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Old 09-30-2007, 03:09 PM   #1  
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Default Does anyone else get annoyed...

...by the grocery checkout bagger or cashier's comments? I just got home from doing my grocery shopping for the week (lots of fruits and veggies, proteins, etc) and I get to the checkout and the bagger starts going "wow, you sure do have a lot of healthy stuff. why do you eat all these vegetables? Are you on a diet or something? You should get some snacks, not just produce!" To which i replied, "I like to eat healthy foods" and he said something along the lines of "well thats crazy!" I know he wasn't trying to be condescending or mean, it was just really annoying to have to explain my food choices to someone.
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Old 09-30-2007, 03:40 PM   #2  
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I don't know, I think being a bagger has to be about one of the most boring jobs in the world, so they're bound to try to make conversation, and when they do their opinions are going to come out, even if they're dumb ones.

I think if you are happy with your choices, other people aren't going to bother you much, even when (or maybe especially when) they open their mouths and stupid comes out.

My husband and I get alot of comments and questions on our groceries, because we're adventurous shoppers. We're also extremely outgoing, and will start up a conversation, and joke with anyone, so maybe we just seem very approachable. We tend to have items in our cart the bagger and sometime even the cashier haven't seen before, or maybe just were afraid to ask about. But we get questions all the time, "what is that?" or "how do you cook that?" I remember a cashier who wanted to get me another grapefruit because the one I had didn't look good (it was an ugli fruit - pronounced ugly - because it's a really ugly green wrinkled grapefruit-tangerine hybrid). She looked skeptical when I told her what it was, and that it was supposed to look that way. She said, "well I'd never eat one." Then she then looked up the price, and her eyes got big, and asked if I knew how expensive they were. I told her that I did, and that I didn't buy them very often, but loved them because they tasted like lemonade. She acted like I was playing a joke on her, but said she might try one on her lunch break.

Once when we were going to a party, I grabbed a grocery sushi tray (all cooked crab and shrimp, no raw stuff), and we actually had a small crowd gatthered around the 10 items or less checkout, as cashiers and shoppers gawked and asked us about it.
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Old 09-30-2007, 03:46 PM   #3  
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That's funny! Thanks Colleen. I can definitely relate to some of what you were talking about because my boyfriend is a chef and we often buy things that people have to ask about as well. However, usually its in an inquisitive manner that I enjoy...this bagger was more accusatory and I just found it rude that he asked if i was on a diet.
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Old 09-30-2007, 03:56 PM   #4  
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I am a former cashier/bagger (all new cashiers at the grocery chain I worked at had to start out as baggers). Let me tell you, it IS one of the most boring jobs in the world. I made a game with myself to try to figure out things about people's lives based on what they were buying. You can tell the poor college kids, upper class people throwing a dinner party, mom with lots of kids, etc. (I guess it was a little stereotypical, but hey, it was the only entertainment I had!) Of course I would NEVER mention these observations out loud, let alone to a customer. We were really encouraged not to bring up conversations about people's food choices because it's bound to make a person feel uncomfortable.

On a related note though, I was hanging out with a girl in one of my classes, and we were watching a soccer game at my school. I was snacking on some fruit-- fresh pineapple and dried apricots, which are both delicious and naturally sweet tasting and smelling. Somehow we got on the conversation of what we had eaten for breakfast. I told her I'd had an apple and a yogurt. Really loudly, in front of a lot of people, she goes, "Wow, you eat really healthy!" but the way she said it was like, really surprised or incredulous. It definitely made me feel very self-conscious and I ended up putting my food away after that.
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Old 09-30-2007, 04:05 PM   #5  
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I agree, it's no one's business whether you're dieting, or what you're eating (whether it's healthy or junk). I think it's usually a reflection of a person being exposed to a very limited food selection. They almost don't recognize anything they're not familiar with as food at all. I was just talking about this with a "sample-lady" at the Sams Club yesterday. She was giving out samples of some cheesy quesadilla thing with broccoli or some other veggie in it, and she was expressing disgust that some parents wouldn't allow their child to try some things, or would even snatch a sample out of their kids hand, saying "you won't like that." Then she'd look in their cart and it would be filled with corn dogs and cheesy poofs.

There are so many people who avoid veggies like the plague (even some who post here). They look in a cart full of green things they don't recognize, and with the shock and disgust on their faces you'd think it was a Fear Factor episode.

I haven't been a normal weight since I was a toddler. Being fat all of my life, I've developed a rather thick skin about even strangers thinking they have a right to ask me about my diet, or give me dieting advice. If someone had asked me about the contents of my grocery cart, or whether I was on a diet in a hostile way, I would have deflected it. "Yes, I'm on a diet, I only eat food that I like," or "Let me guess, you're afraid of vegetables?" The smart ones realize I'm making fun of them, the dumb ones just look more confused.
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Old 09-30-2007, 04:16 PM   #6  
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I've always sort of enjoyed the comments from the grocery store checkers since I started my healthier eating. I go to a large grocery store with a small-town feel (don't know how else to describe it...its sort of a whole foods-regular grocery store hybrid, but where the checkers get to know you...). Once it became apparent that I was losing weight, they started making comments about what was in my cart.

Oftentimes, when I go through the checkout with something a little less familiar (leeks, which surprised me, since they don't seem all that unfamilar to me...ginger root, heirloom melons, butternut and acorn squashes, 8-ball squashes, etc), they ask what I'm going to do with it. I'll tell them and they always are nice about it, so it doesn't bother me. Its not so much "what a freak!" in my neighborhood, its "wow, I want to know what she is doing with all of that gorgeous produce!"

