Full/Self-Service and “Consume-while-Shopping”

Is there a store in Baytown that has more checkers working, than Food Town on North Main? High five to the manager of this store for "getting it"! Customer service will draw customers every time, but large business owners time and time again neglect the customer by offering self-service “fast” lanes.

Food Town on North Main usually has checkers standing in front of the line waiting on customers. And get this – they are friendly! Compare this to Wal-Mart or either Kroger location and it's easy to see why I shop at this particular Food Town.

I don't want to scan my own groceries while a cashier watches either. I don’t care if this is the wave of the future. I like the old way. I’ve had the obviously rebellious thought on more than one occasion of sending a bill to Kroger’s or Wal-Mart for my services, even if it would only pay minimum wages and no employee benefits.

How in the world is scanning my own groceries an upgrade in customer service? The conventional wisdom is it allows the store to pay less money to employees and pass that savings on to the customer. Right – and that email from Nigeria about winning the Lotto is real too. I don’t believe or trust either one.

We citizens should take a look at the self-serve gas stations as an example. It’s downright difficult to find a station with an attendant. Here you are in a suit or business attire and you’re pumping gas into your car, grit, smell and all. Hooray for self-service! Pass the hand-cleaner please! What? No hand-cleaner either?

Back at the Food Town store on North Main, I was talking to a checker/cashier – a friendly lady of about fifty or so. We’ve exchanged pleasantries many times and I asked her if I should lift the bottled water out of my cart like the sign says: “All items must be taken from the cart”. She said no, she had the number memorized. She told me this rule was put in place to offset theft.
She went on to tell me how people will hide stuff in the lower portion of the cart and do their dead-level best to distract her and other checkers into missing it. Silly me, I thought that is stealing, but I guess some people do not see it that way for some dishonest reason. Her real pet peeve is what I am going to call “consume-while-shopping”. Whole families walk through the store mooching, munching and chomping on eatables while they slowly browse the store, according to this lady.

By the time they finally arrive at the cash register, the family of criminal grazers is well-sated and the store is littered with empty bags, boxes and fruit skins/pits. Many times a child will still have the empty food wrapper in their grubby little mitts and on more than one occasion, the parent has asked the cashier to toss the empty container in their trash can. My cashier told me she loves “popping” them, by scanning the package or counting the banana skins after they have consumed the contents, much to their surprise.

Honest shoppers occasionally will nibble, or let their children nibble on Animal Crackers, or sip a Coke while shopping, but they make sure the item is scanned and this has traditionally been acceptable behavior. If it keeps them in the store longer and they buy more items, I suspect Store Managers do not mind at all.

I’ve seen this dishonest “consume-while-shopping” phenomenon with my own two fuzzy eyeballs and I’ve noticed half-empty containers on shelves around the store. In my blissfully honest state of consumer ignorance, I presumed it was one of the late-night stocker’s snack fest, accidentally left behind, due to graveyard stupor. I now realize it was left by a thief - a child thief, learning from their parent-thief, or a mature parent thief, who has no concept of true honesty.

This parent-thief is perpetuating dishonest behavior by allowing their children to eat as they shop, consuming goods without eventually paying for them. They might as well be teaching their kids to hide the food in their pockets and walk out of the store.

This is simply shop-lifting via the stomach and let’s be totally honest here; it is condoned by some parents, thus giving it wholesale-approval. Another striking example of dishonest aberrational behavior is changing a baby’s diaper in the store, using available stock and yes, this happens also, as crazy as it sounds. If the Store Manager wants to save money, instead of offering self-serve lines, crack down on “consume-while-shopping” thieves instead.

In the meantime, I’m going to keep shopping at the Food Town on North Main and pay for everything I decide to put in the basket. I just hope the idea of “consuming” toilet paper never becomes popular with these thief consumers.