Uh-duhhhhh!
At Tops Supermarket in nearby Canandaigua I use “Easy-Scan,” a self checkout.
I only use it because it’s a technical challenge, and I’m attracted to technical challenges.
Everything has to be done just so, lest the device flag you a ne’er-do-well trying to abscond with groceries.
The are four Easy-Scan terminals, and an attendant monitors all.
The challenge is to get through your order without the dreaded “Please wait for attendant,” a black-and-white screen signifying you’ve committed some unpardonable sin.
The attendant is just there to reverse such messages, since they are usually caused by some innocent faux pas by the user.
“Please wait for attendant.” “NOW WHAT! What did I do to prompt that?”
Blink; back to “Please scan your next item.” The attendant reversed Armageddon. Immense powah!
I shopped Tops yesterday, Tuesday, April 30th, 2013.
I used Easy-Scan.
I completed my entire order without “Please wait for attendant.”
Amazing; I usually get at least one “Please wait for attendant” per order.
I passed the attendant as I walked out.
“Amazing,” I said. “I got through my order without ‘Please wait for attendant.’”
The attendant twisted her face into a grimace.
“Uh-duhhhh. Did you need an attendant? Why are you walking out? Must I call Security?”
Ever get the feeling what you say falls on deaf ears?
The guy who daycares my dog while I work out at the YMCA is a preacher candidate.
He tells me he gave a sermon once, and a parishioner told him he had spoken right to him. This was while he shook hands with his listeners filing out of the sanctuary.
The parishioner detailed how my friend had spoken to him, and my friend’s reaction was “When did I ever say that?”
I get that in this blog. People read it, and read what they want into whatever I wrote. I get reactions totally unrelated to what I wrote.
And so it was yesterday at the supermarket. I interrupted the attendant’s country-music reverie. “—If it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all......” (twang!)
What I said made sense to me, but not to the attendant.
I gave up, and walked out, thinking I shoulda said nothing.
• “Tops” is a large supermarket-chain based in Buffalo I occasionally buy groceries at. They have a store in Canandaigua. (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city to the east nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” It’s about 14 miles east. I live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield in Western NY, southeast of Rochester.)
I only use it because it’s a technical challenge, and I’m attracted to technical challenges.
Everything has to be done just so, lest the device flag you a ne’er-do-well trying to abscond with groceries.
The are four Easy-Scan terminals, and an attendant monitors all.
The challenge is to get through your order without the dreaded “Please wait for attendant,” a black-and-white screen signifying you’ve committed some unpardonable sin.
The attendant is just there to reverse such messages, since they are usually caused by some innocent faux pas by the user.
“Please wait for attendant.” “NOW WHAT! What did I do to prompt that?”
Blink; back to “Please scan your next item.” The attendant reversed Armageddon. Immense powah!
I shopped Tops yesterday, Tuesday, April 30th, 2013.
I used Easy-Scan.
I completed my entire order without “Please wait for attendant.”
Amazing; I usually get at least one “Please wait for attendant” per order.
I passed the attendant as I walked out.
“Amazing,” I said. “I got through my order without ‘Please wait for attendant.’”
The attendant twisted her face into a grimace.
“Uh-duhhhh. Did you need an attendant? Why are you walking out? Must I call Security?”
Ever get the feeling what you say falls on deaf ears?
The guy who daycares my dog while I work out at the YMCA is a preacher candidate.
He tells me he gave a sermon once, and a parishioner told him he had spoken right to him. This was while he shook hands with his listeners filing out of the sanctuary.
The parishioner detailed how my friend had spoken to him, and my friend’s reaction was “When did I ever say that?”
I get that in this blog. People read it, and read what they want into whatever I wrote. I get reactions totally unrelated to what I wrote.
And so it was yesterday at the supermarket. I interrupted the attendant’s country-music reverie. “—If it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all......” (twang!)
What I said made sense to me, but not to the attendant.
I gave up, and walked out, thinking I shoulda said nothing.
• “Tops” is a large supermarket-chain based in Buffalo I occasionally buy groceries at. They have a store in Canandaigua. (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city to the east nearby where I live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” It’s about 14 miles east. I live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield in Western NY, southeast of Rochester.)
posted by BobbaLew at 12:49 PM
1 Comments:
Hughes, people so unfortunate as to have a job like that are not paid enough to be spoken to. They have a job-- that's all they (or we) can ask.
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