shopping carts

I haven’t told any stories from Krogers for a long time. It isn’t that there haven’t been any, but just that I haven’t written them down. But Rachael came home with several recently and I had to write at least one of them down.

One was about a girl-woman that works as a bagger and carry out person. She is very slow moving and is very easily distracted. The other day she was wandering around, not really doing her job and basically getting into trouble. One of the cashiers spoke pretty harshly to her and Suzie (not her real name) got upset and came blubbering to Rachael.

Rachael’s Navajo heritage makes her the ultimate diplomat, but also ultimately honest. She dealt with Suzie’s grief and explained that maybe the cashier had sounded mean, but Suzie needed to be doing her job! Suzie calmed down but was still feeling sorry for herself, so Rachael decided to give her time to collect herself and sent her out to collect shopping carts from the parking lot.

This isn’t a job Suzie gets very often because she isn’t very good at it, not that she seems to resent it but she just isn't good at it! It doesn’t take long to collect the carts from the parking lot, but teens being kids, can make it into a nice long outing. At any rate, Suzie got her coat on and went trucking out to the parking lot. After about 15 minutes when she hadn’t returned yet, Rachael went to look for her.

Suzie was standing by the cart return area with her hands loosely holding a cart handle, looking at the sky. She was peering so intently that Rachael actually went outside to see if there was a plane or a bird or even an escaped balloon up there. Nope, nothing!

Just as Rachael was about to call her and say “hurry with the carts” Suzie decided that the sky was no longer interesting and maneuvered the long line of carts out of the collection area and started back to the store with them. Rachael went back inside to watch.

The line of carts was all free of the collection area railing and partially blocking the parking lot when something in the sky caught Suzie’s attention again. She stopped stock still and began staring at the sky. Cars had to take turns to get around her, but she never noticed. After a few minutes, someone must have said something to her because she looked around in a little surprise and began again to try to get the carts aligned for the final push into the store. It must have been quite and effort because after a few almost futile pushes she stopped to rest. Arms hanging over the handles of the first few carts, head hanging down between her shoulders, Suzie looked as though she had just run the Boston Marathon. Apparently exhausted she took a brief break.

The line of carts had moved just enough that now it wasn’t blocking the aisle between the rows of parked cars but was protruding into the actual access lane along in front of the store.

She stood there long enough that Rachael stepped out of the store again and called to her, “Suzie, we need the carts now. We’re getting low.” Suzie looked up, waved gaily, and started out on the home stretch. She came in the store with a sense of feat accomplished, smiling broadly and proud of herself. She was back to her good natured self.

Whadayado? Rachael smiled and told her Good Job. At least she had kept that Cruise Missile from crashing in the parking lot!

Anecdotes from the Grocery store

The Lost Hat

One of the seniors who visit the store came in a few days ago. Everyone is familiar with her and she has her own unique way of facing life. This time she was looking for her lost hat.

Rachael stood in the inner office listening while another assistant tried to deal with finding her hat. When did you lose it? Uuuuh, last week maybe. What color was it? Wellll, uuh. Maybe it was red..or no, blue, maybe. Yes, red or blue! Fred looked. No red or blue hats. Well maybe it wasn’t all red, maybe it was just trimmed in red. Nope, none like that either. Fred was getting frustrated and the little old lady becoming belligerent. Rachael took pity on Fred and went to help.

“Hi! What seems to be the problem?”

Well duh. Evidently the ‘young man’ just didn’t care about her lost hat. From past acquaintance Rachael pretty well knew that the lady had two hats—a black one and a white one. She was wearing the black one.

“Was it your white hat that was lost?”

Yes, yes! Maybe that was it. She couldn’t remember. Another check in the box. No white hat either. There were a couple brown ones, a gray one, and whatever. All rather nondescript, not new or especially attractive. Except for one. It was black plush with a faux leopard brim. Pretty hat. Nice hat. Nearly new hat. After a bit more discussion and confused, evasive responses from the little old lady, Rachael and Fred gave up.

“Here,” one of them said, “Do you see your hat?” And they set the box of lost hats on the counter.

Guess which hat the little old lady zeroed in on! You got it! The nice black plush with the faux leopard brim! Pretty hat. Nice hat. Nearly new hat!

Are you sure this is your hat? It isn’t red or blue and it certainly isn’t white. Yes, yes, yes. The lady remembered now. This is her hat. Rachael said, “Well, if you lost it last week, this one has only been here since Tuesday…”

Were they trying to keep her hat!? She wanted to see the manager! This was her hat! They wanted her nice hat for themselves. (oh, yes. Like Fred wanted the girl-y hat! lol)

They had her sign the lost item pick-up slip and she trotted out of the store with her nice hat.

I wonder if the real owner ever came looking for her nice black plush hat with the faux leopard brim.

Anecdotes from Krogers

My daughter works at Krogers. Yeah I know, exciting fact. Anyway. She seems to have an affinity for the elderly and those who have special needs. We learned early on in our family that some thing that would frustrate and anger us beyond sanity lost their edge if we could find the humor in them. So without any intention of maliciousness she gets many chuckles from the many characters she meets daily. You will hear these from time to time since she comes home and recounts them to us.

Phyl-Phil and Phyllis

A woman frequently comes in to purchase her groceries. She introduces herself as “Phyl, Phil and Phyllis” She is truly a multiple personality and when she speaks with the staff it is key to know which person is speaking because another may interrupt the first to dispute a statement, either yours or her counterpart’s.

The first day my daughter met her she came in with a handful of coupons. She took a cart and started down the aisle. As she walked through the store she was muttering to herself. When she came closer to the desk my daughter realized that the personalities were arguing among themselves as to whether or not they could afford certain items and whether or not a certain product was liked by the other two personalities! The purchase of the item depended on either the more forceful personality (at that moment) or a vote of 2 to 1 carrying the issue.

Amusing, but fascinating. How amazing is the human mind!