What is Digg?231 Comments
- wildfire, on 10/11/2007, -8/+438Coming from someone who has worked before at a grocery store:
1. The shopping carts have cooties. (Use hand sanitizer if it's going to give you a brain aneurysm)
2. Dates are open to interpretation. (Actually to the store's advantage then as expiration dates are not a set-in-stone guide to quality -- we would put the oldest to the front, newest to back to eliminate inventory as most people don't check anyway)
3. Kid-friendly food is purposely placed within their reach. (Can I get a "duh"?)
4. They cut up food so they can charge more. (You pay for conveinence even if it's twice as much sometimes)
5. Good-for-you foods require bending and reaching. (Fatty crap sells and goes at eye-level)
6. End-of-aisle displays are there to distract you from your mission. (Crap in fancy displays that stand out sell well)
7. Bargains aren’t always a bargain. (Well, depends on your habits, as some people can stock food for months this way)
8. You’ll walk the store the way they want you to. (Alex, I'll take "No *****" for $500)
9. The salad bar can make you sick. (Stuff like this is changed daily and usually only requires you to look out for the obvious)
10. They don’t always clean as often as they should. (Again, look out for the obvious, although a store usually goes through morning/night cleaning routines)
So, all in all, not things they don't want you to know, just things that some people neglect to realize. - Deputy_Doodah, on 10/11/2007, -3/+133I was in a store with my kid and wasn't aware that Cosmo was so bad. Yes, it was right next to the bubblegum in my store too.
My kid (10 years old) says " daddy, why does this lady want to give her man multiple organisms?" (he misread "orgasms"). I looked over and he was holding a Cosmo.
When that stuff is on a man's magazine, women call it porn and demand that it be hidden (or even banned). When that stuff is on a woman's magazine, they put it on full display next to the bubblegum. Pretty hypocritical. - TehdBerg, on 10/11/2007, -1/+117I have also worked at a grocery store, so I can do:
11. Everyone in the store hates you
12. The soap dispensers in the employee bathroom don't work - oldschoolgoth, on 10/11/2007, -7/+100As an ex-manager of a grocery store, here's a few REAL secrets.
That foul smell near the meat department? That was when one of my employees and I decided to toss a ham up into the ceiling to see how quickly (or slowly) it would rot.
Don't piss the bag boys off, they can and will smash eggs and bread on purpose, and mix your bleach in with your chicken.
Any complaints you have about the speed of the checkouts make our clerks want to move even slower, in the hopes that you'll leave.
The "you've just lost a customer" line translates to us as "you've just lost a problem"
If you use the handicap carts just because you're fat and lazy, then you'll never get any sympathy from us, and when we see you frantically trying to get us to get something off of the top shelf for you, we'll easily outpace your little cart. Chances are, it's battery will die from hauling around 500 lbs. Please, don't use those handicap carts if you're just lazy...it's a horrible thing to do.
Don't be proud of your food stamps. It's the clerks that are paying for you to eat like pigs...don't rub it in, the clerks are trying to survive on dollar burgers.
I started to get off track...sorry. - HarryBauzonia, on 10/11/2007, -17/+92What pisses me off is how they put Cosmopolitan magazine at kid's eye level in the check-out line right next to the bubblegum. They put men's porn in a wrapper on the top shelf of the magazine section (where it should be). Why does women's porn get a pass, and why do they make such an effort to get kids to look at it?
I h - deadlights11, on 10/11/2007, -0/+62I work in a grocery store, and what a lot of people might not realize is that the shopping carts are used by all departments to hold stuff in them, and then they go back to the front of the store without being cleaned. I know my department (deli) actually put the garbages and cardboard boxes in the carts, as well as the bucket of chicken grease at the end of the night, to take them into the back to the dumpster.
Also, we sometimes put the mats from the floor in there, so the night cleaners will have an easier time washing the floors. I don't do that though.
Then all the carts get put back with the others, after holding all that stinky garbage. Lovely, eh? - Hosalabad, on 10/11/2007, -13/+61Buried. Title should say: I'm making a list of 10 mindnumbingly obvious statements so I can get on Digg.
- shanealeslie, on 10/11/2007, -1/+41My tricks for improved shopping efficiency (shopping for me,wife, and toddler)...
Walk to the grocery store after a light snack if possible - this will prevent you from shopping hungry, and walking there, and then back with the groceries is good exercise.
