Sunday, November 18, 2012

Two small peeves

I do some of my grocery shopping at Whole Foods. I'm not a zealot when it comes to organic, but they try to use local farmers, and I like that. I also try to pay attention to the Dirty Dozen, the list of the most pesticide-contaminated produce, so I can buy those organic when possible. I also like their already-made pizza dough and we go through a lot of pizza here. On the other hand, I could have bought blueberries from Argentina yesterday if I want to, so it's not like everything there comes with a little halo around it.

Anyway, I was picking up a few things. Silly me, I was surprised to find so very many people there until I realized that they were shopping for Thanksgiving. I got in and out pretty quickly, and at the checkout, the clerk asked me, "Would you like to donate to the food bank to buy a meal for a family today?"

This pisses me off. In my opinion, it feels like they are guilting people into donating because we all feel like we're perceived as a little elitist for shopping there in the first place. Or am I reading too much into it? Do their superpowers only work on me?

I declined. And not because I'm selfish, but because I already donate cash to the food bank every month as part of my charitable giving. Do I tell the clerk that? What do they care, although do they look with distain at people who are so out of touch they can't even fork over a couple of bucks for the food bank? Maybe I should just smile and say, "I'm already a donor there." Probably. All those years of Catholic school makes the guilt triggers almost permanent...

Anyway, on to my second peeve. This one is not confined to WF, but to all store parking lots. What is it with people that they can't return their carts to the designated place? They they feel compelled to leave the cart between cars, or hoisted up on a curb? I don't know why this annoys me so. It probably has to do with my sense of fairness and not wanting to make extra work for other people. It happens everywhere, even at Target, where the cart corrals are easy to find and close. There is no resolving this, although I sometimes choose those carts if I'm on my way in.

Small things, really. But I feel better now :-)

3 comments:

  1. Boy, you hit on two of my pet peeves, too. I really, really dislike it when the cashier hits you with a plea to donate to "whatever." I never fail to feel crummy saying no but I think it's the very reason that it's uncomfortable to decline that they do it then. That makes me double mad.

    As far as leaving shopping carts strewn hither and yon, just plain bad manners and no sense of responsibility. Grrrr!

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    1. Yes, I think the cashiers take advantage of the moment, which annoys me!

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  2. A number of stores seem to be doing this rounding up to the next dollar donation thing, and I always decline. It feels like a tiny bit of blackmail! I carefully choose my charitable giving as well and refuse to cave to the guilt. From what I understand, point of sale people don't enjoy doing this, but it's part of the job.

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Hi, sorry to make the humans do an extra step.