Last night, at MeccaMarket...

[Earl the Squirrel]

cause krox needs SOMETHING to read, all right???

So I'm at the MM for my weekly Sunday night orange and banana pickup and Crowded House comes on as I'm rounding past the deli and I can't contain myself...

Hey now, hey now.

DON'T DREAM IT'S OVER

and I hear over in the next row by the hot dog buns,

Hey now, hey now,

WHEN THE WORLD COMES IN

then, by the time we meet at the end cap, all together now...

DON'T LET THEM WIN!!

It was transcendent...

[littlebeast13]

With or without an accompanying earworm? That's not one I hear much at night anymore...

lb13

[Ritterskoop]

Hey now!

[wbtravis007]

Deleted

[Earl the Squirrel]

With or without an accompanying earworm? That's not one I hear much at night anymore...

lb13

What made it transcendent wasn't the song itself, it was making a connection with a complete stranger at 10pm in a grocery store that lasted probably 15 seconds before we parted and each went on with our separate lives. I just makes me feel warm on a spiritual level. I know, I don't get me all the time, either...

I think it must have at least stuck in my head the rest of the time I was in the store because I don't even remember what came on after that one. But I had My Chem on in the car, and Crowded House doesn't stand a chance against them...

Fanny Fun Fact: I think today is actually Way Day, aka Gerard Way's birthday!

[Vandal]

[Earl the Squirrel]

This Sunday's MM selections:

When I first went in they were playing some chick singing I Saw Her Standing There. Was that Tiffany or did some other female singer cover it? It was atrocious and I just bided my time until....

Why Can't We Be Friends - I was low key singing along but apparently all of the other olds were otherwise occupied. Had three "looked to be early 20s" look at me weird at the welfare line line. Didn't even bother to try and school them. I think the only thing that War would bring to mind is their video games.

But the home run (aside: what is it with the run of ball players passing lately? I get that they're old, but all baseball? Maybe other sports' players just don't get that old) was when I got to the U-Scan (the Mecca Market says they don't have enough volume to have actual human cashiers, but they can have four or five employees just standing around shooting the shit in the self checkout area at any given time? Okay.... it just hasn't been the same since Sam left us). Where was I?? Oh, yeah...

Right as I hit the scanners, Can't Stop Us Now came on! What?? I don't think I've ever heard a Pitbull joint at Mecca before...

[littlebeast13]

Right as I hit the scanners, Can't Stop Us Now came on! What?? I don't think I've ever heard a Pitbull joint at Mecca before...

They play the everloving shit out of Pitbull! That song he did with Enrique Iglasias, and I was gonna say the Zac Brown song, but it turns out that's it.... they play both of those nonstop, among others.

Mecca Radio's the only reason I knew of Calle Ocho's existence to include it in a past LSWE game (And hey, I like that one!)....

lb13

[littlebeast13]

When I first went in they were playing some chick singing I Saw Her Standing There. Was that Tiffany or did some other female singer cover it? It was atrocious and I just bided my time until....

Yes, Tiffany, and yes, this gets played occasionally. It's not very good, but she'll always have Tommy James....

But the home run (aside: what is it with the run of ball players passing lately? I get that they're old, but all baseball? Maybe other sports' players just don't get that old) was when I got to the U-Scan (the Mecca Market says they don't have enough volume to have actual human cashiers, but they can have four or five employees just standing around shooting the shit in the self checkout area at any given time? Okay.... it just hasn't been the same since Sam left us).

We were very late to the self checkout game, only getting them in our store about eight years ago. But as I've learned, and will happily tell those who refuse to use them because they believe they cost jobs (kinda the same deal I have to put up with now that I've embraced AI art and am taking all of their customers because they refuse to get with the times), we have more "cashiers" working (or at least on the clock) now than we did before we had them. Late evenings used to be one cashier and a supervisor with a single open register and a line of angry customers that stretched all the way down the main action alley. Now there's four or five cashiers till closing standing around watching all of the open self checks with no lines. It's actually one of the few things Mecca's done right in the past decade....

lb13

[Earl the Squirrel]

When I first went in they were playing some chick singing I Saw Her Standing There. Was that Tiffany or did some other female singer cover it? It was atrocious and I just bided my time until....

Yes, Tiffany, and yes, this gets played occasionally. It's not very good, but she'll always have Tommy James....

But the home run (aside: what is it with the run of ball players passing lately? I get that they're old, but all baseball? Maybe other sports' players just don't get that old) was when I got to the U-Scan (the Mecca Market says they don't have enough volume to have actual human cashiers, but they can have four or five employees just standing around shooting the shit in the self checkout area at any given time? Okay.... it just hasn't been the same since Sam left us).

