Friday, January 4, 2008

Stop&Shop Dix Hills Followup

I was planning on updating my earlier review of the Stop&Shop in Dix Hills but think it merits a second full posting.
First, the plan was to compliment the store for its sales today. Prices seem to have come down a little bit and there were a lot of the buy-three sales going on. I wound up buying more and spending more than I'd intended but the price drop was an improvement, especially since food prices are going up, up, up.

Then I got to the checkout where the young clerk was having a long-running meltdown. She was literally in tears, very unhappy, griping to the younger, learning-disabled fellow helping to bag, who was either clueless or choosing to ignore her. She even wound up cursing about a previous customer who had had the audacity to ask her a question, referring, only incompletely under her breath, to the "f...bitch." All this was obviously within hearing range of anyone near the checkout.

I don't know the source of her unhappiness but I do know she shouldn't have been working there at that point.

I have noticed an increase in inappropriate conversations among workers at a lot of supermarkets--many of them, especially younger ones, seem to have no compunctions about complaining about their jobs to other workers. But this woman was really over the top.

The other thing I notice about many supermarkets is the lack of supervision. The people who are the face of the store are often young, often disaffected and yet, far too often, there's no one in the vicinity to supervise or take complaints.