Here’s another pet peeve. The employees at Safeway are required to do two things as far as I can tell: accost every person they pass to ask if they are finding everything ok, and after checkout fumble with the receipt to find your name so they can say “thank you Mrs. Sunblag!” I really feel sorry for them about that last one. They have to do it, for all they know I could be Mrs. Sunblag from corporate, ready to bust them for not complying with the policy.
The other one, though, really gets my goat. I don’t usually make a list when I go grocery shopping. I have an idea of what I need and I go up and down the aisles and hope that the item pops out at me so I remember to get it. This means I am concentrating when I grocery shop, scanning the shelves so I don’t miss anything. Plus I usually shop after work, I’m tired and don’t want to talk to anybody at all. I generally try to keep from making eye contact with anyone, then I don’t have to stop and have a superficial conversation with some woman whose name I don’t remember and whose daughter went to kindergarten with my son twenty years ago. Then -boom- out of nowhere it comes, a voice interrupting my train of thought with that inane question: “Are you finding everything OK?” It’s a question. I’m expected to answer. It is SO HARD for me to be polite, but I do, because once again I know I could be a corporate spy and their job could be on the line.
It’s not just at Safeway. This happens all the time everywhere it seems, in every store. No amount of averting my gaze allows me to escape from having someone who is apparently being watched by their manager sidle up to me to make sure I’m capable of finding what I came in for. It doesn’t matter if I say a nice hello when I walk in or even smile and make eye contact in casual greeting. I clearly look like an idiot who couldn’t find a cake in a bakery. I guess this is what passes for customer service. The irony is that when the milk got stuck on that roller thing in the dairy case and I couldn’t reach it, I could not find ANYONE to help me get at it. I walked up and down and peeked down several aisles and could find no one. I eventually walked to the front of the store to customer service and tried to hide the steam coming out of my ears as I described how I normally can’t get from point A to B without someone asking me if I need help and then when I actually do need help – everyone has apparently gone on break.
I have seriously considered making myself a button to wear that says “I’m finding everything ok, thanks” or “I’m trying to remember what I need, do not disburb” or more directly “Don’t talk to me, please.” I’ve thought of writing to Safeway headquarters to tell them how annoying it is that they make their employees try to sound out Mrs. Zbrzwenski’s name in the middle of a checkout rush hour. No one is fooled! I don’t think it’ll make any difference though. The cosmos knows I need to be confronted with my pet peeves in order for my character to achieve great heights. I think I might make a little sign that I can hold up – maybe the employees will get a giggle out of it and it will ease what must certainly, for some of them, be a requirement that they hate uttering as much as I hate hearing it.
See. I’m a nicer person already.
Favorite Philosopher's Blog 
Thank you!!!! This is, hands down, THE most annoying aspect of going grocery shopping these days. Yes, it may happen at other stores too, but it’s out of control at Safeway. Yesterday it happened to my girlfriend 5 times in 15 minutes. Soooooo irritating! We are almost always on the phone together whenever she stops at a Safeway for whatever so it’s become a game to guess how long until one of the aisle trolls butts in with their programmed questions. I swear if you were to toss ball down the aisle behind one of them they would start asking the question before they even noticed there wasn’t anyone really there. “Are you finding everything okay?” Just leave us alone!!! If we’re having trouble finding something we’ll come find you. But the worst is once you’ve loaded everything onto the conveyer and as you’re getting your debit card and coupons out the check out gall asks the question. Argh! Really?! Can’t you assume I have if I’m already at checkout? What sort of imbecile in corporate thought making every employee in there Safeway stores ask EVERY person they see ” Are you finding everything okay?” was a good idea? AND, assuming that the name printed on the receipt is mine and addressing me by that name, in public, is simply idiotic. I could be using my mother’s card, a sibling’s, a friend’s, a coworker’s, etc. So I offer up this plea to Safeway corporate: STOP FORCING YOUR EMPLOYEES TO SAY THESE STUPID, ANNOYING PHRASES TO US!!!!!!
I despise Safeway for this phrase and their fake service. Once, I used the bathroom in the back, and “Are you finding everything ok” was written on a sign on the door to get back into the store for each employee to see multiple times a day. On the West Coast, we have Winco, which beats Safeway by a mile, so I don’t have to go there anymore thank god.