Today’s SPOTD was the checkout chick at Safeway supermarket who, though I had neatly separated the groceries on the rolling checkout belt, managed to rearrange everything such that she ended up putting heavy items on top of lighter items. Not content with just ignoring the effects of mass she also managed to bend items as much as possible.

A loaf of bread lying down had another loaf of bread placed in the bag such that it went up and draped over the first loaf. She then proceeded to place ~1.5kg of fruit and vegetables on top of the very squashable loaves and was surprised when I immediately repacked the bag to try and save the bread. Evidently she noted either my rolling eyes or the sigh that accompanied the headshake so made the comment that she was packing multiple items into the plastic bag since it was important to reduce plastic bag usage.

She did not take kindly to my comments that (1) failing to use brain cells doesn’t mean you’re helping the environment or (2) if Safeway was serious about the environment they wouldn’t initiate demented procedures like changing from lettuces presented as is to now selling them each individually wrapped in a plastic bag. Obviously this particular checkout chick was not responsible for that decision but she could have used her brain to realise that bread is very likely to be flattened by the substantial weight of other grocery items.

Categories: SPOTD