We had a choice of grocery stores: Fred Meyer, 2 Safeways, Albertson's or even QFC, maybe Central Market if we had wanted-but we assumed Winco was cheapest, and there we went.
Of course we ended up with more than we planned on, but luckily it all fit in our hands. We approached the checkout lanes with our frozen turkey burgers, two cartons of ice cream, and 6-pack of muffins (variety pack).
There were several long lines and the shortest we saw was at a check stand with a blinking light, The belt was moving along and the checkout seemed normal so we hopped in line behind a family of four.
Everything was normal until the payment part of the transaction.
The mother slide her EBT card and one-hundred some odd dollars were deducted from the total balance. The remaining balance was still a little over one-hundred dollars. She looked confused and kept re-swiping her EBT card.
The checker told the couple they still owed just over a hundred for their purchase, but they didn't respond. It was obvious they had done their math and the twenty dollar bill in the woman's hand suggested they only expected to owe twenty dollars or less after the food stamps were deducted.
The checker continued to tell them that the food stamps had been deducted and that they owed money. She pointed to the screen where the hundred some odd dollars had been paid and kept repeating herself. She became annoyed while the couple waited in confusion.
Eventually the checker looked back over her list of items and discovered an eighty dollar mistake. There was a charge for a cat condo that didn't exist.
A cat condo. A three-story cat condo.
She brusquely apologized and hollered at her supervisor to help her delete the charge, reverse the EBT charge, and help her correct the transaction. He hardly acknowledged the couple as he struggled to reverse the EBT charge and find the cat condo error to remove.
It was a frustrating fifteen minutes.
The employees never bothered to find the bulk item that the cashier had mis-rung. The couple didn't understand what they needed from them to fix the problem. They decided to let it go, remove the cat condo charge and let the couple take whatever bulk item the cashier flubbed just to get the line moving again.
Throughout the tumult an elderly lady behind us offered sardonic comforting to the cashier, "there's always gonna be a heckler-whether you're a cashier or a waitress or whatever, there's always gonna be that ONE customer that gets ya."
Nobody apologized the couple with the problem transaction. The cashier apologized to us as we took our place next in line, but neither her or her supervisor offered their apologies to the couple (other than the cashier's initial apology at realizing the issue was her fault).
I am sorry for that family. They had budgeted appropriately and were only off in their estimate by 2 dollars when the transaction was fixed. It wasn't their fault. A stranger offered consolation to the checker, but no one consoled them. The checker drew sympathy for a mistake that was hers and caused others discomfort.
I've been a checker. A checker should've realized there wasn't a big ass cat condo making her sweat when that large charge jumped on the screen. It was her fault. Not the couple's.
From other points of view-the family would've been blamed, and probably was. But it wasn't the fact that an first or second generation immigrant family that didn't speak English walked up to the checkstand and caused problems. It wasn't their fault.
I'm disappointed in those employees and the lady behind us in line who blamed the family for "hurting" the lazy checker's feelings. And I'm disappointed in myself for not speaking up for that family. I tried to help, but not knowing Spanish I didn't feel empowered to do much-but I could've spoken up for them.
Friendship speaks all languages, and I could've been a better friend that night. I will try harder next time.
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Be well, HBF