobs, be productive… Blah blah blah.

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10 Annoying People you Will Always Find Lurking at the Supermarket

Thinkstock / Old Shoe Woman, flickr / Thinkstock

Eating out is a privilege, made all the sweeter because we don’t have to prepare the meal ourselves, which means we don’t have to go to the grocery store, which, if you’ve ever been, you know can be a heart-palpitating nightmare.


Going to the grocery store to pick up enough food and supplies to last the week shouldn’t be that tough, but it usually is, thanks to the motley crew of people populating your local grocery store. Here’s a look at 10 people you’ll no doubt see filling the aisles whenever you choose to go:

The exhausted mother

Kids fighting

This poor woman is in way over her head. Once the hottest woman in her sorority, she’s now wearing a velvet track suit with hair curlers and is a few years away from the inevitable move to a muumuu. All she wants to do is buy healthy food for her family, but she ends up spending more time running interference with her kids — you know, the four-year-old who inevitably knocks down the display case of Chips Ahoy. While she’s helping to clean up that mess, her six-year-old wanders off into the liquor department and winds up with a six-pack of Guinness. Which leads us to…

The little kid

Upset Baby

In aisle one, he picks up animal crackers. In aisle two, he puts them down and replaces them with a SpongeBob toothbrush. In aisle three, he puts that down and replaces it with a Yo Gabba Gabba fruit roll-ups. Are you sensing a pattern? His irritating pleas of “I want this!” are superseded only by his bourgeoning case of ADD, but you can’t worry about that when he decides to throw a temper tantrum by staging a not-so-silent protest via sitting down outside the Chips Ahoy display until he gets his way.

The extreme couponer

Supermarket Shopping
susansimon, flickr

If you’ve ever watched ‘Extreme Couponing,’ you know who this person is. She’s the lady who buys 600 Glade Plug-Ins because it’s on sale for 40 cents off and she has coupons that will essentially make them free. In reality, she needs the Glade Plug-Ins because she also bought 600 cans of Beef-a-Roni for a dollar off each, topped by the supermarket’s triple coupon day, and well, something, has to cover up what’s bound to bombard the bathroom.

We cannot caution you enough about the importance of NOT getting behind this person in line. The extreme couponer watches every single item as it’s run over the scanner like a hawk. And if she thinks the cashier only took 40 cents off the tub of Wisk instead of 80, well, then prepare to witness something called what can best be labeled “demonfire.” The extreme couponer is there for the savings and will do anything to get them, which leads us to…

The cashier who inspects every single coupon you present

Old Shoe Woman, flickr

Forget the fact the cashier is earning $11 an hour. The diligence with which she looks over each coupon makes you think she personally stands to lose the money you’re saving. And there’s nothing worse than when she studies the coupons after scanning all your items and thinks she caught you. She has a coupon for a dollar off Men’s Centrum, but she’s pretty sure you bought Centrum for women over 50, so she has no qualms about sifting through all your bags in order to bust you, like she’s some crack member of the grocery police. This cashier is the bane of the extreme couponer’s existence and their mutual disdain for each other stirs up the kind of animosity not seen since the Hatfields and McCoys were in their heyday.

The shopper who switches lines

Busy shoppers
seanbonner, flickr

Admit it — you’ve done this. You’re in a long line when another lane frees up and the cashier announces, “I’m open.” You slip into that line, somehow managing to jump ahead of the person you were just standing behind, even though you’ve clearly got more groceries. The person who’s now behind you is staring you down like a boxer before a title fight. Congratulations — you’re officially a jerk.

The old lady

Older lady

When you arrive at the deli, you’ll notice an old lady is already there, ordering her food. It’s just you and her, so you figure you can wait the few minutes before getting your two pounds of Swiss cheese. Unfortunately, there’s only one person working at the deli and, even more unfortunately, this 85-pound octogenarian has apparently decided today is the day to buy enough cold cuts to feed the local varsity football team.

While she loads up on pimento loaf, all you can do is wander off to buy some bananas and hope you remain within earshot when the poor sucker behind the display case announces your number, which may or may not be sometime before sundown.

The teen who Hates his job


The look on this kid’s face says it all. More specifically, it says, “I can’t believe I’m stuck working here.” The teen doesn’t make eye contact, doesn’t say hello, doesn’t say, “Have a nice day.” All the teen is thinking about is how his father is lame for making him get a job and learn responsibility. If the teen does talk, it’s to an equally miserable teen co-worker and the conversation usually revolves around how they plan to switch their hours, a scheme so convoluted not even a Google algorithm can shed light on it.

