It appears to be supermarket/big box store week here at Trail Baboon. Monday we talked about satellite surveillance of the parking lot and our personal habits around the cart corral. Yesterday it was the Future Of Bananas.
Today there is evidence from New York City and Warroad, Minnesota that hi-jinks happen at the cash register and most people, even careful shoppers, usually don’t go to the trouble to check.
In New York, an investigation found half of the supermarkets overcharged for the products they were selling.
And in Warroad, a grocery store cashier has admitted stealing money gradually over the course of three years. He says he took “about 100” dollars each shift for a total of around 5 thousand dollars. Authorities claim he siphoned off 52 thousand dollars. I know the people behind me in line are going to have to wait, but I guess I need to talk to a manager about the discrepancy in this bill.
I admit that I will stand in the middle of the grocery store aisle choking traffic for ten minutes while I weigh the merits of two rolls of paper towels, comparing them for value based on square footage, sheet count and thickness of the ply. But I do not watch the prices as they go up on the screen when I check out, and I don’t review the receipt.
Newly concerned about being hornswaggled, I contacted Captain Billy of the Muskellunge and he confirmed my worst fears:
Aye, we don’t even call ‘em “supermarket cashiers”. “Land pirates” is the name we has for ‘em. If’n I was to come ashore lookin’ fer likely candidates t’ join us aboard th’ Muskellunge, the grocery store check out line is the first place I’d go, on account of the people what works there is strong from standin’ all day, fast with their hands, an’ they is already well acquainted with every variety of homo sapiens what walks th’ earth. When we is pillagin’ a village, my “land pirates” is th’ ones I sends in first, ‘cause they ain’t surprised by nothin’.
I assured Captain Billy that the vast majority of supermarket clerks are honest and kind and not at all piratical. He laughed.
“Suit yerself,” is all he said.
Do you check the prices as they ring up?
Do you review receipts?
Paper or Plastic?
Trail Baboon 
Rise and Shine Baboons:
A week of riotous commercialism is always improved with Cap’n Billy! Ahoy there Cap’n. So entertaining to hear from you. In my deep, dark past I used to check prices and sometimes receipts, but nevermore. Just no time for such details these days. And I try to use paper bags or reusables. And at some stores, I comment on the undesirability of the plastic bags.
But the most egregious pirate in my life now is Comcast, which cannot seem to properly diagnose our internet difficulties nor reliably send a competent customer service technician to my house. They will soon lose our internet account in hopes of finding a service that actually provides internet at times other than 6 a.m.
Enough grouching about that. I have ship to raid.
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Good morning!
My answers are: Sometimes, always and cloth. More later after I get out the door…
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If I can remember, I bring my reusables to the store, otherwise I go for the paper, for use with my other recyclables, as Clyde described a couple of days ago (fyi, Clyde, our recyclers in my neck of St Paul do seem to tolerate people sorting into plastic wastebaskets that they then empty and put back on the curb).
I don’t go through the list item by item, but I do keep a running estimated total of what I am spending during most trips to the grocery store, and give it a look if what I am charged does not match up with the amount in my head. I’ve found a few discrepancies, but mostly that is due to not having grabbed the right item to get the sale price. I’ve learned to look at the small print on the sale signs.
Another reason I love our old neighborhood store-most of the clerks have been there a long time. Any with the inclination to join Cap’n Billy’s crew probably ship out pretty fast.
Our “new” neighborhood store is the very spiffy new Mississippi Market. They just don’t seem to be Cap’n Billy’s type.
Dale, I do hope you hear from the Captain about his efforts in “green” pirating someday.
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Good Morning TB,
My sister who lives close to Baudette says the area’s small town groceries are enormously overpriced and she buys as little as possible at them and gets most of what she needs in Bemidji once a month. So it’s very possible that the Warroad cashier was just doing what was necessary to feed his family. My sister also says most of the store workers she’s encountered up there smell bad and talk like hicks. If you want more details email me at donnalovescarlos@gmail.com.
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Sorry, Jacque. You sound ready to make the next Comcast service tech walk the plank. Don’t you wish there were some effective, legal way to retaliate against mega-businesses when they spoil a day or week of our lives?
I’ve shopped at the same store since 1976, and I’ll pick the aisle of a check-out person who is an old friend. Alice or Mary would sooner cheat themselves than over-charge me. I sometimes keep an eye on the check-out monitor if there is a special deal or attached coupons I think they might miss.
