Today I went to Safeway to buy a couple of things. I was out of milk (soy milk, if you must know) and ended up buying some juice and a couple of other things in the process.
I like the downtown Safeway on Jefferson Street. I am used to shopping in "urban" stores. Ask Kurt sometime about the "urban" Safeway I used to make him go to in San Francisco. It was a little more "urban" than anything in Portland. Portland is really trying to be a city, and that's one of the nice things about it.
ANYWAY, today at Safeway, even though I was only there for 12 minutes, I had no less than 4 people ask me if I was finding everything ok.
In one case I was standing in front of a bunch of boxes of tea, reading the labels, when I caught a woman out of the corner of my eye. She was trying to get my attention. I turned, she said "Hi, how are you today?" I said "fine" and then she asked if I was finding everything ok. Then was when I realized she was a Safeway employee.
The next two guys to interrupt the private symphony in my head both did so while I was actively pushing my cart around the end of one aisle and into another. "You finding everything ok?"
Finally, as I was loading a loaf of bread into my cart, another Safeway robot-person asked me "are you finding everything ok?" For that one, I wasn't moving, or reading labels, I was loading product into my shopping cart.
It was like they were filming a commercial showing how "helpful" they could all be. Or maybe they were having a contest to see who could be the Most Helpful with the winner getting something cool like an iPod or a Starbucks Gift Certificate.
If it weren't so damn convenient, I'd stop shopping there. I mean, if they really want to interrupt my shopping experience on every single aisle, why don't they just make a note of who I am and have my groceries pop out on a conveyor belt when my car pulls into their garage. It's not like they don't keep a huge database about what I'm buying anyway. And I do usually buy the exact same stuff.
Then at the register, the nice lady calls out "Thank you Mr. Adams". I've always been annoyed by people that I don't know in public places that call me by my name. I think that's a problem waiting to happen. I liked the database in San Francisco better, it had my last name as Ada. so they'd always say "Thank You Mr. Ada."
I can only think of about 10,000 reasons why I don't want them to say my name out loud.
Maybe I will stop shopping there. Or more likely, maybe I'll just keep complaining about it.
One Comment
waah.
Perhaps if they stared disapprovingly? Or hid your favorite items before you got there?
waah.
It's an attempt to be nice. Competition has forced them (and others) to make lots of changes.
Waaah…
If you want them to avoid you, just wear your underwear on the outside. No one will even make eye contact with you then.