this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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At Costco it's great minus the membership checks. Thanks this was a quick process, now let me stop and take my card out so you can see I'm not stealing deals.
Walmart, fuck you hire more cashier's why am I waiting 10 minutes to checkout at self checkout when you have 50 closed fucking lanes!
I straight up said this the last time I was there to one of the managers watching the self checkout after I heard them complaining about the long ass line. Maybe if you actually turned the other 20 lanes on instead of only having 3 the lines would go by quicker, ya dumbasses.
You expect them to pull 20 extra people put of their ass?
If they offered a living wage it wouldn't be a problem. They can afford it, without raising prices.
No no no no no, HOW could they afford that?
Tell me how they could afford it as a giant multi billion dollar company.
It's not even possible to pull out billions to shareholders and CEO's each year if they did that.
Why don't anyone ever think about the poor ultra rich?
Whether they have them all open or just 3, they still only have 2 or 3 employees watching over it all. For some reason, they're all open in the morning when there aren't any customers, but then in the late afternoon, they turn everything off when the store is flooded with customers. It's ass backwards.
Probably some power-mad manager saying "employees must get up early to learn discipline".
Having worked at a grocery store, it has to do with inventory stocking. All the trucks show up in the morning, so you need more people around to do intake and stock the shelves. Sometimes they go help in the front in the downtime. Despite what the antiwork folks say, most managers are not power mad assholes, they're workers playing their role in the system. The owner class however...
...so the truck drivers are also forced to get up early? Don't let me down I want to be jaded today.
If you're genuinely curious, a lot of it has to do with traffic management. I will blindly assume that you live near a large city in north america.
Trucks are big and cumbersome, especially semis. They're fine ok the highway, but on city roads around busy places like grocery stores they're like one man traffic jams.
Your typical American grocery store moves literal tons of product every single day, very little of which is produced locally. They require constant, daily replenishing, and it has to be done without disrupting the flow of shoppers and surrounding traffic.
The solution is to start your night at a store or distribution center in a major city. Pick up your trailer of paper products or whatever, make your first stop in town, then hit the highway. Stop at towns and cities along the way, dropping off a pallet or two at each until you reach your final stop in another major city where you swap trailers and take a nap before doing it all again. Many grocery stores employ a small team of (frequently underpaid) workers to process all this at odd hours in the night.
Supply chain is 24/7
So you mean the mad managers are actually sitting in urban design, not building public transit? Rush hour over here is when there's enough cars on arterial streets so you can't walk across them wherever you want, there's no actual jams.
That doesn't sound very efficient, over here they consign full lorries at distribution centres to stock up one particular supermarket or two, or maybe half a lorry if it's been a slow day and the supermarket didn't get a delivery in the last what three days depends on what they're missing (customers can survive one of five crisps flavours being out of stock, all toothpaste, not so much). The Swiss have it really nailed down, any business of any significant size over there has to have rail access so the likes of IKEA don't put a single lorry on the road, and supermarket distribution centres receive containers on rail and then maybe send out lorries: If a village has a train station chances are the village supermarket is within forklift distance. They have absolutely no qualms about pulling a freight car or two with a small passenger train set.
In North America our rail and highway systems are designed specifically with freight in mind, particularly in the west. 40% of freight in the US is moved by rail vs less than 20% on average in Europe. These rail lines rarely branch out or carry passengers however. Some of this is because of greedy assholes, but a lot of it is also due to history and geography (in much of the country, the train tracks predate the cities).
American freight movement follows a production line philosophy. Trains travel in long, straight lines between freightyards, where their cargo is offloaded onto trucks. Each trailer is loaded with one genre of goods (produce, paper products, milk, etc.), then drops one stores' worth at each stop along the way. This method has a variety of benefits and drawbacks.
I'm intrigued by this concept of loading directly from a train car to a retail store, that's something you don't often see over here.
The thing I really hate about it is that where I live, they don't have bags at the self checkout. Cuz you know, someone might steal a fucking plastic bag. 🙄
Where I live (Montréal, Canada) plastic bags are banned everywhere. You either bring your own or buy a reusable at the cash. Some places (like grocery stores) also sell paper bags. You get used to it. If you have a car you leave a bunch of reusables in the trunk, if you don't you just have to remember to bring one with you. The also sell some super thin ones you can carry in your pockets that are sturdy and large enough for a small run at the grocery store.
The only thing I’d hate about that, is if they don’t have a recyclable option and you always have to buy the reusable ones. At some point they just become garbage because you forgot them for the last 20 trips, and who needs 100 reusable bags?
I have about what, five reusable bags. One is always in the backpack to use both as a basket replacement in case the supermarket doesn't have any (or they're all at the exit and none at the entry), or as overflow container for the backpack, one is generally holding onions and yet another potatoes (both hanging), that leaves -- yep, one as backup and the awkward small one is stuffed with three dirty dish towels waiting for hot wash to accumulate.
Do consider cloth bags simply because it's easy to actually give enough of a fuck about them, just like you give a fuck about a t-shirt. Oh and keeping potatoes and onions in plastic would likely not end well. The only plastic bags I buy are bin liners.
If you're shopping with a car the standard over here is to have a fold-up box in your boot.
I think you’re misunderstanding me. I’m saying that I’d hate situations where my choice is “carry loose items” or “buy new bags” if I’ve forgotten my already owned bags at home. I don’t dislike reusable bags, I own quite a few actually, but when I forget them I’d rather buy paper bags than be forced to buy yet more reusable bags.
Or how about you forgot to bring them in with you but don't realize it until everything is unloaded on the conveyor?
Most grocery stores still offer paper bags and personally I love them to pack everything I want to bring to the recycling bin
Yes, and also for the compost. I used to store a few as well but they are so thin now, it's not worth it.
I agree. I have a drawer full and a bunch in my car. I see a lot of them for sale for a buck at thrift stores, it's kind of funny and sad.
It's not that I care what they're made of. Here they're required to charge 10¢/bag. I would happily take a paper bag. The thing I don't like is being treated like an extremely petty criminal.
As an aide though, everything I've read supports the conclusion that the bag bans only lead to more waste. IIRC, a generous estimate would mean you need to reuse a bag at least 20x in order to break even on resource usage... Which basically never happens. It's an excellent example of a feel good solution that sounds good until you run the numbers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That said, I'd be perfectly happy to see us eliminate almost all uses of disposable plastics.
I like the aldi model with no bags—when you forget a bag you look for an empty box. Not ideal for people who walked though.
last time we hit aldi, no bags or boxes. we just threw all the stuff into the trunk and dealt with it at home.
It's different here (at Walmart at least), they leave all their reusable bags at the self checkout where you can just buy them. But there is a lot of staff and the area is like a bullpen, so there is only one exit and there are employees looking at the carts' contents.
As for the bags, for sure it's a contentious topic. And I agree with you. As I mentioned in another reply, I see a lot of the sturdier reusable bags for sale at thrift store, they have to roll them up and put them in a bin they have so many...
I’ve definitely used my reusable bags more than 20 times. Why don’t people use them more than 20 times?
In the before times, when you could still find baggers at checkouts, paper bags were provided. I know the cost was figured in to the prices but it is B.S. that they now charge for them.
Neverminding that we have to scan the cards to even begin scanning the (soon to be our) stuff.
My Costco has had “self checkout” for about a year now. There’s a Costco employee that waves you over and scans all your items. I really don’t get it.