Complaining Can Be Too Much Fun For Your Own Good

Jack R. Noel September 9, 2023
[Foreword: I plead for everyone to read all the way through this article and pray it will be of some value to you. We authors on Medium get too many “views” without a single “Read” — which is why to register as having read you also have to remember to scroll all the way down.]

I was browsing Facebook and found a question that stopped me for a minute. It was, “What is the most annoying thing about grocery shopping?”

Complaining is enjoyable, I don’t know why. But complaining can be too much fun for your own good.

The more I read of the responses the more I felt the need to help people understand the whole picture. The most frequent complaint is the “lack of service” and the prevalence of automated check-out stands where you have to manually scan every purchase and your “method of purchase.” I’ve been through those checkout stands a few hundred times already but I had a question that was answered by a store employee the same as I once was.

I think you don’t know some things about what grocery checkout clerks must do. For one thing, customers are generally unaware that many states enforce liquor laws by sending underage youths in to buy beer or other alcoholic beverages. If a cashier questions the buyer that prevents a fine from being levied on the cashier, and the cashier is timed for every transaction and often has a line of waiting customers.