We were very late to the self checkout game, only getting them in our store about eight years ago. But as I've learned, and will happily tell those who refuse to use them because they believe they cost jobs (kinda the same deal I have to put up with now that I've embraced AI art and am taking all of their customers because they refuse to get with the times), we have more "cashiers" working (or at least on the clock) now than we did before we had them. Late evenings used to be one cashier and a supervisor with a single open register and a line of angry customers that stretched all the way down the main action alley. Now there's four or five cashiers till closing standing around watching all of the open self checks with no lines. It's actually one of the few things Mecca's done right in the past decade....

lb13

You misunderstand. They have NO human cashiers. They don't even keep the U-Scan with the conveyor belt open. So if someone has a big ass cartful of stuff, they have to play tetris on the little square shelf and then again on the little square bagging area because the computer will riot if you take a bag off before you're done. Plastic bags are also now outlawed in Colorado, so they took away the bag holding racks when they took away the bags and now you have to try to keep your bags upright when you jam stuff in or the computer will bitch at you for lifting your bag off the plate. And yet we still have to tell the computer how many plastic bags we have so they can charge 10 cents each. When it's always zero because they don't offer plastic bags! Also I think they the only place left in existence where you have to stick or swipe your card instead of the touch beep. Damn, even the Dollar Twenty Five Tree has the smart chip readers now...

Given the choice I will always use the U-Scan everywhere unless I've got a huge cart of shit I don't feel like bagging. When Costco finally got the self serves, the angels convened and broke out with Ave Maria and the Ode to Joy (at least in my head they did)! And half the time they have employees around who will scan and pack the stuff for you anyway.

[Earl the Squirrel]

When I first went in they were playing some chick singing I Saw Her Standing There. Was that Tiffany or did some other female singer cover it? It was atrocious and I just bided my time until....

Yes, Tiffany, and yes, this gets played occasionally. It's not very good, but she'll always have Tommy James....

But the home run (aside: what is it with the run of ball players passing lately? I get that they're old, but all baseball? Maybe other sports' players just don't get that old) was when I got to the U-Scan (the Mecca Market says they don't have enough volume to have actual human cashiers, but they can have four or five employees just standing around shooting the shit in the self checkout area at any given time? Okay.... it just hasn't been the same since Sam left us).

We were very late to the self checkout game, only getting them in our store about eight years ago. But as I've learned, and will happily tell those who refuse to use them because they believe they cost jobs (kinda the same deal I have to put up with now that I've embraced AI art and am taking all of their customers because they refuse to get with the times), we have more "cashiers" working (or at least on the clock) now than we did before we had them. Late evenings used to be one cashier and a supervisor with a single open register and a line of angry customers that stretched all the way down the main action alley. Now there's four or five cashiers till closing standing around watching all of the open self checks with no lines. It's actually one of the few things Mecca's done right in the past decade....

lb13

You misunderstand. They have NO human cashiers. They don't even keep the U-Scan with the conveyor belt open. So if someone has a big ass cartful of stuff, they have to play tetris on the little square shelf and then again on the little square bagging area because the computer will riot if you take a bag off before you're done. Plastic bags are also now outlawed in Colorado, so they took away the bag holding racks when they took away the bags and now you have to try to keep your bags upright when you jam stuff in or the computer will bitch at you for lifting your bag off the plate. And yet we still have to tell the computer how many plastic bags we have so they can charge 10 cents each. When it's always zero because they don't offer plastic bags! Also I think they the only place left in existence where you have to stick or swipe your card instead of the touch beep. Damn, even the Dollar Twenty Five Tree has the smart chip readers now...

Given the choice I will always use the U-Scan everywhere unless I've got a huge cart of shit I don't feel like bagging. When Costco finally got the self serves, the angels convened and broke out with Ave Maria and the Ode to Joy (at least in my head they did)! And half the time they have employees around who will scan and pack the stuff for you anyway.

However, I will add that the employees at this particular MM aren't the most motivated I've ever seen. I will generally always grab a cart on my way in because, with my arthritis and dysplasia the way it is, I do better with something to hang on to. On this particular evening, there weren't any in sight. So I ankle on into the store and there are NO carts. I ask one of the four people standing and he (apparently the supervisor) says that they've been busy and he hasn't been able to free anybody to go round up the carts. I give a meaningful glance over to the other three people standing around picking their asses and tell him that if I'm hobbling back out into the parking lot it will be to get my ass back in the car. *Heavy sigh* Well, I guess I can go get one for you... Yeah, go do that, Sparky... I might add that there isn't a choice, since all hand baskets have been 86ed. Not just Mecca, but all the grocery stores. Since they outlawed plastic bags (when plastic is outlawed, only outlaws will have plastic), people were stealing the hand baskets. I guess to cushion their ride to hell, I don't know... The only reason I even go to this one is because I go right past it on my way home.

