This Is Why I Grocery Shop On Weekdays

I remember when I was 16. I worked at McDonald's for four-and-a-half whole months. At the end of that time, I was convinced I had learned everything McDonald's had to teach me. I may have.

At McDonald's, there was a definite split between the weekday workers and the weekend workers. I admit it: we were a little snobbish towards the weekday workers. This was their career. We were headed for bigger and better things.

This weekend I was reminded of that attitude as I waited for a teenager with a name tag that said "Harris Teeter Employee since 2006" to ring up my groceries. I was trying to use a couple of coupons I got from Ziploc for complaining that their containers cracked after being in my freezer. (I rarely complain but I got $6 worth of coupons! I may complain more often!). Anyway, each coupon was for a free item up to $3. The cashier stared at them.

"How much were the items?" he said. (He'd just rung them up.)

"Excuse me?" I said.

"How much were the items? I neede to write it down," he said.

"Well, one was $2.99 and the other was, I don't know (here I looked at the receipt where it was hanging from the cash register) $4.29."

So he rings up one for $2.99 off and then sets the other aside.

"So you can't use this one because it was more than $3."

"Yes I can, you just take $3 off."

Then he calls for a manager, who says "take $3 off" and then says "why are you ringing up $4.29? Ring up $3."

I felt for the people behind me.

Now it could be that the daytime employees would have struggled with this coupon too. But the daytime employees are faster, and they are better at bagging the groceries. They bag like types of groceries with like, which makes unpacking easier. And they are friendly. Their attitude says "thanks for shopping here," not "I'm just trying to get gas money and you are asking me a hard question."

As a customer, I have to say I like the career employees better.