Cessna In Flight

The other day I was in SM Hypermarket. I was about to pay for my groceries, saw an open counter, and went there right away.

A male employee in an orange apron came to me and said, “Ma’am dito na lang po kayo pumila.” With a polite hand gesture, he showed me the counters with a long line of customers, about 4-5 head deep.

“Ang haba ng pila dyan, dito wala namang pila, ” I protested. Then the employee showed me this “Big Cart” sign, and since I was using the orange cart – which by the way was full of groceries – I was in the “wrong” lane.

“Hindi naman po mahaba ang pila,” the employee said.

“May pila pa rin,” I was getting really irked at this point. “Ikuha mo na lang kaya ako ng malaking cart.”

I was nursing a broken heart at that time, so my level of patience was dangerously low. I held my forehead, as if that could slow down my increasing heart rate. One look at my face and I guess the poor guy sensed I didn’t need the hassle of leaving a perfectly idle cashier and make my way over to the very busy ones. He immediately put all my groceries on the counter, but not without saying, “Nakakahiya po kasi sa mga customer.”

I answered back, “Hindi ba mas nakakahiya na papupuntahin mo ako sa may mahabang pila?”

This reminds me of one time I bought two bottles of orange juice. I went to this counter where the cashier was doing absolutely nothing – and she shooed me away. “Lipat na lang po kayo kasi wala kayong cart.” Ok, so where should I  pay my handheld purchases then? Thankfully, the neighboring cashier was more sensible and asked to me go over her side. The overzealous cashier reprimanded the kind cashier – in front of me! “Wala syang cart.” The kind cashier responded, “Wala namang tao, wala ngang customer.”

I have heard many rants and read many, many posts about how unreasonably strict SM is with this orange cart-big cart rule. I will now join the throngs of customers who are calling on the SM execs, to please, please think about this rule again.

We use the orange carts not because we have fewer purchases – but because having an orange cart makes it easier to maneuver in and out of the aisles. Especially in my case, I do my grocery-shopping  with 3 children!

Your sales assistants, obviously taught to explain to customers that it is “nakakahiya po” to have an orange cart-customer pay in the big cart counter, are always getting into more trouble that way. Besides I have never heard of a big cart customer complain of the presence of an “undeserving” orange cart customer. But I sure have heard  many, many complaints about orange customers being evicted from the oh-so exclusive big cart lane.

Cashiers and order-takers of fast food restaurants will ask customers to transfer to free counters. SM Hypermarket wants me to leave a cashier staring into space and go to the overworked cashier who will get to me after 4 or 5 more customers. Isn’t that just plain ridiculous? Where’s the “satisfying our every need” in there?