Worst experience you have had at a grocery store?

[reecejackox]

Can be anything

 

[Smugpugmug]

I worked at one during the height of Covid. I can't even begin to list all of the crazy stuff I witnessed while I was there.

 

[Snowysmom]

We went to the deli at a local chain supermarket during covid but not at the height of it, things were starting to wind down. The woman working the deli refused to wait on us. We were the only ones there at the time. Her manager asked her if she was going to help us and she said no. We were flabbergasted. The manager did not step in either.

 

[anniemae]

During covid, I went in to do some shopping and got yelled at by a lady because I picked up an item, read the ingredients and put it back. I have food allergies and need to see if it is safe for me to eat. It had something in it that I can't eat, so I placed it back on the shelf.

Suddenly, from behind me I hear, "HEY you can't put that back! You TOUCHED that and now you're putting it back???? You don't even have gloves on!!" I was so shocked I could barely speak. I was so embarrassed by her outburst and could feel other people looking at us. I told her I just cleaned my hands (it was true, I had just used hand sanitizer right when I walked in.) so according to her, I should have bought the item, even though I did not want it, just because I touched it. Not to mention many others probably touched it as well like the person who stocked the shelf, other customers etc. This was the beginning of the pandemic. Man things were strange back then.

 

[tvguy]

Guy flipping out and screaming at the start of the pandemic at 6am-ish because the only check stands that appeared to be open were self check and the only self checks open were credit only and he wanted to pay cash. He was yelling "I just want to pay for my groceries". A manager calmed him down and opened up a regular check stand to get him handled.
The next week I was chatting with an employee who was there and said, that while the guy over reacted, it was the manager's fault. They are required to keep a staffed check stand open to assist disabled customers, and due to staffing issues the manager opted to ignore that and he also had not yet put the self check stands that took cash on line because you have to load cash in them.

 

[VandVsmama]

This one happened about 3 months ago. Was shopping at our regular local grocery store. I got in line to check out in what appeared to be the shortest check out line. Saw an older middle aged woman with her teenage daughter about 10 feet away. They appeared to be making choices on batteries.

Apparently I was wrong in my assessment because the insane woman seriously lost her mind over me getting in line.

She screamed at the top of her lungs at me, “ExCUSE mEEEEE! ARE YOU BLIND OR SOMETHING? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? I WAS HERE FIRST!”

I calmly replied with, “Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t know you were in line! Sorry about that!” While I moved over one check out row.

That wasn’t good enough. She shouted back, “OH GIVE ME A BREAK! YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!”

She was so loud that people were starting to stare and were gathering to watch. I decided that maybe she was partially deaf or something (nah, not really, but was in the mood now of “Hell with it, I’m gonna match her on volume and tone”), so I shouted back, “GET A GRIP! YOU WERE 10 FEET AWAY AND NO…IT WAS NOT OBVIOUS THAT YOU WERE IN LINE. IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY IN LINE, YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER ACTUALLY STANDING BEHIND THE PERSON YOU’RE IN LINE BEHIND…YOU KNOW…SO IDIOTS LIKE ME DON’T MISUNDERSTAND.”

Her teenager daughter looked like she wanted the earth to swallow her up.

Not to be outdone, Ms Crazy Lady had to have the last word and shouted, “YOU ARE A REAL PIECE OF WORK! YOU KNOW THAT?”

…to which, I replied back with all the passive-aggression of a sorority girl with, “OH THANKS! SAME TO YOU! Have a GREAT day!”

She spent the rest of her shopping experience whisper shouting to her teenager and wildly gesticulating. Meanwhile, the lady in line in front of me gave me a knowing “look”, nodded over in Crazy Lady’s direction, rolled her eyes, and then smiled.

 

[Meriweather]

At Costco......April 2020.
Waiting in line that wrapped around the building.....hoping to get toilet paper and some other essentials. Took an hour and a half to get into the building.

 

[tasha99]

Long before the pandemic, and maybe not the worst thing, but memorable. I was in line behind a lady with a kid who paid with food stamps. The cashier then shamed her to me, and said "we pay for her groceries!" I was so mad. I was on food stamps after my divorce and spent a few years in poverty. At that point, I wasn't anymore (got a masters degree and a career), but I felt it was awful for the cashier to be judging some lady she didn't even know.

On a similar note, even further back, when I was on food stamps, I bought some cake mix and candy. The cashier said in a snotty tone, "there's nothing nutritious here!" No duh, ******. It was stuff for a kid's birthday party. Even poor kids deserve a cake.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I'll never forget the time I was in the ShopRite in Wildwood (at that time it was a SuperFresh). I was at the far end of the place pushing a cart towards the checkouts with my grandmother, when all of a sudden I heard people screaming and saw some hopping all over. Some were running in all directions. NOWADAYS my first thought would be somebody was shooting and to get to someplace safe. Then (this must have been 30 years ago), I just watched the hopping and screaming people getting closer, like they were doing The Wave. It turned out to be the biggest rat I had ever seen in my life running in our general direction. LOL. I don't know if the *worst* experience I'd ever had, but my grandmother shouting, "drop the cart and (bad cuss word) wing it! Wing it!!!" made it the funniest. We ran, or she ran and I ran after her, and we went right out of the store. She never went back. After that, we started driving all the way out of Wildwood to Rio Grande to a different supermarket.