[littlebeast13]

You misunderstand. They have NO human cashiers. They don't even keep the U-Scan with the conveyor belt open. So if someone has a big ass cartful of stuff, they have to play tetris on the little square shelf and then again on the little square bagging area because the computer will riot if you take a bag off before you're done. Plastic bags are also now outlawed in Colorado, so they took away the bag holding racks when they took away the bags and now you have to try to keep your bags upright when you jam stuff in or the computer will bitch at you for lifting your bag off the plate. And yet we still have to tell the computer how many plastic bags we have so they can charge 10 cents each. When it's always zero because they don't offer plastic bags! Also I think they the only place left in existence where you have to stick or swipe your card instead of the touch beep. Damn, even the Dollar Twenty Five Tree has the smart chip readers now...

Given the choice I will always use the U-Scan everywhere unless I've got a huge cart of shit I don't feel like bagging. When Costco finally got the self serves, the angels convened and broke out with Ave Maria and the Ode to Joy (at least in my head they did)! And half the time they have employees around who will scan and pack the stuff for you anyway.

The people shooting the shit late at night at the front of Meccas across the nation are cashiers (or whatever technical "team name" Mecca calls them now), they just rarely jockey an actual cash register anymore. I'd imagine most Meccas are like ours has been for a long time with no actual salesfloor employees the last hour or two we're open, so other than the overnight team who should be elsewhere, they have to be part of the "front end" team.

Sounds like you have the same kind of self checks the grocery store I get my chicken wings from has. I can't fucking stand those anal "do every step only when told" things because I'm so used to ours at Mecca that can be used and abused without being bossed around. And don't get me started on the plastic bag thing. Illinois has been rumored to pass a law charging for plastic bags for a while now, and we're blue state enough that it's probably inevitable. Fucking environmentalists (Oops, maybe I should have said that in the political forum!)....

However, I will add that the employees at this particular MM aren't the most motivated I've ever seen. I will generally always grab a cart on my way in because, with my arthritis and dysplasia the way it is, I do better with something to hang on to. On this particular evening, there weren't any in sight. So I ankle on into the store and there are NO carts. I ask one of the four people standing and he (apparently the supervisor) says that they've been busy and he hasn't been able to free anybody to go round up the carts. I give a meaningful glance over to the other three people standing around picking their asses and tell him that if I'm hobbling back out into the parking lot it will be to get my ass back in the car. *Heavy sigh* Well, I guess I can go get one for you... Yeah, go do that, Sparky... I might add that there isn't a choice, since all hand baskets have been 86ed. Not just Mecca, but all the grocery stores. Since they outlawed plastic bags (when plastic is outlawed, only outlaws will have plastic), people were stealing the hand baskets. I guess to cushion their ride to hell, I don't know... The only reason I even go to this one is because I go right past it on my way home.

Late night cart pushing has been frequently left to our overnight maintenance (what's left of them) to do after the store closes for a while now. Mecca's gone to all of that soft shit ways of trying to motivate millennials to actually work which have predictably failed miserably since there is no motivating them.... nor many non-millennials since they got that months-long run a few years ago where the state was paying them more to sit on their asses at home than actually come to work at a time when they were needed the most. I ain't even fifty yet and I feel (and usually act) like the bitter old man at my store with the ways things have gotten....

lb13

[littlebeast13]

The past five nights they've been playing the heck out of Bob Marley, whose rarely been a part of the playlist at any time I've been there. I think some smartass must've added him in over the weekend as a secret 4/20 joke...

lb13

[silverscreenselect]

The past five nights they've been playing the heck out of Bob Marley, whose rarely been a part of the playlist at any time I've been there. I think some smartass must've added him in over the weekend as a secret 4/20 joke...

lb13

His movie just came out on streaming video this week (it's on Paramount+, MGM+, and various rental/buy sites), so it may be some sort of tie-in.

[littlebeast13]

The past five nights they've been playing the heck out of Bob Marley, whose rarely been a part of the playlist at any time I've been there. I think some smartass must've added him in over the weekend as a secret 4/20 joke...

lb13

His movie just came out on streaming video this week (it's on Paramount+, MGM+, and various rental/buy sites), so it may be some sort of tie-in.

Ah, so it's the Marley movie people who have a sense of humor releasing it the week of 4/20....

lb13