Re-usable cloth bags are my favorite, but I maintain a supply of paper bags with handles that I use for weekly recycling.
MSNBC carries an article today about how stupid people are about energy conservation. Be sure to read it if you want to spoil your day.
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I use a radio heartland bag when I’m shopping for fruits and vegetables at my local small store or thr farmer’s market. I use Unds online about once a month for everything else. I know exactly what I’m spending and can delete items if I go over my budget. I’m also not tempted by all the wonderful but unhealthy things. a very nice yong man brings it right to me. More than worth the ten dollar or the two dollar gopher grocery charge.
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Thanks Patricia!
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i gotta be outta here, but i am hearing the Bobs “Paper or Plastic” right now.
bye
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Barb was on the way to the Carlton County Fair goat show this morning. We worked the show efficiently and accurately…I’m sure…about to check the paper work. Barb also showed one of her kids she sold recently…and did herself proud.
I occasionally notice the price of things as they go up, I never check the receipt and I’m getting very good at remembering to bring my own (MPR organic cotton and other) bags.
Back to the goat show records…
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Good morning to all including careful shoppers or not careful.
I try to remember my cloth shopping bags and I get a 5 cent discount per bag for using them at Hy Vee where I shop. I have not been checking very much on what I’m charged lately, but in the past I found errors from time to time which I think were not intentional. We do find errors from time to time in various receipts at our house, but I’m not the one who finds most of these. Medical bills, including insurance coverage for medical bills, should be checked because they seem to be particularly error prone as I am sure many of you know.
What about errors that go in your favor? I was brought up by my mother to be a very honest person, but do I really need to be so honest that pass up taking advantage of an error in my favor?
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I often shop at the co-ops, where I feel “safe”. When at the big boxes Husband watches them like a hawk, but I don’t, and have recently been shorted in a 2-for-1 scam; didn’t look at the receipt till I got home. After this little discussion, I will check more often…
I’m one of the people that means to take in my cloth bag, and frequently ends up carrying everything out bag-less (if it’s just a few things) to the bag in the car.
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No. No. Paper.
Paper sacks do double duty for transporting groceries and putting recyclables out for pickup.
Hello, everyone.
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Greetings! I usually watch the screen, especially if it’s a sale item to make sure proper price rings up. If I do that, I generally don’t look at receipt — it’s one or the other. If I forgot my reusable bags, I take paper.
I find it hard to believe a cashier took $100 and didn’t get called on the carpet immediately once the accountant counts his till. A cashier where I work told me she was written up for being $20 off on her till, and told if it happened again, she would be fired. Just an accident, she gave someone too much change. The bean counters are everywhere, cameras watching from every angle and microphones at the service counter — here in Big Lake at a regional store. Most of us wear radio headsets, so any suspicious customer is tracked and followed surreptitiously by managers.
We’re all treated like possible criminals, you can’t even get a job without a full background check, credit check and drug test. The Muskellunge is looking like pretty good employment right about now!
Let’s see how being a pirate on the Muskellunge stacks up:
1. Free room & board 2. Lots of grog 3. Adventures at sea 4. Overbearing boss 5. Swashbuckling around in interesting costumes 6. No need to bathe often or be polite to customers 7. I get to carry a weapon 8. Dance to funny music 9. Pillaging 10. Paid in gold coins
Gosh, this is something to think about — not too many negatives working for ol’ Captain Billy compared to corporate profiteers. A few things may take some getting used to, but I’ve taken the shaft from other companies and got used to that.
Ahoy mateys — who else is ready for the Muskellunge plunge?!
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If it weren’t for the sea-sickness…
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The Dental Plan is a bit lax.
Preventative care is covered, but only when in port, and then the boys have to choose between visiting the dental hygienist or the wharf side saloonkeeper.
Pirate teeth rarely sparkle.
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Another plus, you don’t usually have to worry too much about a retirement plan.
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I hate to point it out to you ladies, but…
11. No women.
(Not that it would stop intrepid adventurers.)
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You’ve never heard of Anne Bonny?
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No, but I’m willing to bet she’s not on the crew of the Muskellunge…
*Googles*
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I had a check book stolen last year, the culprits rang up almost a $1000 in reported bad checks…most of them to one or more Macdonalds ($100 at once…at a MacDonalds!) Never heard a word from MacDonalds…guess they never noticed.,)
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In our house, it depends on who’s doing the shopping.
