If I Scan and Bag My Own Groceries, Should I Punch in First?
I actually like grocery shopping, but there are three things that really irritate me about the experience.
One is the fact that very few people in front of me at the checkout will put the plastic separator on the conveyor belt after they have loaded their groceries onto it. I always do it for the person behind me, but some people just can’t be bothered.
The second is when I see two women (and I don’t want to sound like such a “guy” here but honestly, it’s always two women) who stop their carts in the middle of the aisle to talk, blocking everyone else from getting down the aisle. I can’t believe the price of eggs now! How are your New Year’s resolutions coming along? Did you hear that Ann and Dave are getting divorced?
But the thing that really bugs me are the self-checkout lanes. Sure, they’re fine to have as an option if a customer only has a few items and wants to use them. But they rarely work right, I don’t want to actually work when I go to the supermarket, and they’re eventually going to take jobs away from actual human workers.
My grocery store has gone all-in when it comes to self-checkout (and robots). They have ten regular lanes but usually only have one or two open. But every self-checkout lane is always open. I’ll be in line behind six other customers and someone from the store will ask “would you like to use the self-checkout?” Hey, now that you mention it, I wouldn’t! You don’t seem to be doing anything right now except guarding the self-checkout, maybe you could operate one of the regular lanes?
I don’t think most shoppers like them, as we can see from this WBZ news report.
Uploaded to YouTube by CBS Boston
The National Archives Needs Your Help!
I have an apology to make. Last Thursday was National Handwriting Day, but I forgot to mention it. Which really irritates me because I’m always talking about handwriting and letters in this column, and how I think everyone should learn (or relearn) cursive writing.
So, to make up for it I’ll point to this story. The National Archives needs your help in deciphering the cursive writing found in important old documents. It’s a volunteer position, but if you have an internet connection and can read the handwriting of people who have been dead for many years it might be the job for you.
Reese’s New Chocolate Lava Big Cup: A Review
The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup is the perfect candy…bar? I always hesitate to call candy that isn’t bar-shaped a “candy bar,” but I guess it is and I don’t want to get distracted here.
So, it’s the perfect candy bar, arguably one of the best ever made. So why do they keep adding things to it? Some now have pretzels inside, some have M&Ms, some are made thinner, and some have white chocolate or dark chocolate instead of milk. Admittedly, some of these variations are good. But what about their new Chocolate Lava Big Cup?
I walked down to the convenience store last week and bought one (I bought a Diet Pepsi too so it all evens out, health-wise). It was an accident. I reached into what I thought was the box for regular Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and didn’t realize I had bought this new version (I didn’t even realize they were for sale yet).
How is it? Meh. There’s a layer of fudgier chocolate on the bottom of the inside. It’s not a lot of chocolate (the picture on the package is deceiving) but it does change the flavor profile. Not bad and it’s worth trying, but I’d stick with the original.
Maybe they could have added some hot sauce or pepper for the full “lava” effect.
Quote of the Week
“[It’s] an example of how we’re applying technology as possible solutions to a common customer complaint.”
-Spokesperson for CVS, on the news that CVS now has an app you can download that can unlock the glass cabinets that house items that are often shoplifted.
Actually, the “common customer complaint” isn’t that there isn’t an employee available that can unlock those cabinets, it’s that the 99.9 percent of customers who aren’t thieves have to jump through all these hoops and use “technology” just to purchase something. I shouldn’t have to download an app to buy Gillette razors when I’m already in the store standing in front of them.
RIP Marianne Faithfull, Mike Hynson, Jan Shepard, and Ed Bluestone
Marianne Faithfull was the iconic British singer and actress known for songs like “As Tears Go By” and “This Little Bird.” She was also the subject of the Rolling Stones songs “Wild Horses” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” She died yesterday at the age of 78.
Mike Hynson starred in the classic surfing documentary Endless Summer. He died earlier this month at the age of 82.
Jan Shepard appeared in two Elvis Presley movies (King Creole and Paradise, Hawaiian Style), Attack of the Giant Leeches, several TV westerns and soaps, and shows like Perry Mason and Dr. Christian. She died earlier this month at the age of 96.
Ed Bluestone was a veteran standup comic and writer for The National Lampoon. He’s the one who conceived this classic cover of the magazine. He died in October.