 

[ronandannette]

During covid, I went in to do some shopping and got yelled at by a lady because I picked up an item, read the ingredients and put it back. I have food allergies and need to see if it is safe for me to eat. It had something in it that I can't eat, so I placed it back on the shelf.

Suddenly, from behind me I hear, "HEY you can't put that back! You TOUCHED that and now you're putting it back???? You don't even have gloves on!!" I was so shocked I could barely speak. I was so embarrassed by her outburst and could feel other people looking at us. I told her I just cleaned my hands (it was true, I had just used hand sanitizer right when I walked in.) so according to her, I should have bought the item, even though I did not want it, just because I touched it. Not to mention many others probably touched it as well like the person who stocked the shelf, other customers etc. This was the beginning of the pandemic. Man things were strange back then.

Yes, just so. In March of 2020, right after things exploded and governments and private enterprises were all scrambling to develop safety protocols, I had a jarring experience with a cashier at my regular store where I shop almost daily for years. I had just come back from vacation (was recalled when the borders closed) and had an uncharacteristically large amount of cash. I bought groceries (careful not to fall prey to the urge to hoard) and decided to pay with cash. The cashier's look was pure terror - I was so taken aback. Then she went on the intercom and paged her manager and whether or not she realized she was still broadcasting, shrieked "I have to wash my hands, I need to wash them right now, she made me touch cash, I just touched her cash...". She was in tears, the other shoppers were gobsmacked and I was dumbfounded and embarrassed. It was literally the last time I tried to pass cash for over a year.

 

[mrodgers]

At some time in the early 90's. I walked up to the entrance late at night to 2 guys standing on either side of the entrance holding several rifles. In front of me are customers streaming in as the store was closing in half an hour. Didn't seem to frazzle anyone. I thought that was odd, a random selection including elderly just walking into a grocery store either being guarded by 4 people or 4 people about to walk in and do something.

They sure were planning something. As I walked up, one of them hands me a rifle, a stone cold look in his eyes, "Tonight, he dies!" I nod my head and we walk inside.

You see, for the past week the daylight crews have been trying everything to get the bird flying all around the store. They had traps, fly paper, I'm not sure what all they tried. After a week, the manager comes to us, the night shift crew, "Ok guys, it's your turn."

And so about 15 minutes after the store closed, pop pop pop from one of the pellet guns someone brought in, which was one of what was handed to me on the way in the door. Mission accomplished and our Blue Jay adversary was no more.

 

[NannyBeBe]

A long time ago, before COVID, I was in line to check out. The lady in front of me had loaded all of her groceries onto the counter and had placed a divider behind them. As the clerk started to check out the lady's items, I began to place mine onto the counter. The lady turned to me and informed me that I needed to stop and back up because I was in her space. I was speechless and just stared at her. I wasn't even near her. I just continued to do what I was doing.

 

[JLTraveling]

Right at the beginning of Covid, a couple days before it was officially declared a pandemic, there were starting to be murmurs of a two week shutdown. So we went to Walmart to get some things to carry us through. I was shocked at how bare the shelves were, and I could tell another lady was thinking the same thing. They were all out of toilet paper except, for some reason, for my preferred brand and style. I didn't need any, but sort of got the idea that I better get some while it was available. The other lady and I reached the display at the same time and she said, "I don't need this yet but I think I better get it." I agreed, and we just sort of stared at each for a minute as the reality of what was happening sunk in. Then we broke eye contact, smiled sheepishly, and went our separate ways. To me, that was the defining moment of the beginning of the pandemic.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Shoot, was all ready to post but have to recompose myself after the blue jay story.

Ok, I worked in a supermarket for five years during college.

- Went into ladies room to find cleaner swabbing toilets with brush, THEN BRINGING DRIPPING BRUSH OVER TO SINKS AND SWABBING FAUCETS AND HANDLES!

- Similarly, fish dept worker using restroom with gloves on then going back out to wait on customers with same gloves on!

- Customer bringing back remains of four eaten lobsters saying they wanted their money back because they weren’t good.

- Customer regularly insisting on smelling whitefish with face and large nose practically on product, had to keep pulling them away. See her coming in store - break time!

- Kids standing in shopping cart and the whole thing falling over. Kid hurt.

- Elderly people coming into air conditioned supermarket from hot parking lot and passing out just past the entrance.

- People regularly eating produce and/or “slipping” on splattered grapes.

