Customer service, what's that?

I was running late, stressed, lots still to do.  You know, a normal afternoon.

I dropped my son at work and made the fateful decision to not park at the major shopping centre, brave the crowds (I'm not good in a crowd at the moment), and use a major national supermarket.

I drove to a nearby "international" supermarket, proud of it's cost saving labels...you probably know who I mean if you live in the Eastern states of Oz.

The car park was full of people standing around yapping and smoking, not a great start.

After I negotiated my way through the crowd and actually made it into the store I was assaulted by the smell of slightly off veggies (a recurring theme I have found, yes, I have shopped here once or twice before) and higgledy piggely stacks of unknown brands masquerading as known and loved ones.

I dashed around and found some items roughly matching my list and made it to the checkouts.

There was NOT ONE SINGLE operator in sight. No-one.  A tumbleweed went by.  Someone popped up pretending to stack a shelf, studiously avoiding everyone's eyes. 

A woman with several barely controlled children was piling up more groceries than I have ever seen in a trolley onto the counter.  I stood there with my 5 items, correct change and eco bag in hand.  She was also avoiding eye contact.

Eventually the shelf stacker reluctantly started serving the woman, mostly to get rid of the kids I think.  Another operator eventually turned up and took the person from the BACK of the considerable queue to another checkout.

All through this I barely held it together, practising my shiny new mindfulness exercises and swearing to myself I would NEVER shop here again.

People may hate the supermarket duopoly we have in this country but you can count on cleanliness, a choice of products and at least a few staff on duty.

Have you had a similar experience or do you prefer to shop in these establishments?

Ok, ranty pants moment is over, I'm off to Yoga now.

Love Jo xxx