In Italy it's charming, in America it's not

Yeh, but I'm from west Los Angeles..

Ah, but it's still the West coast, even though it's fast-paced it's a different kind of speed, especially considering you don't have a variety of seasons.

(I've lived in Chicago and New York City, albeit when I was younger, among other places.)

People, well, some people, in northern california think LA is incredibly rude. It's my old stomping grounds so I'm comfortable there. The driving in my old neighborhood could be maniacal, rude being the least of it.

I'll agree that my experience in New Mexico so far is that it is (generality) friendly, more people smiling. Maybe I have a bee sitting on my nose.

Then there's another generality I'll toss out, that some folk can bring out the rudeness latent in us all, no matter what geography, though there are geographic/cultural differences.

Wonder what Walter thinks. He has spent time in Italy, New York, Chicago, Albuquerque, and many other places recently.

I'm not sure I'd like someone unloading my groceries for me, especially the cashier. Talk about wasting time.
Unless there's a bagger already standing there ready to bag my groceries, 99% of the time I'll start bagging them myself, either all of them, or at least until a bagger comes up and offers to take over.

****, I gotta unbag everything and put it away when I get home, why wouldn't I be capable of putting the stuff into a bag? I don't do it so much to give the cashier a break, but to speed up the whole process and get out of there.

I think it's funny when the person in front of me will sigh, shift from foot to foot and turn around to make snide comments about how slow the cashier is, wondering aloud why they don't have more people working, etc. It's not so funny when they make the comments to me when they are right in front of the cashier, like she's a dog or something.
I figure if they have the nerve to say something snotty about the cashier right in front of him/her, I certainly have more than enough balls to call them on it. I'll ask them straight to their face "why are you telling me? I'm not in charge of how many people are working, and neither is the cashier. Why don't you go talk to the manager, and offer them your suggestions on how to do this better? Why don't you go around and start bagging your stuff up, so you can get out of here quicker?"
One time I was at Central Market, and this fat bastard in front of me made some REALLY nasty comment to the cashier, like she was **** on his shoes. All this guy was buying was some fancy type of pork rinds, and a couple other nasty fatty crap.
That really pissed me off, hearing him talk to someone who was just doing their best and trying to make a living.
I asked him "What's your big rush? Can't wait to get home and sit on your fat ass to watch TV and eat pork rinds?"

happy freakin' holidays.
I have to agree with you Gala, that it does seem to be the more affluent that carry on the most.

It's still a West coast rudeness, although, i've never been to Los Angeles so I cannot claim to know. I have however, been to the Oakland/San Francisco area and they seemed extremely mellow in comparison.

similiarly, when I traveled to chicago, I found traffic and the people to be calmer/less hostile overall than the East.

I do agree, that some people bring out the rudeness latent in all of us, however, while in New Mexico the climate and open spaces and bog blue sky brought out the flawed angel in me.

It's part of the Trader Joe's brand to unload the groceries, the aisles are designed for them to do so, and they always insist even when I try to unload them myself.

Yea, it irks me when the line gets long and there's a customer with $100 plus worth of groceries and they just stand there waiting for the cashier to load it all up while the cashier is still ringing up the items.

So you make a good point about speeding things up, which is another reason why I do it too.

Nonetheless, even when I bag my own stuff always someone stands in line appearing huffy and held-up.



Get out! How excellent, I hope he was taken aback.

Regular food shopping in the US can be a real chore, unlike in Europe where they have daily open air markets. We're starting to have more farmers markets in the US but they tend to be a once a week thing and seasonal.

He gave me a really dirty look, but kept his pie hole shut.

Honestly?
If you were to see me out and about, I'd come across as someone who doesn't mind flairing up conversations with strangers, but at the same time I just go about my business and never make these overhead announcements about how I feel to everyone around me.

I don't even care when someone says just once, something like "wow, this is taking a long time"
But when someone tries to make me their comrade in misery, or says nasty things to the person working there, who has little control over the situation, I consider that a really chicken **** thing to do.

People like that count on the fact that other people are going to be too PC to call them on it.
Well, surprise, surprise, surprise.

As far as the cashier unloading my cart, I'd rather have someone come home with me and put everything where it belongs.

Yeah, me, too! Or at least bring all the damn bags in ...

Ms. Picky would rather load her own bags, since I like the weight well distributed more than I want like products to be put together - and no bag very very heavy, as some long time ago I wrenched my lower back putting a grocery filled bag on the floor at home.

I like bagging my own so stuff doesn't get squished and squashed. I'm picky, too. My next career might be as a bagger.

Sometimes, if the line takes forever, it's a good way to break the tedium by saying something to the person to the left or right of you.

In the case of pork rinds man, if he's that rude and bloated and filled with misery then being PC does not apply.

If you have a guy loading your bags then he'll try to stuff as much as he possible can in one bag, with no regard for the weight. I like it evenly distributed and no more than 5-8 pounds in each bag. It means more trip unloading, but it's better than back pain.

Right, I agree. We do have some local markets with do it yourself checkout, but until my eye improvement I've been to confused re seeing close up to be confident on those. That'll be my next step now that my sight is so much better.

Speaking of squishing. Again, when guys, especially the younger ones, are cashiers, they have no respect for the fruit, they'll just plunk those apples into the bag from 12 inches high.

Once, at Trader Joe's the guy cashier dropped a a bag of 4 avacados on the floor. He picked them up and put them in my bag and said, "they're not that ripe so they'll be fine. "

The thing is, there are so many other fabulous ways to break the tedium than by grousing about something.

Just yesterday, I was standing in line, and the cashier had to ask the woman in front of me her age, because she was buying sudafed or something like that.

She seemed confused as to why. Since I'd already had a checkout line conversation with her about her handbag (Is that a Brahmin?) I felt totally comfortable saying to her "He thinks you're going to be cooking up some meth for the holidays."

She was a total Westlake Trophy Wife, so she was all like "oh no! I'm just trying to get rid of a sinus infection!" As if she thought I was serious.

So then I said "yeah sure, I can tell you're tweakin' right now"

Don't you wish you had me behind you in a boring line?

When they opened a new Sunflower Market here earlier this year, there were really long lines, as they were just about giving stuff away. I was practically engaged to the woman behind me by the time we made it up to the registers.

My supermarket has a self-check-out, perfect!

On the other hand I have to say that almost all Trader Joe's cashiers are
very fast. They take an item from your cart, scan it and put it in a bag in one
setting, and they're just as fast as regular cashiers, if not faster.

I like Sunflower - closer by far than TJ's. None of them come to our middle class area, possibly lower and not that much lower, real estate wise. Just that some kind of baby Wendy's got here first.

The first TJ's I ever went to was on National in west LA near an early housing tract, no big deal, and it also was freeway close. That was in the seventies. I think it was the second one, after the first in Pasadena. It annoys me that all the smartie grocery places pick across town. I'd like to slap upside the face some of the decision makers.

Self-checkout, feh! I hate those things because it's the employers excuse to lay off an employee and replace them with a machine. Everytime I use one I always need some assitance, so it overburdens the remaining employees.