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Rants

Kroger Encounter

Monday, April 5, 2010 By Sherra

I promised you a few weeks ago that I would share my Kroger experience with you all even though I’ve tried to block it from my mind.

PhilBillPaul, his mother and my mother found this whole story way too amusing. I’m calling for a little more empathy from my loyal blog readers after you get to the end.

First, let me preface this story with a little background about being a cashier as a part-time job or as a career choice. We have a lot of cashier history in our family. My mom was a cashier back in her youth. Cashier was my first job in high school and the darling twins are cashiers at that other grocery store which I’m not blogging about today but is known for its stellar customer service.

The first thing we learned in cashier training was “The customer is always right.” Never were we allowed to argue, roll our eyes or have an attitude with a customer. (Or chew gum which is a personal pet peeve of mine when I see a store clerk chomping.)

My mom and I had major cashier job stress. It was back in the day where you actually had to punch numbers on the cash register, know department numbers, prices AND even use old-fashioned addition and subtraction to handle money and count back change.

Nowadays if the scanner or the touchscreen isn’t working, the average cashier cannot do his/her job and management seems panic-stricken.

Which reminds me of another story you must remind me to tell you about McDonald’s and how you can shut the whole place down with one tiny request.

Sorry for that wandering mind distraction. Back to the subject at hand.

Krogers

Side note: That “s” is for a certain friend. She knows who she is. 😉

I need for you to have a picture of the cashier who checked me out in your mind. I really need to go back to the store and snap her picture. It’s one of those “Separated at Birth” things…

She looks eerily like Maxine, the crabby Hallmark character. Minus the biting sense of humor.

I actually love Maxine.

The Kroger cashier. Not so much.

Kroger has some standard greetings and questions asking the customer:

“How are you today?”

“Did you find everything you needed?”

“Are you a Kroger Plus customer?”

Ending the checkout process with:

“Would you like to donate a dollar to ____________ (insert current Kroger charity)?”

To which I almost always reply “No thank you” with a smile.

Because I will freely admit here and now that I prefer to choose my charitable giving without any cashier pressure. Yes, even when it’s only a dollar.

I’ve never felt any wrath from this.

Until now.

When the not sweet Maxine-like cashier looked back up at me and said…

“Are you a senior?”

Which changes my relationship with Kroger on so many levels.

I’ll proudly ask for my senior discount when I’m eligible but until then, I think Kroger needs to re-visit their cashier training program.

Only after I shared this story did PhilBillPaul share that the day before he went through a local drive-thru for lunch and upon handing his debit card with photo on it that the cashier declared…

“Wow, that’s an old picture.”

Ouch.

Customer Service 101 – let’s get back to the basics folks. I think that begins with not biting the hand that feeds you. Insulting your customers is bad for business.

Especially the old, grouchy ones.

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Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Moments, Rants

DWTS Recap

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 By Sherra

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

We have to watch her for another a week?

Kate Gosselin must go. I think I hear eight kids crying for their mom to stop flying to California and stay home for more than one night.

The Tony “quitting” scene seemed vaguely familiar. It looked like clips I’d seen of her on her canceled show. I think she has a pattern of witchy behavior with men that doesn’t seem to be working.

Side note: Don’t flame me for that – I think her ex-husband is in a tie with her for most obnoxious people who shouldn’t be on TV and should get ZERO press coverage.

The stress and tension on her face was painful to watch both during the dance and during the elimination night. Watching the actual dance was even more painful.

She said and I’m paraphrasing here…

“Sure I forgot some steps but at least I didn’t fall down.”

Whatever.

My personal favs of week two:

Evan Lysacek & Nicole Scherzinger

I have to add Niecy Nash to my favorite list this week. Her spunk and humor is infectious.

In the easy to look at category is Aiden Turner. Don’t even know if he can dance.

Maks continues to be my favorite pro to watch. And I promise it’s not because he keeps unbuttoning his shirt to his navel. There are many other reasons. I’ll try to remember them next week when I watch. 😉

Next week, let’s please say goodbye to Kate. I’m willing to endure watching that other ICKY blonde for another week if Kate will go home.

Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to call and vote for who we want to NOT dance the next week? My mom and I have discussed this for several seasons and we think we would call in for sure if we could vote someone off–at least until the final three. Yeah, we are like that.

Who is your favorite? Do you actually call in and vote? Would you call in and vote if you could vote someone off the show?

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Disclaimer: These are just my personal opinions and I’m sure I’d be friends in real life with each and every “star”, “was a star” and/or “never was a star”. Or not.

Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Rants, Raves

Dangers of College Commuting

Friday, March 19, 2010 By Sherra

There are many reasons why your college-age children should go away to college. I heard one mom who had a rule that they have to be at least 90 minutes away.

I’d go with a 3 hour minimum.

Seems like the right amount of time and distance so the quick, impromptu, surprise visits happen rarely, if ever! A little bit of planning goes a long way. Wait, I’m getting off track. That’s a post for another day.

The topic today is WHY they should live in a dorm and not commute from home.

The list is long but since it’s Friday I’m keeping it simple.