If I’m off to the store:
Do I check the prices as they ring up? No.
Do I review receipts? No.
Paper or Plastic? Paper. Plastic wasn’t an option when I was a bag boy 30 yrs ago.
Thankfully, my bride does most of the shopping:
Does she check the prices as they ring up? Yes
Does she review receipts? Yes. This is inherent as a coupon clipper. Yesterday she spent $35 but saved $55!
Paper or Plastic? Depends on whether we need garbage bags for the kitchen (plastic) or recycling bags for newspaper (paper). If supply good on both accounts, then cloth.
Have a great day!
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Generally I don’t check receipts – but shopping at the neighborhood grocer adds to the trust that I’m getting the right price (would Katy, who still calls my daughter Green Bean from her toddler practice of carrying a fresh green bean round the store in her fist, cheat me?). It’s not a big box store or a national chain and that adds a level of trust as well. I’m more likely to check when we make our weekly trip to the national chain that has Husband’s favorite cereal for $1 cheaper a box…and the one time I caught a pricing error, they very graciously refunded us when we went back in.
Mostly we’re a canvas bag household – though we do occasionally go for the paper, like everyone else, for putting out the recyclables.
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I follow a plan much like yours, Anna, and the one followed by Bride of Dan.
Paper bags for recycling various papers, plastic bags for kitchen garbage, and canvas bags to sit in the car because I forgot to bring them into the store.
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Your cloth plan is mine, too, Dale! Sometimes I force myself to go back to the car to retrieve them unless I need a plastic bag for something anyway.
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It’s easier to remember to bring in the canvas bags when you walk to the store – otherwise mine would stay in the car a lot too. (And I occasionally get chastised for overzealous use of the canvas bags when recycling day rolls around and we have 2 paper bags to house 4-5 bags worth of various recyclables…)
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I’ve got the green Menards reusable bag… it’s wadded up on the floor in the back seat of my car under the garbage can!–I see it everytime I come back with a plastic bag!
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Morning!
Well, I look at the receipt but that doesn’t mean I can remember the price back in aisle 4…
And it’s hard to watch the scanner as I’m still unloading…
I choose paper (with the handles– Greatest. Invention. Ever.) My lovely wife gets plastic; plastic are wastebasket liners, paper for recycling newspaper and magazines…
I spend more time and dollars than is healthy for a normal person at that lumber yard where you save big money and I probably watch the register there closer than the grocery store. Course sometimes I’m spending college money so I do watch that closer…
Working at home today! Landscaping!
Have a good one everyone!
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Sometimes. Always. Canvas cloth bags.
I saw an interesting thing yesterday. I had to run errands in the afternoon and one of those errands took me to Owatonna. They have a CashWise in Owatonna with a good natural foods section. I needed bulk cinnamon and bulk pasta so I parked my car near the cart corral (of course), grabbed my cloth bags (with reserved plastic bags inside for bulk items) and went in to get my stuff.
When I returned to my car I saw a funny thing, taking into consideration Tuesday’s topic. Someone had parked right in front of the half-filled cart corral, completely blocking it off from customers who were trying to return their carts. The fit young fellow who was pushing carts back to the store couldn’t get the carts out of that corral. Other cart corral users had become impatient with the situation and had pushed three carts alongside the driver’s side of the car and two carts along the passenger side. No matter which side of the car the owner would have approached, they would have had to move shopping carts. And with their own car blocking the corral there was nowhere to go with them! I couldn’t help but laugh!
Thanks to all of you for making this scene an amusing one for me.
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Haha, I can picture it well, having grown up in Owatonna (and seeing as that’s where I’m headed tonight). My brother used to work at that CashWise, and I’ve shopped there I don’t know how many times. He probably would’ve done the same thing as the other customers, blocking the car in, hahaha 🙂
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I hardly ever check the prices as they ring up, unless it’s not groceries. Clothing, movies and other incidentals I always watch. I try to buy things when they’re on sale, so if the price isn’t the sale price, I will speak up.
