Grocery Store Annoyances

Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I dislike grocery shopping ... intensely. It is, however, a necessity, so I shop.

Today I headed to one of the local provisioning establishments. All I needed were a few items, but I went while slightly hungry (or I wouldn't have bought anything at all) and spent more time than I'd planned at the store. A bit more money, too, but we won't go there.

Grocery stores tend to have 'background music', probably fine tuned to get you to buy more. The establishment I shopped at today is a national chain and has its own satellite radio station which plays over the speaker system.

Besides music, it has public service announcements from time to time to let the shoppers know what a wonderful company it is. Today's psa backfired, at least for me. "One year ago, Hurricane Ike tore through Galveston ..." and the rest of the psa was about how the grocery store company is partnering with some other group to rebuild Galveston.

Excuse me! Galveston wasn't the only place devasted by Ike!! Our communities were affected by the 'forgotten hurricane', Rita, in 2005 and now, even though the hurricane itself is remembered, the fact that more than just one limited area was affected is. I almost abandoned my cart and left the building.

Remember me commenting on how much I hate grocery shopping?

So I finished buying the groceries I needed and headed to checkout. No problems with that. The scanner worked. The total was right. I'd forgotten how much the bananas weighed, but that was no biggie. Then the clerk said, "We're running a fall promotion. (gave the details, said how much I'd already spent at said store, then said...) Keep up the good work!"

HUH?!?!

I'll spend as much as I darned well please wherever I want, and it won't be because some store clerk has been instructed to tell me that I'm doing "good work".

Should have abandoned my cart.