This is the primary WHY…

So you don’t have to know that your 20 year-old is working on a project at 2:00 a.m. on the kitchen floor because his time management skills are less than stellar.

PhilBillPaul took up for him and asked me, “Didn’t you ever stay up all night and cram for an exam? This is the same thing.”

Why, yes, as a matter of fact I did stay up all night and do that.

But my mother was nestled in her bed 3 hours away and did not get involved or scream at me for losing her glue gun, not being prepared and/or worry that I was going to lose my scholarship if I didn’t get a good grade.

Side note: I didn’t have a scholarship. Illinois did not pay students to maintain a “B” average. Thank you Georgia state lottery funding, i.e. Hope Scholarship.

My mother did send cookies and write notes that were pretty much always the same except for the type of cookie in the box…

Sherra,
Here are some snickerdoodles. I hope you are getting some rest.

Love,
Mother

I should have scanned one. I have them all.

Thanks Mom.

And Mom…

I’m still trying to get some rest but your pumpkin is keeping me up late.

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Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Little Lessons, Rants

Bad TV Update

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 By Sherra

Can we review the question I posed in February when I revealed my unhealthy addiction to The Bachelor?

“Which person do you want to bring home to your parents and will fit in with your family, friends, lifestyle and personal values?”

Vienna Sausage is that GIRL?!!

Seriously?!!

Fit in with your family?

Fit in with your friends?

Fit in with lifestyle?

Fit in with your personal values?

That would be no, no, no and no according to everything we saw and what he revealed about himself.

And especially after we saw his whole family.

Jake the Rebel

He decided to play the role of “bad boy” and pick the “dirty girl”.

Wrong on so many levels but I’m sure I’ll tune into their wedding next year.

That will probably be after I enter a 12-step recovery program to break this addiction after fast forwarding through those 3 hours last night.

And if I didn’t get enough of Jake during this lame, lame season…

ABC has the audacity to have him as one of the contestants on Dancing With The Stars.

Or as I like to call it “Dancing With The Stars Who Are Sometimes Not Stars or Have Never Been Stars.”

Which will now live up to its title by including Kate Gosselin and Jake. Why didn’t they round it out with the Octomom for an even dozen contestants?

I can totally picture Jake and Pamela Anderson hitting it off. It’s a shame they can’t be partners.

The only word I can think of to describe the whole thing right now…

Icky.

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P.S. For a play-by-play of the whole excruciating finale without having to watch it – don’t miss i hate green beans very funny recap of the whole thing.

Filed Under: Finding the Funny, Moments, Rants

In the Weeds

Monday, February 22, 2010 By Sherra

Surely, you didn’t miss the top news story on Friday (that shouldn’t have been the top news story).

Don’t panic, I won’t be regularly reviewing the behavior of professional athletes. I just couldn’t let this one go because I’m such a huge golf fan.

Photo courtesy of powerbooktrance

How do I apply to be part of Tiger Woods Damage Control Crisis Management Team?

First, let me address the positive points. Okay, make that point.

The only thing I did agree with – that the media should not chase Tiger’s children or wife because of his grave mistakes.

Here are a few suggestions if I were on Team Tiger’s P.R. staff:

•Hire people who will tell you the truth.

Typically, these would be old, married women/mothers (like me) who are not speechless in the presence of your self-perceived greatness.

Having “yes” people falling all over you is that last thing you need right now.

•Speak from your heart, don’t read from cards.

Use a bullet point list with keywords to trigger your memory.

Come on, are you telling me you can’t memorize your heartfelt apology but you can memorize every golf course, every shot you’ve ever taken?

Seems like it would be a perfect time for you to use that steely determination and ice cold competitive edge to stand up and take your punishment.

Lose the script ~ no one wants to hear a highly scripted apology. You actually had to look down at your notes to remember the 2nd descriptive adjective your team had written about Elin.

•Work on your level of sincerity.

You’ve been arrogant for so long it’s time for some real sincerity and that takes a lot more change and practice. I just didn’t feel it.

Is there a rehab for celebrity arrogance?

Tiger’s Special Rules

You said you thought your success and life of privilege led you to think you could live by a different set of rules.

Your well-orchestrated apology with all your special rules like banning most of the media and handpicking your audience shows that you still think you have a separate set of rules.

We all know that the media wouldn’t be banned if you were making some big golf announcement.

You have impacted the lives and livelihood of others with your poor choices and your giant ego.

You have tarnished the game of golf — one of the last of the sports that we can still refer to as a “gentleman’s game.”

Newsflash

Yes, you are held to a higher standard than the rest of us.

Because that’s what happens when you choose to become a sports star, sign million dollar endorsement deals trying to influence our buying decisions and become a billionaire.

Believe it or not, there are more important things than the public hearing about your marital problems. But as voyeurs into the life of the rich and famous, it comes with your job. You chose this life and you chose the behavior.

You can’t keep it all private when you left a trail of evidence for the world to see and hear. Your lack of discretion has created a sad and nasty peek into your life that frankly, none of us ever wanted to know about.

Own it.

Stop trying to control everything.

Start being human.

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