Friday, May 06, 2005

BITTER!

I am so bitter with Ralph's right now.

The lady who bagged my groceries did a terrible job- everything was thrown together smashing everything else. And I promise you, I am not picky.

In fact, I often smash half of my own groceries while they're in the cart and while I have regrets about it, I always buy what I smash and have no qualms about using it.

I'm also not the type to complain simply because the bagger doesn't group the frozen foods together, or put all the milk in one bag.

But when you're putting smashables like yogurt or strawberries in with gallons of milk like this lady did, even I notice.

She had my salads and grapes at the BOTTOM of the cart with a gallon of milk and a liter of V8 sitting right on top of them.

The salads were still edible, but the grapes were totally smashed and ruined.

I would not ordinarily have made a big deal about it- however, TWO circumstances conspired to make it a big deal to me.

1- When I told Owen we were going to the store, the ONE thing he mentioned was that he wanted grapes. Not Lucky Charms or "Nemo Bars" (Finding Nemo fruit snacks), like he usually asks for, but healthy grapes. So obviously, I want to support and encourage that.

2- Grapes are effing expensive! While a week's worth of bananas totals about $1.48, a teeny tiny bag of grapes costs like five bucks! Today I had $4.37 worth. All smashed.

So, after some consideration and fighting my desire to say F-it and drive away, I straggled the kids back to the store and politely asked for another bag.

I was very nice, I explained that I wouldn't ordinarily bother except that they were really mashed up, and that the milk was DIRECTLY on top.

So the checker walked over to the produce section and diddled around for a while. I couldn't really see what he was doing and I wasn't about to follow him over there and peer over his shoulder. I'm not that rude.

He came back with a bag and apologized. The bag he gave me looked a little watery and I did a double take, but at this point both kids were tired, so I grabbed it and left.

When I got home, I had time to examine the funky, watery bag again, complete with many smashed grapes, and could only conclude that he GAVE ME THE SAME BAG BACK AGAIN AFTER PRETENDING TO EXCHANGE IT.

I know that some days Ralph's has many watery, smashed, almost-done-for grapes in stock, but those are the weeks I skip grapes- today they were all dry and fresh looking, which is why I was willing to spend 5 bucks!

I KNOW HE GAVE THOSE BACK TO ME AND THAT REALLY TICKS ME OFF.

A woman with two tired kids doesn't bother coming back into the grocery store unless it's something that's important to her. Now if I want to complain I've got to go BACK with the kids and of course I'm not going to do that.

But what should I do? Should I call? I didn't get anyone's name. Plus, it's kind of an unproveable assertion. I can't go accuse some worker of pretending to give me fresh grapes and giving me the same ones without sounding like a crazy person, but I KNOW that's what he did.

Any suggestions?

2 comments:

B said...

GO BACK RIGHT NOW!

throw the kids in the car--hopefully they'll be cranky and cry/scream the whole time.

tell EVERYONE you see as you go in exactly what happened--especially other customers.

and, as you ask him for a new bag, if he says no, write the better business bureau and the ceo of ralph's RIGHT AWAY!

don't take that shit, sister!

artistanaya said...

wow, I am kind of pissed reading that. I would call the highest manager there and explain all of that story. You spend a shit load of money there, I know caus I eat dinner there at least 4 days a week. Give him your rauphs card and let him see how much you spend and then let him kiss your ASS!!