This Week in History
President William McKinley Born (January 29, 1843)
And he was in the news this week, as the name of Mount Denali in Alaska was changed back to Mount McKinley.
The Beatles’ Rooftop Concert (January 30, 1969)
The session on top of the Apple Corps headquarters was their last public performance. They played ten songs, though three of them were versions of “Get Back” and two of them versions of “Don’t Let Me Down.”
This Month in Saturday Evening Post History: “Tumble from Sled” by Dominice Cammerota (January 27, 1940)
She’s going to need some hot chocolate after that tumble.
Today Is National Hot Chocolate Day
And I just happen to have some recipes for her.
The Pioneer Woman has a recipe for Delicious Hot Chocolate, and I’m going to assume that all of the other hot chocolate recipes she has can also be described as delicious. Isabel Eats has Mexican Hot Chocolate, which is a little spicier from the addition of cinnamon and cayenne, and you can try Tini’s Hot Chocolate, which apparently “broke the internet” last year.
And since I reviewed the new Lava Big Cups, here’s a recipe for a Hot Chocolate Volcano.
Next Week’s Holidays and Events
Groundhog Day (February 2)
PETA doesn’t want Punxsutawney Phil used for the annual event anymore so it has offered officials of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club a “vegan weather cake” to use instead.
The inside of the cake will be blue if we’re going to have six more weeks of winter and pink if we’re going to have an early spring. Which means that PETA will be deciding in advance how long the winter is going to last.
Can cakes see their own shadows?
67th Annual Grammy Awards (February 2)
Out of the hundreds of nominees I’m going to guess I’ve heard of three of them. The show airs on CBS starting at 8 p.m. ET.
Norman Rockwell Born (February 3)
The iconic artist was born in 1894 and died on November 8, 1978. A couple of months later the Post published an issue devoted to Rockwell, which included celebrations and memories from people like President Jimmy Carter, Erma Bombeck, Steve Allen, and Elizabeth Taylor. (You can read that issue with a subscription to the Post!)
Become a Saturday Evening Post member and enjoy unlimited access. Subscribe now
Comments
What’s important about cursive is it uses both sides of your brain to write. Some schools still use it. As to self checkout, I like doing it because I don’t want my groceries “manhandled” after I carefully chose it. Finally don’t reward companies that don’t have practices you don’t like. Vote with your feet.
Cursive writing will eventually disappear from school, society, etc just as shorthand has. My mother was taught shorthand in school, she also knew sign language. Nowadays typing/keyboarding is what’s important, and in the future you’ll only need to know how to write an “X” to sign your name on contracts.
I like that stores offer self check out lanes because I can then choose to use it, or use the traditional checkout line, whichever is shorter. Sometimes I’ll choose one over the other depending on how much I have in my cart or how pressed for time I have. I don’t know if self check out saves me time, but it does provide a more accurate transaction, as in the past sometimes the cashier double scans an item & I don’t realize it until after I get home. Or the cashier typed in the wrong code for produce & I got charged for cabbage instead of lettuce. If I ring up my own groceries I can ensure the items are bagged properly. If using self checkouts causes stores to hire fewer employees, that may reduce costs. I only wish the stores would give a discount to customers who use self checkout, since the customer is doing labor for the store, but that’ll never happen.
Using self checkout is akin to volunteering to translate cursive for the National Archives.
The self-checkout experience varies from okay to really disliking it, much like the people in the Boston CBS news report you’ve included here. Part of the problem is the machines are different from store to store, so you never really feel like you’ve ‘learned it’ or gotten it down to a science. The bigger problem (to me) is that there are only 1 or maybe 2 traditional checkout lanes open at any given time, EVER.
Cursive is a basic skill everyone should learn. Not knowing it means you can’t even sign your own name, which is just sad. It’s also handy for when you need to write something down quickly. I’ve written detailed comments on it in other Post online features. ‘Mourning the Death of Cursive’ from 7 years ago is worth re-reading now. Using technology as an excuse for not knowing how is a b.s. crutch/lie people tell themselves.
Really gorgeous 1940 Post cover! Love the unique color mixing, style and action here. Hot chocolate is just the best; especially with some mini-marshmallows added, right Bob? I think so, and will check out some of the included links.