From the last but one post, you may be thinking that I am in a grump. I am. I have tried to shake it off with sock monkeys, chocolate, my favourite toons and silly YouTube videos but all to no avail. I am grumpy...not nasty aggressive but grumpy.
Now, dear reader, when Cusp is grumpy there is nothing that works up the grump into a passionately felt MAJOR GRUMP than a 'BAD EXPERIENCE IN THE CO-OP'
I should explain that, despite the fact that the Co-Op has the most laudable purchasing policies, a, no doubt, almost invisible carbon footprint, ethical banking, organic produce and has even improved the standard of their TV advertising, usually the shopping experience in that company's stores is abysmal.
I therefore have to admit that, were it not for the fact that we live in the country and the Co-Op is the nearest store, I would never dream of entering those hallowed portals....but it is convenient and when one has a very M.E. day it is invaluable...sometimes. At least better than schlepping over horrid Tesco or even more horrid and tacky Asda.
I have had the misfortune to live in four places where the Co-Op was my nearest convenience (and you can take that term 'convenience' in any way you like)
1. When I was a child our nearest 'mini-mart' was said establishment
2. When I lived in a small Essex seaside town the store was just opposite to where I lived
3. and 4. Since we came back to Suffolk 20 years ago, wherever we have lived, which ever village, the Co-Op has always, unfortunately, been our local grocery shopping opportunity.
And now, my dears, I shall tell you why, in my humble opinion all Co-Ops are the very nadir of a celebratory and uplifting shopping experience:
1. All Co-Ops seem to smell of a garlanded combination of Persil, wet cardboard and string
a. very stupid
b. completely lacking in any common sense
c. completely untrained in any knowledge of stock, how the till works, how the chip and pin machine works, opening hours, how to lock the doors, how to unlock the doors, how to locate the Manager, how to locate the cards where you can post an advert, how to locate the key to open the door to locate the cards you need to post an advert, how to serve anyone with any glimmer of interest or a smile or without talking over your shoulder to the person working in the till beside or behind you
d. be afflicted in some way with a personal hygiene problem, bad breath, a nervous tic and sort of glazing over of the eyes ----- as if the lights that may be on in the house are probably from a 10 watt bulb but nobody's home anyway
3. Anything you need will not be where you expected it but you will often find things where and when you didn't expect it e.g.
- the kitchen roll towels will not necessarily be near other paper products but they may be near dog food.
- You may be looking for baking goods but you would not expect to find just above them a range of hairslides/dog chews/batteries. This is a very special trick of the Co-Op where they hope to shock you into a surprise purchase so ......those items about which they are unsure get dotted hither and yon about the store...usually on little hangy things just above items which have no relation to those below. I presume the Co-Op premise/logic is that you are so shocked to see an item in so incongruus a location that you will be forced to purchase it.
Another example:
- you may also find a range of mops in cardboard boxes in the middle of the aisle (where you can trip over them or swerve your trolley) right next to fruit or you will be browsing the beverage shelves but also be 'surprised' by a lovely and bizarrely displayed range of bargain deep fat fryers, tatty last season Xmas goods (in August) or discount water pistols.
4. The other trick is especially designed for people with chronic illness who cannot walk too far, stand too long, have giddy spells, panic attacks or breathing problems or any combintaion thereof. Having spent three times as long locating what you need compared to shopping elsewhere, you then come to the checkout with the aforementioned problems of staff and technology. Not only this but, because of those problems, you have to wait much much longer than elsewhere since, in general the Co-Op virus tends to spread and mutate so that the customers are also infected and become ditherers and wibblers. Not only that but the Co-Op have a special trick where they can keep you standing longer than you'd expect.
- One trick is to allow you to wait until you get to the till and then say in a loud voice, 'Sorry, I'm on me break now..' and disappear (in other stores this person would be replaced by another employee...but not ion Co Op world).
- Another trick is to say 'Oh no, sorry....I only started today/yesterday/last week/month/year.....don't know about this...get the Manager.....' and then leave the attending throng to wait for 20 hours whilst s/he is located.
- The last trick is the best .......'Sorry....till's stuck...oh dear....'.at which time one long queue moves over, like a sequence dance, to join the other long queue in the hope that they will soon be served and out of the place.
The best trick the Co-Op played was one which befell a friend who also had M.E.
Twas the night before Christmas (well two days before actually) and he thought that even though he felt like death, he must get himself across town and redeem the vouchers he had been saving for a big cuddly dog which his niece had longed for. He has little money and so this was the only way he was going to get the toy. He dressed and struggled over to the larger store where they were available. As he neared that palace of consumerism his only thought was 'Thank God...nearly there and then I can get the dog and go home to bed.'
