Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?


The Tesco receipt, humble and unassuming, that you see above, led to a bit of an unfortunate incident this lunchtime. The alert and mathematically skilled amongst you will notice that I, apart from favouring the cheaper end of the baked bean market, decided to approach the ‘ten items or fewer’ till with, shockingly, eleven separate grocery pieces. This led to problems. I am normally greeted cheerfully by whoever serves me and I regularly respond in a similar jovial fashion to the check-out person. Today’s lack of eye contact from a rather surly young lady should have warned me that trouble was afoot. As the eleventh item bleeped, she had a blast at me, informing me with barely disguised contempt that, in the future, I should desist from advancing towards her stall with so many objects. She was actually very rude. I didn’t react or reply in the least and adopted a slightly languid, devil-may-care posture. I suppose this lack of reaction fuelled her anger even more as she loudly muttered to the middle-aged fellow who next in line, ‘Sorry about the delay…!’ and then slammed my change down on the counter. No word of thanks for my custom. No bidding me farewell. I was displeased rather than cross but I decided to complain to the store manager who listened politely as I articulated my concerns. Her apologies were fulsome and well-meant as she reassured me that bringing eleven items to that till was perfectly fine and that her colleague’s behaviour was unnecessary and regrettable. Our exchange was as lucid and coherent as the young lady’s attitude was needless. She promised to deal with my grievance and I departed on good terms. I honestly can’t recall complaining in a shop before - I'm not that sort of person - but I did so today calmly and without a hint of antagonism. It just seemed the right thing to do.

9 comments:

adamashby said...

some may say it serves you right for shopping at Tesco...

however, my real reason for this comment is to ask if you have found www.pandora.com yet - warning, do not try at work as you may be distracted for a long time. It is like having someone else's MP3 player...

I started by looking for Show of Hands (just because it is a good indicator of what music they hold) and was offered Show of Hands by The Sunburned Hand of the Man, which has led to Kate Bush by way of some very obscure trance. I foresee a long addiction to this site....

Cole said...

Is that Adam A?

I have been on Pandora and really liked it. What I thought to be fine was the quality on offer - and the range. I can't quote any bands I've got into via Pandora but I'm sure I've added a few acts to my Amazon wishlist after a visit.

Sweeny said...

Blagging shamelessly as ever, I've had a look at Pandora as result of this comment. It looks a bit like Last FM, how does it measure up?

Cole said...

There are more surprises to be had on Pandora...but I like the graphs on Last FM. You can't beat a stat.

adamashby said...

Yup - adam a here...

Just looked at lastfm - it seems you need a download? There's no plug in for the Mac so that's me SOOL.

I might try it on my work PC, but I don't have many tunes loaded on that so it wouldn't be representative!

Sweeny said...

Actually I've been trying the Pandora site, and it lets me listen to a few songs, but asks me to register. To register you have to give a valid zip code for the USA. Do you know any?

Cole said...

I read about who someone who used the New York Times' zipcode and that worked!
The New York Times Company
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036

adamashby said...

how about beverley hills 90210?

just pop along to http://www.usazipinfo.com/ and bag a zip for yourself....

Sweeny said...

the New York Times' zipcode works fine. Cheers!