Unnecesary Comments

When you work in retail, it's important to be honest. A good sales person or retail representative does not lie to their customers.

But there are times when you probably should just keep your mouth shut.

This evening, my GF and I went the local liquor store. I ran out of Baileys about a year and a half ago, and I ran out of Jim Beam sometime over the winter. I figured it was time to replace those.

The cashier carded both of use. Then as she was bagging the bottles, she looked at me and said, "I had to card you because I carded her."

Now I am under no illusion that I look under 21. But was it really necessary to say that? Can't I just go on thinking I look under 30, which would require carding? There are some things you can leave out.

The next stop was the Ballard Safeway. While looking through the gourmet cheese case, we found a bunch of containers that were past their Use By date. By 6 weeks.

I showed the deli counter person these 6 week expired products. She apologized. There she should have stopped. Instead, she said, "I'm not surprised." She proceeded to tell us how she's been pulling expired stuff all week. Apparently, the woman who normally does that hurt her back and had been out for 10 days.

Think about how many things are wrong with that. First of all, the deli person is not surprised the cheese expired 6 weeks ago. Is is standard procedure to ignore expiration dates? Is the policy to just leave it until it sells? Exactly how much of the food there is now expired?

The idea that 6 week expired food is not a surprise means there is a serious problem with how that department is run.

Not only that, she and the store are aware there is a lot of expired products in the case. She's been pulling them all week. Here's a hint. If you keep finding bad food in a case for a week, maybe you should take a couple hours, empty it an purge it of bad items 1 by 1.

Third we now know the missing employee's medical condition. I really don't care why they aren't there. I'm more concerned with why you have 6 week expired food for sale. Further I'm sure it's some sort of company policy not to disclose the medical histories of your co workers to your customers.

Finally, the injured co-worker has been out for 10 days. The cheese expired 6 weeks ago. I'm guessing that injured back has no connection to the nasty cheese. Was it that person's job to leave all expired cheese on sale for 4.5 weeks past it's expiration date? If not, they why didn't they pull it before they went out on workers comp? Is 4.5 weeks expired good while 6 weeks expired is unacceptable. Where was this quality assurance person in May?

There was way too much detail. All I really hoped to hear was maybe an apology and an assurance the problem will be taken care of immediately. I don't need the headshots for the supporting players.

There are some things better left unsaid.