A tale of two shoppers - Supermarket enforcer
One of the major adjustments you need to make in adapting to life in Austria is at the Supermarket checkout. The checkout operator is a bit different to those in the U.K. For one they are not normally seated and also, between customers, they are moving stock or stacking shelves. They are a force to be reckoned with.
In the UK, the checkout operator is sedentary and the customer sort of passes them by. The customer tends to be in control. How often do you get stuck behind someone painstakingly and neatly bagging their purchases. Only once finished, without any regard to the queue forming behind them will they dive into their over capacious handbags for 'the purse'.
The purse with a frightening array of different store cards, credit cards and debit cards. Careful sorting and selection of the correct card is followed by laborious entry of the secret Pin Code, Oh, and yes, I do want cash-back aaagh!
Now I know Mr Cameron will have a lot on his plate when he takes over, like re-instating fox-hunting and sorting the financial mess' but I have a great suggestion for his manifesto.
Supermarket proficiency testing with teams of wardens giving on the spot fines or condemning them to a remedial training .... in Austria.
Why Austria? Well, its different over there and a bit of a culture shock. We mainly go to a Billa Supermarket which is fine but dawdling at the checkout just cannot happen.
Bagging your shopping at the till? Nope, not an option, put it straight back in the trolley and sort it out over there!
Fruit and Veg. weighed at the till? No way, you have to bag, weigh it, enter the correct number on the weighing machine and print a label which you stick on the bag. Great fun, if you're 8 years old! TW found this out when she turned up at the till with loose veggies. She was taken, almost by the ear, back to the veggie stand by a particularly ferocious operator. I wouldn't say she was as frightening as Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, or the Green Witch in the Wizard of Oz but she ran them a close third. So, we figured that if we were going to eat we needed to get organised and have a strategy. We needed to operate as a team, like a Formula One tyre change. No Jacqui, you can't wander off to get a forgotten item once were in the queue! Preparation was to be the key, both of us would put the items on the conveyor. Jacqui would then position herself after the scanner to catch items and put them into a second trolley. I would concentrate on paying. Then we'd pack at leisure. Anyway, after a few hiccoughs, which included yours truly panicking and putting items into the second trolley before they had been scanned, we actually got it right. We did the checkout routine perfectly. Our adversary with a knowing up and down movement of the head gave us the ultimate accolade, 'nicht schlecht' (not bad). It was wonderful, we floated home across the park, it was like passing the driving test all over again. By the way, she's not there any more but she's left a lasting legacy.
So next time you're baulked in the queue at Tesco, tell her - you should go to Austria luv, just wait until Cameron takes over.
In the UK, the checkout operator is sedentary and the customer sort of passes them by. The customer tends to be in control. How often do you get stuck behind someone painstakingly and neatly bagging their purchases. Only once finished, without any regard to the queue forming behind them will they dive into their over capacious handbags for 'the purse'.
The purse with a frightening array of different store cards, credit cards and debit cards. Careful sorting and selection of the correct card is followed by laborious entry of the secret Pin Code, Oh, and yes, I do want cash-back aaagh!
Now I know Mr Cameron will have a lot on his plate when he takes over, like re-instating fox-hunting and sorting the financial mess' but I have a great suggestion for his manifesto.
Supermarket proficiency testing with teams of wardens giving on the spot fines or condemning them to a remedial training .... in Austria.
Why Austria? Well, its different over there and a bit of a culture shock. We mainly go to a Billa Supermarket which is fine but dawdling at the checkout just cannot happen.
Bagging your shopping at the till? Nope, not an option, put it straight back in the trolley and sort it out over there!
Fruit and Veg. weighed at the till? No way, you have to bag, weigh it, enter the correct number on the weighing machine and print a label which you stick on the bag. Great fun, if you're 8 years old! TW found this out when she turned up at the till with loose veggies. She was taken, almost by the ear, back to the veggie stand by a particularly ferocious operator. I wouldn't say she was as frightening as Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, or the Green Witch in the Wizard of Oz but she ran them a close third. So, we figured that if we were going to eat we needed to get organised and have a strategy. We needed to operate as a team, like a Formula One tyre change. No Jacqui, you can't wander off to get a forgotten item once were in the queue! Preparation was to be the key, both of us would put the items on the conveyor. Jacqui would then position herself after the scanner to catch items and put them into a second trolley. I would concentrate on paying. Then we'd pack at leisure. Anyway, after a few hiccoughs, which included yours truly panicking and putting items into the second trolley before they had been scanned, we actually got it right. We did the checkout routine perfectly. Our adversary with a knowing up and down movement of the head gave us the ultimate accolade, 'nicht schlecht' (not bad). It was wonderful, we floated home across the park, it was like passing the driving test all over again. By the way, she's not there any more but she's left a lasting legacy.
So next time you're baulked in the queue at Tesco, tell her - you should go to Austria luv, just wait until Cameron takes over.
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