The confused husband

Confused Shopper

Remember how confused Michael Keaton got while food shopping in ‘Mr. Mom?’ Well, it’s right on the money. Legislation needs to be introduced banning a husband from going to a supermarket by himself if he’s shopping for other people in his family because he will, without fail, screw up, forcing his wife to yell at him in front of their children, making the little ones believe that their dad is the dumbest person in the world — all because he bought stewed tomatoes, when he was told to buy diced.

The confused husband has been given a reprieve in recent years due to the proliferation of cell phones, which enables him to call his significant other when he’s stumped to make sure he buys the right product. Score one for technology.

The annoyed shopper

Annoyed Shopper

Like the confused husband, it’s probably for the best this person stay home. Inevitably, she wants to cash in on that Perdue special where chicken breasts are going for $1.79 a pound, but is furious when she finds out the store has run out. Then, she’s up in arms when the woman in front of her decides to turn her cart around, causing traffic mayhem.

Finally, she’s the one who gets peeved when there’s an issue at the checkout line, like if a cashier can’t verify the cost of grapes or needs to get singles from a manager. The annoyed shopper will usually vent by saying, “Come on!” under her breath just loud enough to be heard, but not loud enough to start an ugly confrontation.

The creepy guy who collects the shopping carts

Target carts
nateOne, flickr

If you’re going to take one thing away from this story, it should be this: keep away from this guy. And it is always a guy, never a woman. The poor sap who’s assigned the not-so-plum gig of lugging carts from the uncivilized edges of the weed-infested parking lot back towards the front of the store is either a pimply kid who has yet to graduate to cashier or a chain-smoking ex-con with an addiction to getting tattoos and anger management issues.

He’s the one who has to push the stack of 40 carts through the parking lot and is always furious when a car gets in his way. Heaven forbid you decide to leave your cart in the front of your parking spot and not in one of the designated drop-off places scattered throughout the lot because this fella might hunt you down like Robert De Niro in ‘Cape Fear.’

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The 10 Commandments of The Grocery Store


1. Thou shall not leave your cart in an empty parking spot. There are two kinds of people in this world: 1) Those who return carts to the cart corral and 2) Assholes. Leaving a cart to find its own way home often results in the cart camping out in a parking spot that someone will inevitably pull halfway into before realizing the cart is there and angrily backing out, pissing off people behind them. The carts have a home. Help them find their home.

2. Thou shall not walk down the center aisle of the parking lot. You do not have super-human pedestrian powers that override people in their cars trying to get past or around you. Pick a side—any side—and no one gets hurt.

3. Thou shall travel up and down the aisle like a civilized person. Up one side, down the other. If you’re barreling down the middle or the wrong side like a linebacker and clip my cart, I am not above throwing a shoulder. Also, try to refrain from doing a 180 halfway down a jam-packed aisle only to amble along as if you’re taking in the sights of the Louvre. It’s soup. Not the Sistine Chapel.

4. Thou shall obey the express line rules. The sign says 15 items or less. It does not say, “Everything you can stick in the small-ass cart you chose instead of regular cart.” That does not refer to the number of item types, but the actual item count. For example, those 75 cans of soup that took you 15 minutes to pick out does not count as a single item. You are not a special snowflake. If everybody ignored this rule, it would just be a regular line.

5. Thou shalt not decide against the frozen pizza you picked up in the frozen foods section and then place it on the shelf next to the shampoo. Really? Come on now, people.

6. Thou shall respect the invisible checkout line bubble of personal space. Regardless of how close you creep up or how many items you throw on the belt, you will be next—after me. If you continue to creep up, I will pretend to go through my coupon keeper for an extraordinary amount of time and chit chat with the cashier…unless you would like to pay for my produce. In that case, you have a deal.

7. Thou shall treat the cashier with respect. This means not chatting on your phone while she’s ringing up your groceries or getting ticked when she won’t accept the four expired coupons you thought she’d ignore. If you get caught trying to sneak in an expired coupon, just let it go. It’s 35-cents off of dish soap. You’ll survive.

8. Thou shall not stop at the exit to go over your receipt. Once given your receipt and all 300 extra pieces of paper that get pumped out of the printer with it, do not stop and read the receipt like it’s a treasure map. There is nothing on that paper that is so important that you need to throw on the brakes and cause a backup. Move it along.

9. Thou shall reconsider the self-checkout. Know your limits. Can you find a bar code on a product? Match the picture of bananas on the screen to the bananas in your cart? Flatten paper money to insert into a slot? If you answered “no” to any of those questions, don’t be a hero. Go through the normal checkout.

10. Thou shall not stalk for a parking spot. Finally, do not slowly drive behind me at 5 mph impatiently waiting for my parking spot that is often only two down from another available spot. Unless you’re going to get out and help me unload my groceries into the back, your insistence on sitting there, impatiently revving the engine on your minivan, will force me to do a full vehicle check—interior and exterior—before getting back in and leaving 5 minutes later.

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