Pet Peeve Friday...Annoying Co-Shoppers

Last week's drawing for the Pet Peeve Friday prize of Avon lipstick samples is Keri Bender Roberts! Keri, keep an eye on the mail...

This week's prize is still undetermined. But please comment and share today's pet peeve! It'll be good...I promise...

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I just got back from Target and was crowded in the check out line by a middle aged couple (that means they were older than me). The man got so close I couldn't even swipe my card without bumping him.

Seriously, if you're in that big of a hurry to get out of Target, please don't shop there! It doesn't matter day or night, morning or afternoon, weekday or weekend, Target is always the same!

My Target is set up in a rather annoying way though. From the cash register to the end of the counter, where your bagged purchases get piled, is approximately 3-4 feet. The card swipe machine is by the cashier, then there are the empty bag hangers, then the landing pad for the purchases. In order to get things into your cart, you have to keep moving back and forth, while you pay.

So, Target's at fault for poor ergonomics. Whose bright idea was it to set it up like this? Why isn't the card swiper at the end where you can grab your bags and toss them into the cart? I know they probably paid some person lots of money to come up with a workable system. Well, it ain't working!

OK, so that was a little side rant about Target and their apparent stupidity. I've done my best to accept this as part of the price of shopping at Target. Some days are easier than others...

It's the rude people that really bug me! How come the person behind you in any checkout line feels the need to get as close as possible! Well, get their cart close, anyway!

If my groceries are piled to the end of the conveyor belt and I am still piling things up there, there's absolutely no reason you need to have your cart bumping into my hip. Having you bumping me isn't making me work any faster. In fact, it makes me slow down (you know, like an adolescent boy when you tell him to do something he doesn't want to do!).

Getting into my personal space doesn't make me pay faster. It makes me turn to you and try my damnedest to blow up your skull. Like in that movie Scanners. You might think I have a migraine or something, because I have to really screw up my eyes and wrinkle my nose to get the full power of my brain into the act. But I am just trying to have your brain explode.

Now for the people in the aisles actually shopping. Have you ever heard "be polite, stay to the right!" Even preschoolers are taught this. If everyone stays on the aisle to their right, people can pass by with plenty of room to spare.

Unless you let your kid hang off the side. Then that's just an invitation for someone (said child) to get hurt when I wing around you. Have you ever noticed that people with small children just shop slower than the rest of us? I know I did.

I also don't find it amusing when your small child is blocking my way and you stand in the distance begging her to move. While you are working on your diplomacy skills, you are preventing me from completing my least favorite chore. (See the above Scanners reference for an explanation of my expression.) I do not find misbehaving children amusing at all, and their spineless parents even less so. Go take little Johnny's hand and get him out of my way.

Just a little piece of advice. There is no reasoning with a three or four year old. Using a sugary voice as you try to convince them to do something isn't going to work. They need to be shown!

(In case you are thinking that I must believe I am a perfect parent, please don't! I have had kids act like total brats in stores. Hey, Aaron still does it, and he's 11! But, unlike some parents, I have come to realize the not everyone is enamored of my children. Especially when they are misbehaving. No one likes a brat. The brat's parent is liked even less!)

There is a special place in hell for the people who insist on parking their carts diagonally across the aisle. Are you undecided? Lost? Trying to shop with both arms off of shelves on either side of the aisle? Good luck and God speed. If my wing span was something greater than 60 inches, I might try that!

Wow, shopping really set me off today. I guess I'd better stick to PeaPod!

So, tell me about your latest Pet Peeve!