Of course, I live in a very talkative, liberal, and connected to the land, farming-focused, university town, so it may be more common here than in other places to see people with carts full of produce.

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Old 09-30-2007, 04:38 PM   #7  
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I get comments about eggs. I eat a LOT of egg whites and make a lot of protein pancakes with them. My usual weekly purchase is 4 dozen, but one time when they were on sale I bought about 6 dozen because eggs keep for a very long time, and you can freeze the whites.

The cashier was incredulous. "WOW, it's not Easter! You must have horrible cholesterol! What you gonna do with these?" By the time he was done, the next 4 people in line were all talking about my egg problem.

Carts full of vegies are common here, but I do tend to have more than most people.

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Old 09-30-2007, 04:38 PM   #8  
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kaplods- it IS amazing how many parents just don't make their kids eat vegetables. My parents always operated under the "you will eat what i make, there are not any alternatives" and I was always shocked when I was younger and I would spend the night at a friends house and they would tell their parents that they didnt like the meal and the parent would just tell them to go have some cereal (always sugary and unhealthy types). I used to think my parents were strict but I am thankful now that I am open to eating a lot of GREENS and other new foods
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Old 09-30-2007, 07:12 PM   #9  
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I'm even more shocked that parents would go beyond not forcing a child to eat veggies, and even beyond not serving them (because the adults aren't eating them), but to actually take a healthy food out of a child's hand when they were going to try it. Yikes!

My sister-in-law did that. When my nephew, then about 3, dunked a carrot into dip and was bringing it to his mouth, she grabbed it out of his hand, and said "you won't eat that." When he had gone to play with the other kids, I told her I thought she should have let him try it. She said he would have just spit it out. I shared my theory it was better to teach him to try things and spit them out if he didn't like them, than to not try things at all. Some foods take several tries for even adults to appreciate. Later I learned that the closest things to a vegetable they ever served the kids or ate themselves were salad with tons of ranch dressing, and corn. The kids now are in their teens, and they are outrageously picky eaters, just like their parents.

The funny thing is my parents rules on veggies weren't all that strict. We had to eat at least a piece of everything served, including the vegetables. They even let us hunt around the bowl for the smallest piece we could find, or sometimes even cut off a smaller piece (they didn't let us get away with cutting off a nearly invisible speck of a piece, though I can't say we didn't occasionally try). If it was something we'd tried several times and still really hated, we could hide it in mashed potatoes or cover it in ketchup to get it down. My mom almost always made at least two veggies, and would warm up the veggies from the previous days meals and usually a salad. As we got older, my parents would let us bypass a veggie choice as long as we took a decent serving of one or two, and didn't make a habit of selecting the same veggie meal after meal (my brother went through a phase when he didn't want to eat any veggie except carrots. Mom even told him she wasn't going to make carrots for a while if he didn't eat some of the other vegetables on the table).
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Old 09-30-2007, 07:18 PM   #10  
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Oh I almost forgot. My mom did let my brother slide on one vegetable. Mushrooms. He was deathly paranoid of them. If he even thought a mushroom might be in something he would start crying.


If there were mushrooms in a dish, my mother would not mention it to my
brother, and would pull me aside and tell me not to tell him. He would eat it and love it. Occasionally, I would be a brat and tell him after dinner that he had eaten mushrooms and he would start to cry (and I would get in trouble).

We didn't find out for a long time what his probelm with mushrooms were. As it turns out, he he had seen a television show about poisonous mushrooms, and was convinced that even canned mushrooms could accidentally be poisonous. I feel so bad (and yet can't stop laughing) every time I think about it. My baby brother thinking he might be poisoned.
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Old 09-30-2007, 07:58 PM   #11  
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Try not to be too offended. Just know that you are making the RIGHT food choices and that bagger will probably be sorry later when their health goes to the toilet.

Just a funny on the parenting issue....when I was little, my mom made me eat one spoon/forkful of whatever vegtable she had made for dinner. I swallowed them all whole. Greenbeans, carrots, peas, corn, whatever. The whole spoonful in one unchewed gulp. Except spinach. Send me to bed without dinner...I wouldn't go near it (still won't except raw). In fact, I like most veggies raw, but once they are cooked yuck.

That's funny about the mushrooms, Kaplods. Does he still avoid them?
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Old 09-30-2007, 08:06 PM   #12  
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I am reading a book about nutrition for kids (I don't know why, I don't have kids--guess I'm becoming a a nutrition junkie!) and I'm pretty sure it said it takes something like 21 tries for a kid to like a new food.
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Old 09-30-2007, 08:14 PM   #13  
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No, I think he does eat them now. I have to admit that since he and his family came back from Japan, where he was stationed for several years, their diets have become a lot more flexible (I haven't really seen this myself, just taking my parents word for it when they visited). They like japanese foods like sushi and seaweed, but still avoid a lot of common stuff. Kind of weird.
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Old 10-01-2007, 03:51 PM   #14  
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I am one who doesn't mind the comments. I figure they are just trying to be friendly and/or are bored and have to talk to make the day go by faster. I even have people in the line talking to me. Seems like everytime I go shopping someone has something to say, lol.
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Old 10-01-2007, 04:08 PM   #15  
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