Invasion of the Suppermarket Attention Snatchers
It was a busy day, I didn’t have time to go to the market until late at night. I figured I’d miss all the screaming kids in the lines, skate through the aisles, get all my staples, then fly out of my local Ralphs with ease. However, when it came time to checkout, all the lines were backed up like a bad freeway at rush hour. My patience was wearing thin, and it totally disappeared when I saw and heard the latest addition to the checkout experience. Perched above the magazines, breath mints, and astrology guides was a big-screen color computer monitor, with MTV-like videos of supermarket fair spewing out advice, commercials and recipes through crummy speakers in every aisle.
The sound was worse then a six-year-old’s birthday party where all your friends have given your kid, the latest battery powered electronic toys including guns, guitars and a piano/drum machine before the batteries run out. Each aisle had the tinny, bad speakers playing different static pitches out of sync with each other in a cacophony of irritation.
My head screamed in defiance with an instant headache of manic proportions. How dare they invade my personal time in line checking-out. I use my line time to observe how the rest of the world lives and eats. Mmmn, this guy must eat healthy, lots of vegetables. She must be throwing a party look at all those chips and dips. With the massive amounts of daily stress in my life, I need some time to relax, escape, read stories about alien invasions, celebrity break-ups or sneak a peak at the latest fashions. Maybe I want to take a look at my love-life astrology and know that my good life is improving. What I do in the market line should be my choice, not what the market decides what I should watch and hear.
Ouch, my ears hurt, the sound of screeching nails on a chalkboard would be better. What ever happened to that lovely supermarket music where I used to escape the hot summer air and dance around the cool aisles in delight? What am I supposed to do--- see the advertisement for quick bake biscuits, leave the line, run over to the refrigerator section and be so compelled to buy biscuits because they’ll be fresher? While watching the lovely couple smile and kiss to bad transistor radio music… I’ll be so enticed by their teeth…I’ll switch toothpaste brands? The only ads they should show are for earplugs or a headache remedy that works on headaches caused by your supermarket ruining your shopping experience.
Finally my groceries moved on the conveyer belt to the checker. As he scanned my order, I stated sternly, “I vote NO to that!” as I pointed to the monster monitor.
He stared back at me with piercing eyes, as if I insulted him personally, “We’ve had no complaints before,” he blurted back.
“You should at least be able to turn down the volume,” I said wanting to punch out both him and the screeching mechanical nemesis. He sneered back at me and gave me my change.
Fuming, I went home, booted up my PC and e-mailed customer service to the
supermarket.
“We’ve had no complaints, about this before,” the e-mail said as well as the woman on the toll-free customers service line.
Have people gotten so immune to technology that no matter what they get blasted at them they can tune it out and ignore it? Or am I crazy? I will never return to that market, even if they gave me triple coupons and neck massages for my headache. They say we’ll be seeing more devices like those in the future. It does not make sense to me.
I’d like to see the supermarkets actually do something to improve my shopping experience not hinder it. They already put in computer monitors on my line, give me a keyboard and wireless mouse, and let me surf the Net at my leisure, set the volume on the computers, check my stock quotes, bid on an online auction, e-mail Grandma. Put in cable or satellite TV and give each supermarket club member a remote. I don’t have time to go to the movies at least I could get a few minutes of the latest flick. Better yet, give me a remote to the market, I’ll drive up, push a few buttons, scroll through some menus on the monitor in the parking lot and a cute friendly bag-boy will come out smiling with two bags full of groceries and tell me how beautiful I look (even though I have more bags under my eyes then he’s carrying.)
I e-mailed Grandma about my extra special service idea. She said that’s the way market people used to be when they believed in customer service. They were always smiling and very polite. Except, she didn’t use a remote, just a phone and a good relationship with the grocer who cared about his customers.
********
Lynn Walford has been a freelance writer for over 13 years. Her work has been published extensively. More information is available at http://www.freelancewriternow.com
The sound was worse then a six-year-old’s birthday party where all your friends have given your kid, the latest battery powered electronic toys including guns, guitars and a piano/drum machine before the batteries run out. Each aisle had the tinny, bad speakers playing different static pitches out of sync with each other in a cacophony of irritation.
My head screamed in defiance with an instant headache of manic proportions. How dare they invade my personal time in line checking-out. I use my line time to observe how the rest of the world lives and eats. Mmmn, this guy must eat healthy, lots of vegetables. She must be throwing a party look at all those chips and dips. With the massive amounts of daily stress in my life, I need some time to relax, escape, read stories about alien invasions, celebrity break-ups or sneak a peak at the latest fashions. Maybe I want to take a look at my love-life astrology and know that my good life is improving. What I do in the market line should be my choice, not what the market decides what I should watch and hear.
Ouch, my ears hurt, the sound of screeching nails on a chalkboard would be better. What ever happened to that lovely supermarket music where I used to escape the hot summer air and dance around the cool aisles in delight? What am I supposed to do--- see the advertisement for quick bake biscuits, leave the line, run over to the refrigerator section and be so compelled to buy biscuits because they’ll be fresher? While watching the lovely couple smile and kiss to bad transistor radio music… I’ll be so enticed by their teeth…I’ll switch toothpaste brands? The only ads they should show are for earplugs or a headache remedy that works on headaches caused by your supermarket ruining your shopping experience.
Finally my groceries moved on the conveyer belt to the checker. As he scanned my order, I stated sternly, “I vote NO to that!” as I pointed to the monster monitor.
He stared back at me with piercing eyes, as if I insulted him personally, “We’ve had no complaints before,” he blurted back.
“You should at least be able to turn down the volume,” I said wanting to punch out both him and the screeching mechanical nemesis. He sneered back at me and gave me my change.
Fuming, I went home, booted up my PC and e-mailed customer service to the
supermarket.
“We’ve had no complaints, about this before,” the e-mail said as well as the woman on the toll-free customers service line.
Have people gotten so immune to technology that no matter what they get blasted at them they can tune it out and ignore it? Or am I crazy? I will never return to that market, even if they gave me triple coupons and neck massages for my headache. They say we’ll be seeing more devices like those in the future. It does not make sense to me.
I’d like to see the supermarkets actually do something to improve my shopping experience not hinder it. They already put in computer monitors on my line, give me a keyboard and wireless mouse, and let me surf the Net at my leisure, set the volume on the computers, check my stock quotes, bid on an online auction, e-mail Grandma. Put in cable or satellite TV and give each supermarket club member a remote. I don’t have time to go to the movies at least I could get a few minutes of the latest flick. Better yet, give me a remote to the market, I’ll drive up, push a few buttons, scroll through some menus on the monitor in the parking lot and a cute friendly bag-boy will come out smiling with two bags full of groceries and tell me how beautiful I look (even though I have more bags under my eyes then he’s carrying.)
I e-mailed Grandma about my extra special service idea. She said that’s the way market people used to be when they believed in customer service. They were always smiling and very polite. Except, she didn’t use a remote, just a phone and a good relationship with the grocer who cared about his customers.
********
Lynn Walford has been a freelance writer for over 13 years. Her work has been published extensively. More information is available at http://www.freelancewriternow.com
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