I even go shopping on vacation.
My wife and I have figured a way to cut our grocery bill drastically.
This amazingly devious, complicated and ingenious plan is rooted in the fact of my utter dislike (maybe hatred) of grocery shopping. I could rant for hours about the necessity and predictability of the entire process, but suffice to say, I just don’t enjoy it. However, the duty of stopping by Safebey’s tends to fall on the shoulders of whoever happens to be leaving the house on the Day of Need. And when the gamut gets passed to me, I will only tolerate the repugnance of it all by being equipped with a grocery list.
As unfashionable or nerdy as a grocery list may be, it’s what I need to get the job done with the minimum of fuss. Get in. Get the stuff. Get out.
My wife has a different approach. She loves sales and loves to show off all the money she saved when she gets home. This usually means that when she goes for milk, she comes home with enough food to feed an army. At least the pantry is full!
So we have found that when I go, we get what we need and that’s it. Money saved!
Part of my military style shopping spree involves going through the self-serve tills. I love the self-serve lane! I get to do a little more work, but at least I’m out of the store quicker. Usually.
Yesterday, The Job was mine, and I did my usually run through the store. Checked everything on the list and made a dash for the self-serve tills. One was free so I promptly dropped my basket on the end of the till and started unloading my grocery-cart-sized load of goodies, one at a time, and waving them over the scanner.
If you have ever tried to scan your own stuff, you’ll know that this is not as easy and smooth of a task as the well trained and talented staff make it appear. Those in uniforms do this all day and seem to know exactly how to twist, turn and reshape each item as they pick it up so that the barcode is right over the scanner at the exact moment that is passed over, thus eliminating any pause to wiggle the produce repeatedly and stop the flow. It’s an art.
For me, there is always something that stops the flow. This time it was pasta that would not make the till beep happily. Rescue was close at hand and an employee dashed to my aide. It turns out that this particular brand had been blessed with two barcodes and the trick was to know which one would work. The machine beeped once more and I was on my way, scanning more stuff. I swiped my Interac card (a task I now have lots of experience in), grabbed the swollen bags and headed for the parking lot.
If only I was as well trained as those Customer Service Professionals, I would have been in and out a lot sooner. Perhaps Safebey’s runs an evening course for the uninitiated. As a professional I could trim minutes off my grocery marathon.
Training really is the key and training customers is up to everyone in business. I’m not sure if I have any spare time to study for my Grocery Bagging Diploma, but I do my best to educate and inform clients of the necessary details of graphic design. What to expect, what is involved in any given job and the scope of the job of a graphic designer is not up to the customer to figure out. It’s up to me, as a designer, to inform and educate.
Start with the FAQ page, and read other articles in the design.news section and you’ll be on your way to enlightenment.
As usual, if you have other questions, fire away. I just can’t help you carry your groceries to your car, sorry.