Use fresh produce and shop for recipes that are 'from scratch' - this means that you are not paying for processing, preservatives, and packaging.
Go twice a week and buy fresh instead of canned or frozen - it weighs less so its easier to carry, there is less packaging to recycle, and it has more nutritional value for the money you spend.
Take two shoulder-slung canvas bags to go shopping with, use them instead of a cart or basket. That way you are limited to what you can carry in the bags. I've found that it cuts down on impulse shopping for things not on the list, makes you avoid products with extra packaging, and you end up thinking a little more about what you are going to buy. The exercise is great as well - a brisk walk there, and moderate to heavy weight carrying back (depending on how much you buy)
Walk right through to the dairy and freezer section at the back of the store, and work your way forward to the produce section - this way you don't crush your produce with your heavy frozen and canned stuff (if you insist on getting those instead of fresh - or need to get things not available fresh); you also break the 'front door to dairy/frozen' product placement flow.
Don't bother with the little plastic bags in the produce section to separate your fruit and vegetables - they are a total waste of non-biodegradable plastic. Just bring a washable net or canvas bag big enough to hold all the fresh vegetables and fruit that your family will eat over the next few days and fill it up - let the check-out person weight it and put it back in the bag. When you get home you can put the whole bag in the sink and run water over them to wash off pesticides and dirt before putting them in the vegetable crisper.
When choosing products, try to buy the most locally produced or grown - local produce is usually fresher, and less likely to have preservatives.
Learn to cook using local, seasonal vegetables and fruits when you can.
Make as much of what you eat from scratch; even snacks - I make my own tortilla chips, salsa, and guacamole once a week - takes about an hour and a half to make more then enough for family and friends, and the total cost for ingredients and my time to make it (at my hourly rate when working) is half the cost of buying the equivalent in pre-made store bought stuff.
My 2 cents on the subject. - lacr, on 10/11/2007, -0/+38I used to work at a grocery store, and all of this is true and obvious to people who have/currently work(ed) in retail before. I also worked at CVS and Staples...however I learned the most I did about retail "scams" from a documentary on advertising schemes. Things on the end caps aren't on sale, but the majority of the people that come into the grocery store will buy the items on the end caps because they think it is on sale. In grocery stores, the layout of the store itself is mapped accordingly to what you need to buy. FOR EXAMPLE: The majority of grocery shoppers get milk/eggs/bread. In most supermarkets, those three items are all the way at the other end of the store, forcing you to go through the entire store to get it, passing isles and isles of tempting "deals" along the way.
And don't even get me started on grocery store deli's. I worked at a deli in King Kullen and it was ridiculously unsanitary. In the morning we would just tranfer the food to another container and spray water on it to make it look fresh. Party hero's were made with the "end cuts"-which are basically all of the end pieces of meat/cheese that can't be cut in the slicer anymore because it gets too small and we use it for hero's. When my manager wasn't there and I had to make a hero, I used fresh meats and cheeses because I, unlike her, brought my ethical reasoning from home. I once dropped a whole chicken in the garbage when I was opening it to be sliced and letting the preserving juices out...my co-worker, in front of all the customers in the line, told me to "just wash it off". I didn't, and I think the customers there were happy with my decision as much as I was.
If you are going to get cold cuts at a deli, make sure you aren't getting ***** that only you like. Things like american cheese and turkey in brand names like boars head and land o lakes gets sold QUICK, so you're likely to always have a package that has just recently been opened. If you're going to buy stuff like lebanon bologna or head cheese...just buy a prepackaged one yourself. - dolemite5005, on 10/11/2007, -7/+42My response to all of these items: "no *****"
- HarryBauzonia, on 10/11/2007, -6/+36@dolomite
Take a gander at the cover next time you're at the store and you'll see.
You pass as an idiot. - bsankr, on 10/11/2007, -6/+35grocery store hacks
- onefreakykid, on 10/11/2007, -0/+25i work in a dairy department. we don't clean for *****. our isle may look decent but if you were to go in the back freezer and look at our stock you most likely vomit (mold, mildew etc) my part of the store is always full of garbage as our freezer is right next to the garbage / cardboard compactor. i myself do attempt to keep a clean and neat work area, but not all the people in my store are neat freaks.
- frodsteamin2, on 10/11/2007, -24/+48common sense unless youre a mongloid and cant think at all...boooooooring
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+19What's wrong with a grocery store trying to force impulse purchases and selling profitable items? Last time I checked a grocery store was a for-profit entity. Besides, Safeway actually makes more money from General Mills to put Fruity Pebbles on the endcap than they actually do to sell the cereal.
