Well, I awoke this morning, poured myself a bowl of nice, healthy cereal (FiberOne and LivActive, in case you're interested), and then found that my soy milk was woefully low, and my boyfriend's regular milk was woefully stinky. He had also left me some iced coffee in the fridge, which needed milk as well, so I figured i'd be best off running to the store. Once I entered the sliding doors, I was faced with a choice. Do I pick up the automatic bar code readers that they now carry, or deal with a check-out line? Shall I explain this? I don't know if you all have these nifty little gadgets, but they recently brought them into our local megamart. You go in, pick up this little handheld scanner, scan your store card, and then scan all your purchases as you wander through the aisles, bagging them as you go. By the end, all you have to do is go to those self-pay check out lines, and pay for the purchases. On a morning such as this, pre-coffee and pre-breakfast, it seemed the less human interaction I faced, the better off we all were. So, I chose to use the gadget.
Somehow, I wandered into the frozen foods section (this is NOT where they keep the soy milk, just so y'all know) and found myself perusing the ice cream selections. After all, I've been pretty much completely off plan lately anyway, and it is just so dang HOT, what's one pint of Ben and Jerry's really gonna do? But boy, those freezer sections are big! So many choices! I eventually settled on a pint of B&J's frozen yogurt (at least it's a little healthier). I scanned it. The little window pops up with the name of my purchase: "BEN AND JERRY'S LIQUID SUGAR CORN SYRUP TUB." Wha?? Was I in some dieter's commercial? This was the actual NAME of my purchase? A tub of corn syrup and other sugars? I looked around me: no hidden cameras. I looked at the package itself, and it still proudly proclaimed itself to be "low-fat half baked yogurt," in zany lettering and fun colors, which seemed a lot more appetizing. I then noticed the ingredients had a section which read, "liquid sugar, corn syrup," among other things, of course.
Now, this story would have a happy ending if this served as a wake up call and I put the yogurt back, now that it's unsavory ingredients had been so illuminated by the gadget. But, no, here I am at home, sipping my iced coffee, with a tub of corn syrup waiting for me in the freezer.
Oh, that is SO funny, Lizzy!! Enjoy your tub of corn syrup!!!
I've seen those hand-held scanners, but not for customer use. Our Costco (like Sam's Club or BJ's for anyone who doesn't have Costco) has them. Busy times of year, they have clerks waiting to scan all your stuff that way. I also think our Wal-Mart had a couple around Christmastime.
The best we have is self-checkout aisles in a couple stores. Those handheld things would be helpful!
A similar funny wasn't on a handheld scanner, but popped up on the checkout screen at one of our local places. It was for single rolls of Scott bathroom tissue, and it kept coming up "Scott B Tis As_." Yup. I laughed so hard the first time I saw it! What the "As_" was supposed to mean was assorted/assortment. These days, it's been fixed to read "Ast." But I have a receipt or two with the old thing on it.
***Hahaha!! I got censored for writing the whole As_ word. I've never been censored before, lol. Oops!!***
Lol, that is a hilarious story, esp for that early in the morning. I went shopping at 7:30am in the morning last week and I know my purchases looked pretty random in the cart (string cheese, chocolates, frozen veggies).
Yup, I was at Stop and Shop! I usually stay away from the scanners bc I like the human interaction at the check-out line, but you're right, that is a great benefit of them!