I have to admit, I usually get plastic bags because it is far easier to carry multiple plastic bags at a time than paper (especially if the paper doesn’t have handles). My last apartment was on the third floor, with no elevator. To make less trips, I would carry as many bags as possible at one time. I started using the cloth bags after awhile, but I would always have more groceries than would fit in those bags. Now I just go grocery shopping when I need a few items, not a lot, so it all fits in one paper bag (handle-less, though, at my locally-owned grocery store). I do use the plastic bags for garbage can liners, random stuff carriers, and dog poop picker-uppers. If my “collection” starts getting too big, I recycle them.
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I’ve been careful to not mention where I shop for groceries, which is Lunds. It just occurred to me that to avoid their name is churlish in view of how hard they try to please.
Two years ago I had a senior moment, managing to lock up my car with the car keys in the ignition as it sat in the Lunds parking lot. I usually carry a spare key in my wallet, but not that day. Lunds had an answer to my predicament. One of the baggers, a friendly teen, drove me to my home some two miles north of the store. I found an unlocked window at ground level. It was in a tough spot to jump to, so the young bagger hopped over a window well and wriggled through the window. He let me in to retrieve a spare set of keys and then he returned me to the store, thanking me for the adventure.
If there are any pirates in the Baboon bunch, you have already noted that my little bungalow is a band box that any thief could break into even without bothering to use a credit card on the lock. Then you could steal my stuff, like that weird green flatware set that I got at Target. Leave me a plate or two, please. I don’t have a security system and don’t need it, for my house is under constant surveillance by Deedee, the neighbor lady with an inexplicable interest in who goes in or out of my house.
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Oy, matey – as I’m feelin’ a tad pirate-like today, and if’n I had a handkerin’ fer yer stuff, me thinks yer the type o’ fella who would hand over the shirt off’n yer back if I’d had a mind to ask ye. ‘Specially if I said I resembled that there Venus on the Half Shell from that fancy pants paintin’. But that nosy neighbor might be buttin’ into any kind of, um, ‘encounter’ you might have with lady friends.
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If a lady as glamorous as you, Joanne, were to go in or come out of my front door, Deedee would be able to describe you to the cops in full detail!
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wow, that is customer service!
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Nice!
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I have to confess I check the receipt every time. The store I shop at has a guarantee that if a higher price scans, they will give you the item free, so it’s sort of a game to see if I can catch them in an error. I have a very good memory for numbers, and I don’t buy a whole lot at once, so it’s easy to give the receipt a once over and see if I won the UPC lottery.
The service desk employees probably loathe people like me.
I bring my own bags, the kind that fold up and snap into a small square. Always have them in my purse.
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It is heartening to hear the close relationship some folks have with their grocery store personnel and the trust they have in their personal cashiers. Suffice to say all prices are programmed into computer for the registers, so if it scans and comes up with with incorrect price you can blame the Scanning/Pricing dept. As cashiers usually have to manually handle coupons, that’s where they might make errors. With 30,000 – 50,000 items in a store and all manner of price drops, ads, manager specials, clearances, discontinued items and truckload buys, it’s a wonder there aren’t more errors.
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I’m just going to throw this out there and see if anyone bites. If you’re looking for something fun to do on Sat. September 18, I will be graduating to Advanced Brown Belt with numerous other folks from all the Dojo Karate schools. Starts at 10am sharp at the Minneapolis Convention Center and goes for about 2 hours, followed by the Black and Upper Degree Belt graduation at 12:30. You get to watch us do all our exciting karate moves, self-defense, forms or katas and best of all, SPARRING!
I would be honored and thrilled if any of you decided to attend. Cheap parking can be found on streets nearby, but bring your own snacks/food as the offerings are pricey and junky. It’s free and open to anyone. Just an idea for a baboon congress …
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Soccer practice in St Paul gets done at 11am, we may have to see some of this. In any case, congratulations on the Advanced Brown Belt!
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Along the same line…on Saturday September 4th you can see, meet and touch the stars of Lumber Jill at the World Premiere screening at the Northeastern Hotel in Cloquet MN. Seven for mingling, nine for screening. In case you Trial Ballooners have forgotten, I play the “Creepy Old Lady” in the half hour film/fairy tale of a young girl looking for her long lost family. Wear Plaid.
Hope to see some of you there…I’ll be the creepy looking one.
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Sounds like many of us take our cloth bags for rides around town. Dadkat and I are getting better at bringing the damn things into the store unless we need plastic bags for filtering the cat boxes. We have the luxury of single-sort recycling and can toss all recyclables into the big bin. Most convenient–kind of recycling for dummies which in my experience many people are in need of.
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