He turned the corner and approached the store. A notice: 'Sorry this store is now closed for refurbishment....please redeem any vouchers at our 'x' branch'...which was the one nearer to his home
Right.....all off chest, 'nuff said....................................
*Apologies to any dear reader who has worked at the Co-Op or has relatives who do etc I don't mean to offend ...but I still think the stores are *****
31 comments:
My son used to work at the co-op on weekends (we have one near us too) until he went to uni and I am so offended. Only joking, I think he probably hates them even more than you do, in fact he's chosen to go broke this holiday rather than spend any of his precious time there.
hey cusp, the co-op can be enraging for some of the reasons you describe, but it is also my life saver - it is a few mins from where i live and i get a lot of my heavy shopping there... the thing that peeves me most is they ALWAYS seem to be stocking shelves and leave boxes/trolleys for you to trip on, but i really like the ethnic diversity of the staff (M&S, tesco, waitrose etc; are not so diverse up here), & they also employ people with disabilities more visibly than the other stores. x
Oh all right, all right I give in...I did say I was grumpy yesterday: the Co-Op is a life-saver and it is near and it does have really ethical policices and it does employ very nice young men from good homes (though I note that most of those seem tostay about one week) and people from a range of ethnic backgrounds and alltherest of it BUT it still smells of wet cardboard and Persil and they still have staff who don't know what they're doing half the time and they do make you wait for ages....SO THERE !
Love Cusp aged 51 and a bit, and stillabitgrumpy but notquiteasmuchasyesterday
To join in the moan, have you been to the Post Office recently? I go fairly often and every single time there is a big twisting queue (the German for queue, Schlang, also means snake. Apt), no seats and a lax approach to serving customers. ME and shopping is just about the worst combination: either you get tired hoiking around a lot of stuff and have to spend the week recovering or you have to go nearly every day for a short trip which leaves you scuppered for the rest of the day. My diet consists mostly of light food that is cheap and easily found in the nearest shops. Not great.
Hi Cusp,
I love grumpy, :o) Makes for good posts.
Our local is a Somerfield. I usually internet food shop but didn't last week. I was being served at the till and mid way through scanning my goods, the young girl sneezed everywhere. (she didn't consider putting her hand in front of her mouth.)
Yuck.
I agree with Kahless. I mean sweetness and light is all very nice, but gimme a good rant any day. I have issues with the way Co-op treat their staff - but I have insider information. You wouldn't believe some of the senseless rules that only have the effect of making staff unhappy - and this filters down and may to some extent be responsible for the Attitude you find there. Persil and wet cardboard? You're lucky. Mine smells of rotting veg.
From what I know of most staff conditions in shops, they are mostly appalling: Tesco, Asda...they're all the same. Joking apart, I'm sure the poor souls who do work in the Co-Op often look so miserable and uninterested because they're so demoralised. At least the atmosphere/decor in Tesco, Waitrose is vaguely light and cheerful. The Co-Op is always glum and dour.
Even in the Edwardian era ;-) when I had a holiday job in Debenhams we were treated in the most dreadful way. The treatment of anyone from an ethnic background was especially bad. At least I could escape to Uni.....
And then there was 'Lidl' where one finds the sort of people that only exist in Lidl supermarkets.
Whether the Lidl came first and the people followed, or the people were there so Lidl followed, who knows.
Do not go into that part of town that is Lidl.
Well now I AM offended....whadayamean ?!!!....
''Lidl' where one finds the sort of people that only exist in Lidl'
I AM one of those people thankyouverymuch and can often been seen scooping a bargain from the Lidl shelf: mops, fire extinguishers, car seat covers, ice cream.
'Ist billig, yah ?'
Don't you know that Lidl is the Gamages of the common man ? (and if you remember Gamages you're older then 54)
P.S. I think they have cheap car seat covers on special for WAVS a the mo. Don't supose you'll be down there though. I suppose you're one of those posh people who goes to ALDI and 'spends a little, lives a lot' ;-))
Oh flipping 'eck. I got that wrong didn't I.
Lidl is rare round here, Tesco and Somerfield being the local amenities. I prefer Somerfield. I am dependent on very low income of disability benefits and have to watch the pennies.
Perhaps you confused WAV with big all terrain vehicles and bull bars driven by skinny rich bitches. The sort that never gets muddy. My WAV is a wheelchair accessible vehicle, funded by a government disability grant that I had no choice in, my model vehicle being the only one that had sufficient flat floor length for my type of electric wheelchair.
My comment was based on one experience of parking in a Lidl car park, seeing the sort of 'people' who make me nervous in my wheelchair when I am alone, then one came out of the supermarket, spat on my car, and leered at me.
