But I don't like it!

Today I was running an errand when I realized that I was out of popcorn and pickles at my house. Popcorn and pickles are a staple at my house. So, I stopped by King Soopers, picked up a couple of things I needed (including the precious popcorn and pickles), and got in line (and of course I had to be there when everyone else in the universe was also desiring popcorn and pickles). I had only been standing there a couple of minutes when the store manager came up to me and said,
"Lanes 11 and 12 are express lanes. And we also have four lanes of self-checkouts."
"Oh, thank you, but I don't like the self-checkout lanes, " I said as politely as possible.

I wish you could have seen the look on his face. It was mix of disgusted, "get a life" and "stupid dang customers".

Isn't that nice? I always thought the self-checkouts were there for people who actually ENJOY attempting to scan groceries that don't want to be scanned, then trying to balance everything you bought on a teeny tiny itsy bitsy scale. Please don't give me a nastified look because I am using the grocery clerk you are PAYING to check out groceries!

Oh, and to take this mini-rant just a little further...said King Soopers also forces you to use the self-checkout any time you are there after 10:30pm. How do I know that, you ask? Because not once, but twice did we venture out on extremely busy weeks to go shopping late at night. Isn't that why grocery stores are open 24 hours anyway? Well, on both these occasions, we were completely unaware, filled up the biggest, fattest, fullest cart you could imagine, headed to the front, and realized in utter desperation that we had to do that GInormous cart all by ourselves on the hideolous teeny tiny itsy bitsy dumb-o scale. And no, we aren't stupid. The 1st time we thought they must be short staffed. After the second occurence (and a near-donald duck fit) I asked the clerk. Yep, they just don't like to staff after certain hours. So, we have to do it ourselves.

I hope they don't mind when I cross the picket line on this upcoming grocery workers' strike I keep hearing about!