I made my routine, Sunday trip to Shaw's in Falmouth, ME yesterday for the Sunday newspaper and to purchase bagels for my wife and me. I decided to purchase the 12 bagels for $5.00 that the sign on the bagel display clearly stated for customers to see. There was no other signage indicating one had to follow a special protocol in order to select and qualify for the $5.00 Sunday Bagel Special. I have photos of the display that prove my point and hope to be able to show them in this review.
I chose to place the 12 bagels in the clear plastic bags made available for customers and readily present in the center of the bagel display. Freshness counts and contact with others' hands at checkout or with the grocery cart was on my mind. 12 bagels are 12 bagels...whether they are in a brown paper bag or in a more secure and safer plastic bag.
When I went to the Checkout, the cashier, Ben C manually counted every bagel in each bag...he wasn't using a delicate touch technique either...his method of counting the bagels reminded me of a machine ready to crush the contents of the items inside the clear plastic bag.
Ben C, the cashier, stated that he would have to charge me the regular price of $0.89 per bagel because the bagels were not in a "bagel bag" with a bar code on the bag. I immediately pushed my internal, Senior Citizen "defense mode" button and told him that there was nothing present at the bagel display to indicate to customers that one had to use a special bag. The Senior Cashier in the next checkout aisle said that signage was clearly present and that I was wrong. OK....Humiliate me in front of other customers, but make sure that what you are saying is correct. No, I will state it more appropriately..."DO NOT HUMILIATE or DEMEAN ME IN FRONT OF OTHER CUSTOMERS".
Let's talk for a moment about bar codes on products. As a side note...let's say for this example that I pick up 4 Parsnips from the Produce Department, place them in a clear, plastic bag and go to the checkout. There is no "Bar Code" on the bag or a special number tag on the Parsnips, yet the cashier plugs in a number for Parsnips as the bag of said Parsnips is on the scale at the checkout area. The scale reads the weight and the register makes the appropriate charge on the customer's checkout list.
Why then cannot a cashier do the same for 12 bagels in a clear, plastic bag?
I was both humiliated and angry. I immediately went back to the bagel display and took two pictures of the display on my iPhone. There are no special instructions present that the Senior Cashier emphatically referenced when I attempted to check out.
I returned to the Senior Cashier and showed her my iPhone. I told her that I had recorded time-stamped photos of what was present for customers to see. She immediately stated, "I just told my Bakery Manager to put up proper signage." With that, she conceded that the proper signage was not present and that her earlier statement to both myself and cashier Ben C. was a lie.
The most humiliating thing about this whole ordeal occurred as I walked away from the checkout area in order to exit the store. The female, Senior Cashier stated to people in her checkout line, "He certainly is out of line and made quite a scene."
That did it for me. I felt embarrassed, demeaned, slandered and humiliated. I made a purchase in good faith, made proper payment and was treated like dirt.
That is probably the last time I will go to that store. Hannaford now has an increase in their customer base. read more