My friend in the car with me (also on a low income as an artisan) said it was even worse inside, in her experience, so we didn't risk it.
Oh dear ..... you do know I was joshing don't you, Sally....well not about loving Lidl (to my shame I love a bargain and since they now sell organic veg, very good olive oil and soem really electrical/home items, I really do buy those things there) but I wasn't really offended :-)
I know what WAV is....my chum who is a wheelchair user has one too. Luckily I don't need to use a chair, though there are days when I could really use a blue badge but it's very rare to be able to get one of those for PWME....it's all in our imagination you see so we don't really need better access or nearer parking spaces...
If you are near a Lidl, next time be brave, go in and ignore the lack of superduper interior and look at the prices. You might be surprised an save some money.
Thanks for that, but its not the its image or its goods that puts me off Lidl; I would expect, not be surprised, for it to be good value.
Its the people experienced there, in that store in my experience - that attack; overtly or subtly people with obvious disabilities. My Bump has had ME for seventeen years, and was unable to go into a supermarket for five years, but when she now does, infrequently, she does not look disabled and does not get the abuse that I do.
I am an easy target.
Isn't it unfair - one person's rant makes another person laugh but you just rant so well! I empathised with everything you said, have experienced this too umpteen times in various shops, and wondered if this all is due to extremely low wages or just plain disinterest/indifference and while it's exasperating when you're well it's infuriating when you're not and in the end it can eat up all of several days' energy. It's still early morning and I'm at my best energy just now (and long may it last but it won't) and I've been wanting to thank you for your lovely comment a (longish) while ago about my work and to tell you that I have been playing more than has been commonly known about me. And I'm enjoying it too. Coming here has been a bit of a freakish experience as all of a sudden I had to face what now seems a childhood horror - the Jacob Sisters! Hadn't thought about them for decades but remember them cropping up in TV-shows and always seeming slightly horrified by them. Must be the fourfoldgänger-thing, and of course the over-sophistication of Schlager. How terrible to have to relive that experience. Thank heavens The Cake was just around the corner, brought me back to reality. Thank you.
Sorry, I probably posted twice. Just a bit of time at the computer and brain already tired and body demanding an immediate lie-down. Have a good day!
Good God. I've never noticed any thing of that sort in our Lidl. else There are almost always some customers with disabilities in Lidl here - physical disabilities and some with mental health problems. It's also a haven for older people, many of whom have physical disabilities/mobilty problems and they are never treated with anything but resepct by staff and other customers -- as they should be of course. Our Lidl, for a store of its size, has a bigger ratio of disabled parking spaces than Tesco and they are always used (and by people with a blue badge....not liggers looking for an 'easy' parking space). The store is always full of people using a whole range of mobility aids.
My own son, as well as having learning disabilities, is visually impaired and is always treated well ...even if I've asked him to pop in for one thing on his own. (trying to help him gainconfidence in going into shops etc and learn what to do)
Ironically, the only place he's ever been treated in a less than respectful fashion around here was at the Co-Op where they also actually employ people with learning disabilities. He asked for something he couldn't find and he was treated like the Asian woman in the Slimming Class sketch in Little Britain...
'What did he say...can you understand him,,no I can't either'
Talking extra loudly AT him;
'You go home dear and ask your Mum to come and get it..'
'ah bless him...'
I could have gone in there and kicked them !
Let's face it places like Lidl are bound to attract people who are less well-off and, unfair though it is, that group often includes disabled people who are surviving on benefits and have to live on a restricted budget. I think it's appalling that you or anyone else feels almost too afraid to go anywhere because of prejudice about e.g. a disability.
If you and other disabled people were brave enough it woud be worth writing to the Manager at your Lidl and telling him/her about your impressions of the store based on their customer base, thoug God only knows what s/he could do.
It's only Lidl in the end but with my own disability, my son's and a lifetiem of working with disabled people I'm always appalled and annoyed at this kind of prejudice and bullying.
Well welcome to you Marjojo and apologies if I freaked you out with a sudden unexpected sigting of Die Jacob Schwester !!
I'm glad you made it over here and have found some things to make you laugh. I do try to maintain a balance of grumps, jollies and some creativity.
Incidentally, re. you rpost about 'play': you may be interested in Signs current post on the same them..
http://readingthesigns.blogspot.com/2007/08/welcome-to-house-of-fun.html
See you again soon I hope
A wonderful post and sums up how i feel about morrisons which i hate with a vengeance. And travel to the next town to go to Sainsburys instead.... sad or what, me that is.
px
Thanks for taking the time to respond Cusp; I am not afraid to go anywhere, as my blog history will testify, but choose where I spend my energy, and money. Supermarket managers are not responsible and cannot dictate the behaviour of their customers, only their staff.
