Today at the supermarket, I encountered one of the most annoying types of customers, the Extreme Egg Checker, or EEC. This is at least the third time I have encountered one of these in the past few months. Now most everyone checks their eggs for cracks before proceeding, but that only takes a couple of seconds. EECs take it to a whole new level. They not only check for cracks, they then try to maximize the size of their eggs in their carton by opening up several cartons, and choosing what appear to be the largest eggs from each carton, and replacing those with the smaller eggs from the original carton. (BTW, every EEC I've encountered has been at least 70.) It's bad enough when they're going through a carton of a dozen eggs, but today's EEC was going through cartons of two dozen eggs. Fortunately for me, he was accompanied by an pre-adolescent boy who was bouncing off the walls wanting to leave. I'm sure that the boy short-circuited the EEC action by several minutes, so thanks, kid.
You might ask, why not get some other things while the EEC is is busy tying up the egg section? The answer is that I always get the cold things last, and the eggs and the milk section are the last stops before check-out. They are housed side-by-side in a refrigerator behind glass doors. I could get the milk while I'm waiting, but the EECs always place their carts directly in front of the adjacent doors to the milk section while while they're engaging in their obsessive-compulsive penurious behavior. And they are completely oblivious to effect on other shoppers, even when surrounded by others awaiting access to the egg case.
Why do EECs do this? My guess is that they're trying to game the system by getting "the most egg for their money". But how much do they actually gain? Today the price of one dozen large eggs was $.85. If EECs wanted "more egg", they easily could have bought extra large eggs, but then they'd have to pay $1.05 for a dozen, an "outrageous" $.20 more. By substituting slightly larger than large eggs from other cartons, the dedicated EEC might end up with one or two cents "more egg" than they'd otherwise have had. That's some Big Savings for sure!
A solution for the problem is for the store to have a special section for EECs. There would a table next to an open egg refrigerator, where EECs could place several egg cartons, allowing them to pick and choose as they wish. Then the rest of us could go to the regular egg section and get on with our business. EECs tempting to ply their trade in the regular section could then be firmly told to move on to their own special facility. As it now stands, it is difficult to tell these geezers (I can call them that, because I'm 75) to move, because they are most certainly set in their ways, and wouldn't understand why others are being "rude" to them.
This is a "First World" problem, I know, but our heat index today was 109 degrees, and I just wanted to get my shopping over with, thus the Rant.
What bugs the rest of you at the supermarket?
You might ask, why not get some other things while the EEC is is busy tying up the egg section? The answer is that I always get the cold things last, and the eggs and the milk section are the last stops before check-out. They are housed side-by-side in a refrigerator behind glass doors. I could get the milk while I'm waiting, but the EECs always place their carts directly in front of the adjacent doors to the milk section while while they're engaging in their obsessive-compulsive penurious behavior. And they are completely oblivious to effect on other shoppers, even when surrounded by others awaiting access to the egg case.
Why do EECs do this? My guess is that they're trying to game the system by getting "the most egg for their money". But how much do they actually gain? Today the price of one dozen large eggs was $.85. If EECs wanted "more egg", they easily could have bought extra large eggs, but then they'd have to pay $1.05 for a dozen, an "outrageous" $.20 more. By substituting slightly larger than large eggs from other cartons, the dedicated EEC might end up with one or two cents "more egg" than they'd otherwise have had. That's some Big Savings for sure!
A solution for the problem is for the store to have a special section for EECs. There would a table next to an open egg refrigerator, where EECs could place several egg cartons, allowing them to pick and choose as they wish. Then the rest of us could go to the regular egg section and get on with our business. EECs tempting to ply their trade in the regular section could then be firmly told to move on to their own special facility. As it now stands, it is difficult to tell these geezers (I can call them that, because I'm 75) to move, because they are most certainly set in their ways, and wouldn't understand why others are being "rude" to them.
This is a "First World" problem, I know, but our heat index today was 109 degrees, and I just wanted to get my shopping over with, thus the Rant.
What bugs the rest of you at the supermarket?