- TehdBerg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+17At my Jewel, the recommended practice was to use a shopping cart to empty the garbage from each register, take the cart to the back and throw the trash in the compactor, then immediately wheel the cart back to the front of the store with the others. Healthy!
- IveGotTheRuns, on 10/11/2007, -0/+17I love the "you've just lost a customer" line. I worked at Burger King one miserable summer during high school and almost once a week someone would be waiting too long or we'd miss something in their bag o' grease that they had ordered and we'd get "From now on I'm going to McDonald's". I was a high school kid busting my ass for minimum wage, do you really think I give a rat's ass?
- LandStander, on 10/11/2007, -0/+17Whats the cashiers incentive to doing this? I worked as a cashier in high school and I never did this or even thought of doing it.
- DuraznosTJ, on 10/11/2007, -0/+162. Dates are open to interpretation. (Actually to the store's advantage then as expiration dates are not a set-in-stone guide to quality -- we would put the oldest to the front, newest to back to eliminate inventory as most people don't check anyway)
This is the "legal" selling date of the product. Not the "going bad/sour" date. A lot of customers are misinformed about this. - commiecat, on 10/11/2007, -2/+16I worked at a grocery store (Publix) for a long while as well. I agree that most of these are fairly obvious (3, 4, 6 & 8).
1. We had a policy that the shopping carts with child seats were cleaned at least once a day (the child seat -- not the entire cart) at the store but more often they were taken care of several times in a day.
2. Any item with a date was to be pulled 2 days before the indicated date came up, whether it was labeled as an expiration date or a "best if used by" date. The semantics might be tricky but no Publix I ever worked for argued it in their favor, and I can't imagine that any decent grocery store would do otherwise. As far as medicines go, when they expire they just lose their medicinal effect -- they don't turn into poison or anything.
5. Not always. Maybe on things like the cereal aisle but right now healthy and organic foods make lots of money and are in high demand. I worked a dairy section and at the time I left that industry we had all our organic/soy products placed almost directly next to their competitors (Dannon, Yoplait, etc...). This was common throughout the store and our specific sections listed as healthy or organic were quite popular.
7. They usually were a financial bargain compared to buying individually. Publix always allows you to pay individual price for items on multi-sale discounts e.g., if soda is on sale 2/$1, you can buy one for fifty cents without *having* to buy both. That being said, the law (IIRC) requires grocery stores to put unit price on the label so you'll always be able to see just how much you're paying comparatively.
9. When we did have salad/olive bars, they were taken care of as well as any restaurant with a similar style. That might depend upon the store you're shopping at.
10. Again, something that we did as part of our job. The floors/restrooms were done nightly and we tried to clean the shelves at any opportunity. Obviously this was usually just the front few spots of the shelf but we did what we could without hiring individuals whose sole purpose was to take crap off the shelves and clean it.
Just some additions to wildfire. - Aeron, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14haha, I love your comment: (The "you've just lost a customer" line translates to us as "you've just lost a problem")
That is so true for me at any of the crappy jobs I've had. Stupid customers :P - Raz4Life, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13Yeah, why would you want to do that? So you can go, "He he! That family just paid $.84 cents more for their one box of Mac&Cheese!!"
- wildfire, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13you're
- wildfire, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11You think they did it out of the kindness of their hearts?
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12lay off of the wow?
- Charlotte_Web, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11That's kind of like buying food at fast food restaurants.
We trust that the people who are making roughly minimum wage and are disgruntled about their crappy jobs are going to show the most care and have the most sanitary habits when it comes to handling our food. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+13I would have enjoyed the article had it say something interesting like, oh, i don't know..."All employees ejaculate into the Trix cereal boxes" rather than "shopping carts have germs". Boo urns.
- shanealeslie, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12Really? Wow. I have to ask you - in light of physical fitness, nutrition, economy and pollution - are _we_ the crazy ones?
- borednMA, on 10/11/2007, -1/+12I currently work at a grocery store part-time and I must say, everything on this list is common sense, I work for Stop + Shop Supermarkets and while i can't speak for other stores, every department spends the last hour before the last guy leaves sweeping,cleaning, sanitizing.
