Safeway: The Final Straw

Since I’ve been ill (more on that in another post soon) I am lucky if I have the energy to finish more than one errand or task in a day.

I pushed myself too hard last Thursday (2 doctor appointments, a trip to Albertsons, and two trips to Walmart) and ended up sleeping nearly all day Friday.

Today however I really needed to go to the hospital pharmacy as well as to Safeway–things that I should have done on Friday but was too exhausted to do.

I decided that the hospital pharmacy was the more important of the two errands, since my medicine (fragmin) ran out today and my doctor wants me on it for at least another week.

One of my reasons for going to Safeway was to exchange or return a 24-pack of Coca-Cola Classic (I’ve been told to give up full sugar sodas as I am pre-diabetic).

I started out with no energy anyway after the trip to the hospital pharmacy and things went rapidly downhill from there.

It’s only about 90 degrees outside today and I sure didn’t have parking karma when finding a spot either.

Taking the soda to the so-called customer service desk was my first mistake since today it was more like ‘lets tick off the customers as much as possible desk’

Why is it that people who repeatedly mumble 1) are placed in positions where they need to communicate clearly with people and 2) get so angry at their customer(s) because the customer(s) cannot hear them?

First I was supposed to go get the 24 pack of Diet Coke or Coke Zero off the shelf, she mumbled that at me twice before I understood what she wanted.

As I was exhausted and very short of breath by that point, I decided to just return the Coca Cola Classic. I had to tell her twice that I wanted to return it, I guess she listens about as well as she talks (ooops I meant to say mumbles!).

Then even though I had my receipt (which mind you has the Safeway Club card number on it) she insisted (mumbling all the way again) that she had to have my actual card in order to process the return.

Then she made some very rude comment about my not wanting to go get the replacement product too.

I couldn’t find the Safeway Club card in my purse/wallet, although I’d seen it (somewhere in my purse/wallet) less than an hour before this wonderful trip to Safeway while looking for my Starbucks card.

By this point I was just so tired, sick, and frustrated that I said “I can’t find my Safeway Club card so I’ll just take this crap home and pour it down the toilet!!”

However, I am NOT going to pour nearly $6.00 worth of soda down the toilet so I will take it back later this week on a day when Safeway can be my ONLY stop for the day. I will probably do some grocery shopping too while I’m there as there is very little food in this house, but it will be my last shopping trip to this particular Safeway store.

Richard Nixon famously said “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.” Well, the Safeway store at NE 3rd and Franklin in Bend, Oregon will not have this old lady to kick around anymore, because after that 24 pack of Coca Cola Classic gets returned, this old lady will boycott that store!

At least I’ve learned not to try to do more than one thing per day until I get well.

I’ve also learned that I will shop elsewhere, either another Safeway store or another grocery store chain altogether. Trader Joe’s is clear across town but they have higher quality food, comparable prices, and their staff is much more helpful and much more polite to boot.

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