- Deli worker passive-aggressively giving crappy cold cuts to rude people.

This one happened about 3 months ago. Was shopping at our regular local grocery store. I got in line to check out in what appeared to be the shortest check out line. Saw an older middle aged woman with her teenage daughter about 10 feet away. They appeared to be making choices on batteries.

Apparently I was wrong in my assessment because the insane woman seriously lost her mind over me getting in line.

She screamed at the top of her lungs at me, “ExCUSE mEEEEE! ARE YOU BLIND OR SOMETHING? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? I WAS HERE FIRST!”

I calmly replied with, “Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t know you were in line! Sorry about that!” While I moved over one check out row.

That wasn’t good enough. She shouted back, “OH GIVE ME A BREAK! YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!”

She was so loud that people were starting to stare and were gathering to watch. I decided that maybe she was partially deaf or something (nah, not really, but was in the mood now of “Hell with it, I’m gonna match her on volume and tone”), so I shouted back, “GET A GRIP! YOU WERE 10 FEET AWAY AND NO…IT WAS NOT OBVIOUS THAT YOU WERE IN LINE. IF YOU ARE ACTUALLY IN LINE, YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER ACTUALLY STANDING BEHIND THE PERSON YOU’RE IN LINE BEHIND…YOU KNOW…SO IDIOTS LIKE ME DON’T MISUNDERSTAND.”

Her teenager daughter looked like she wanted the earth to swallow her up.

Not to be outdone, Ms Crazy Lady had to have the last word and shouted, “YOU ARE A REAL PIECE OF WORK! YOU KNOW THAT?”

…to which, I replied back with all the passive-aggression of a sorority girl with, “OH THANKS! SAME TO YOU! Have a GREAT day!”

She spent the rest of her shopping experience whisper shouting to her teenager and wildly gesticulating. Meanwhile, the lady in line in front of me gave me a knowing “look”, nodded over in Crazy Lady’s direction, rolled her eyes, and then smiled.

I had a similar incident at a deli when I turned around to get some oranges right behind the deli while I was waiting for my number to be called. Guy rushed ahead of me and when I said something he went off on me like your lady did. I gave it back to him at the time, and it actually became a classic story in my family. Today, though, I don’t think I would. I’d just let him go. The level of crazy in people has increased exponentially since then, unfortunately, and it’s just not worth it.

 

[luvsvacation]

I was at the grocery store and a storm was brewing outside. I was almost done loading my cart with a weeks worth of groceries when the tornado sirens started going off. I never pay much attention to the sirens at home and so I went on about filling my cart. Lots of people were leaving their carts and heading to the back storerooms where employees were herding people. A few like me just continued shopping. A few minutes later the workers became more forceful and said everyone had to go to the back room. I asked if I could just leave instead because I wasn’t about to spend 30 minutes or an hour just sitting back there. They said yes but I had to just leave immediately I couldn’t check out. They shut everything down so I couldn’t even use self checkout! I just walked away and went to a drive thru for dinner. I get that it’s their safety protocol but I was pretty ticked I had to go back and do all my shopping over again the next day.

 

[Kae]

People walking the wrong side of an aisle, putting their cart kinda sideways while shopping oh wait that's everytime. lol Once I was shopping and this person had their toddler in the cart part and they were throwing stuff out of the cart and jar of tomato sauce broke splashed all up my legs the mom never even looked back just kept walking.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Remember during the pandemic when there were “arrows” in grocery aisles? God forbid you went the wrong way! I got yelled at a few times when I mistakenly went the wrong way.

 

[KayMichigan]

Remember during the pandemic when there were “arrows” in grocery aisles? God forbid you went the wrong way! I got yelled at a few times when I mistakenly went the wrong way.

I remember those! But people didn't really seem to pay much attention to them after a few weeks. There wasn't anybody around to enforce it so it always seemed more of a guideline than a rule.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Remember during the pandemic when there were “arrows” in grocery aisles? God forbid you went the wrong way! I got yelled at a few times when I mistakenly went the wrong way.

Yup those were there when I worked at a grocery store. My manager was a stickler for the rules and would lecture us if we didn't make people follow those arrows. I remember the day the mask mandate went away in our state, my manager made a coworker and I remove all of those arrows from the store.

 

[disneyseniors]

I remember those! But people didn't really seem to pay much attention to them after a few weeks. There wasn't anybody around to enforce it so it always seemed more of a guideline than a rule.

Not in our area! It was like the aisle monitors in high school all over again, LOL. I got evil looks from people even though I had a mask on and stopped letting them pass if the wanted to! I had one person stop, gasp, and look at me like a mass murderer until I passed (I know on the wrong side again. I was waiting to get arrested) That was a stupid rule and alot of people didn't do it, but the ones who did? Look Out!
It wasn't like you didn't get close to people while moving the same direction!