- CelebVoy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+114. They cut up food so they can charge more. (You pay for conveinence even if it's twice as much sometimes)
You have to be kidding, raise your hand if you had no idea about this? - cpuangel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10That's what THEY want you to think!
- Battlecry, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10Nobody does this on purpose. People make mistakes. That's it.
- Armitage2k, on 10/11/2007, -4/+14Yep, when I worked at Shop-Rite, we called people like you "The Crazies"
- swooshonln, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11"And which grocery store do you work for?"
"A Major one"
(fight club reference) - AmishJedi, on 10/11/2007, -1/+11i work in a supermarket in a deli and it is dirrrrty in the back, with flies landing everywhere. the deli manager insists on putting out cold food that is expired, and the salad bar? well people stick their hands in the salad bar all day, and just yesterday, some little girl picked up a beet, licked it, then put it back down. yummm
- Speed, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9That is a genuine mistake. We don't work off commission, more often then not, we do our best to save the customer money (at least where I work), because the company is screwing us over, so we try to screw them over.
- JimmyRye, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9Wow this is right up my alley.... Ive been an employee of a well known Grocery chain in Ontario, Canada for over 10 years.
Majority of these "secrets" are known facts to employees/managers of any major grocery retail chain.
Here's a couple more secrets off the top of my head:
1) Bulk Food bins that are cleaned regularly will generate more sales (clean bins = more sales).
2) Frozen foods that have snow all over there packaging have been either defrosted or stored at an inadequate temperature before being placed on the shelf.
3) Don't be deceived by "brand new" looking freezers. The back bone of keeping the freezers frozen is their compressors, depending on the age of the actual building these compressors could be out of date and/or over loaded. This in turns causes constant freezer breakdowns and fluctuations in temperature.
4) Every food manufacturing/distribution company pays for their space, both regular shelf space and end of aisle displays. This is paid either at head office level or in some cases to the manager/store owner.
5) Majority of the cooked food counter is frozen food/Meat cooked in the oven and marked up in price. - LoudMusic, on 10/11/2007, -2/+11It really does depend on the location. If you're at all concerned about cleanliness DO NOT SHOP AT WAL-MART. Think about the volume of people who go through those stores every day, and the fact that the store is never closed to provide for a decent amount of cleanup time. Not to mention the type of people shopping there.
I've always said I don't go to Wal-Mart because I don't like sticking to the floor while I shop. - drgruney, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10"In fact, research has shown that 60 percent to 70 percent of what ends up in our carts is unplanned."
In fact, that's how I shop. I don't know what I want for dinner, so I go to the grocery store and check out the meat counter.
My plan is to not plan. - Trihedralguy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10At the chain I work in, we clean our carts every two weeks. Also previously used carts are pushed into the back of the chain so that customers are more than likely to pull a clean cart than a dirty one. It really all depends if your going to Wal-Mart, or something much nicer :)
- raw10, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8This post is more interesting than the original article.
- bsankr, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9We would have also accepted "water is wet."
- Teegtahn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8at my store we used the trash (broken/ugly) carts for the garbage, but every now and again, a customer who didn't grab one at the front would peek in the back room, and right there, by the door, a seemingly perfect cart with only one busted wheel.
and to comment on the "cut up meat" being twice as much? That depends on where you go, the store I worked for did any kind of cuts free of charge (marinating did cost, but usually only 1 -> 2$ per lb more, depending on what was in the marinade)
Dated products were usually taken off the shelf 2 days before they "expire" at which point they either go back to the supplier for credit, or they're up to be purchased at 50% by employees (credit with our suppliers has always been 50%). - greendalek, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10Truly, I kinda thought most of these "tips" were common sense/common knowledge.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Source: health.msn.com
MSN is blog spam? - viserov, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6I puked a little.
- valosdarling666, on 10/11/2007, -4/+10i also work at a grocery store, and this is pretty much the exact same comment i had running through my mind as i was reading that. i also agree with tehdberg's #11. Also, we don't clean as often as we should? God, i'm SO SORRY i was too busy cashiering and stocking and wiping your frigging ASS to clean a little more.
- commiecat, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7Stupid system ***** up my formatting. I swear I had carriage returns in there!
- dudefather, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7"Except for baby formula and food, product expiration dates are not required by Federal regulations (some states, however, have their own rules requiring product dating)"
I seriously don't get this one, why would you give a ***** about non-food items expiring? what products apart from food are likely to 'expire' any time soon? - Sparkster185, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6A very common, yet effective, marketing ploy.
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