Dear Sally...no, I know you're not afraid to go where you like... as I typed that bit in my response I could hear you saying that :-) What I really meant was it seems a shame that other peoples' ignorance, bullying and rudeness can make you think twice. The attitude of those people is prevalent wherever you go to some degree --see my post from last Saturday.
http://lombredemonombre.blogspot.com/2007/08/where-do-these-people-come-from.html
Long may you venture hither and yon in the WAV boldly going where no woman has gone before and wher every woman has gone before :-))spending your energy and money wisely. I follow the same path.
Hi Pixie....still on hols.? Haven't had a chance to come over to yours for a while. I won'tgo to Morrisons either. For us it's not convenient anyway.
If I'm honest I hate most supermarkets. I am suspicious of their motives, profits, treatment of staff, treatment of suppliers etc etc. I'd much rather buy my stuff at the our local farm shop ( which we do when possible)
Hi cusp, thanks for the mench, and introducing me to Marjojo whose blog I have been enjoying.
What's with the "ist billig, yah" - die Jacob Schwester got into your system, oder was?
Heh Signs 'Ist billig, yah ?' was the Lidl slogan but it's been anglicised now into something else less memorable. It used to be plastered allover the store at the start and I always thought it was rather funny since many people in Lidl wouldn't have the faintest idea what it meant. Don't think the Lidl customer base are known for their multilingual nouse....come to that neither am I?
Since Lidl came out tops in a Times survey of quality stuff at cheap prices they've come over all English.
Poor Marjojo....fancy being spooked by my Jacob Sister post and the dear souls being part of a childhood memory. She does mak lovely things though but.....
cusp
it has taken me awhile to post here....ya, I look like a sock monkey....but I do drink tea in the morning like the English...a spot of cream and sugar. And I have an extreme fondness for India Pale Ale......which just goes to show you that the sun never sets on the English empire until you have had a beer or six. If you are are a friend of my friend, you are a friend of mine. That is the way it works in
Wisconsin...we are old-fashioned here...somewhat like the English...except I really prefer muffins to scones. Best, and all that.
hmmmmm...I sent you a note....not sure if it went through...and too obtuse to print same note....basically...sent good wishes and thoughts.
Well haloootoyoo OKJiMMMMMMM. Good to see you here again. I'm heartened to know that you drink tea in the mornings like all respectable people ;-)
Please hold the cream ..it's milk in tea, cream in coffee. I know there was that little 'to do' over tea in Bostona few years back, butputting thast aside I'd hope that you could take a little advice re. how to drink a cuppa cha properly.
By muffins I presume you mean those cake-like things in paper cases....rather than what we call a muffin which is a flat bread- like thing not in a paper case. Personally I like both and don't care which kind they are as long as they are buttery. I well remember my cousin making me some very good bran muffins when I was in Ottawa many moons ago.
Indeed; any friend of my friend is a friend of mine and if you're in with Ana, you're in with me ;-)
Cusp...it is Okjimm's birthday today! And I have a special French birthday for him on my blog!
and LOL! with Jimm's comments! leave it to him to pass the muffins around! even in the UK!
Wow, you've really touched a nerve with your Co-op rant. And there was me still thinking of coops (geddit?).
Personally I avoid all supermarkets, but if I have to, my nearest is Iceland where the staff are very helpful but the food is, well, there's not a huge range and they don't do camomile tea or couscous.
Smiths. Now don't get me started on Smiths and their lousy layout. Tried a shopmobility scooter in one recently. Took huge delight in knocking over displays that were just so completely in the way...
Ah Seahorse ... good to see you again. Ha...I never thought a grumpy rant about the Co-Op would generate such a torrent of comments.
I know what you mean about Smiths too. I very rarely go there now ..both nearby branches are 15 miles away and too far for me to travel most of the time.
I did venture into a store about 5 months ago and had to leave.
I'm 'on legs' ---- shaky sometimes --- and all the stock was so packed in and so many people that I couldn't stand it and had to get out. Other than that the rest of the stock is up two steep flights of stairs (no lift in a 'period' building): so no hope of access for wheelchair users or anyone wth mobility difficulties and little hope for the likes of me since such stairways are too exhausting..
Do they not think that the likes of us also might like to purchase books, magazines, arts materials etc etc.? Probably don't care........which is why I buy more and more online.
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Still many many hens, my dear...just had another brood hatch...feathers everywhere !
Hello Cusp,
Looking forward to your next post...
:-)
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