October 28, 2008
People who still write checks for groceries are evil and should be exterminated. Especially the ones who wait until everything has been scanned to even start looking for their checkbook in their bottomless pit of a purse. Invariably, they run across pictures of their grandkids in the bottomless pit, which they then have to show to the cashier so the cashier can appreciate how precious Estelle’s grandbabies are, even though the pictures are now 15 years old and one of Estelle’s grandbabies is serving 15-20 for child pornography and the other is modeling for the Adam and Eve mail order fucktoy catalog, and Estelle can’t exactly put a picture of her sweet girl in a nippleless latex bra and crotchless snap-on panties in her purse, now, can she? Once Estelle lets out a deep sigh because she remembers babysitting her beautiful grandbabies while their mother went on another coke binge, she suddenly snaps to and realizes, hey wait, I’m the stupid old crotchety annoying blue-hair bitch writing a FUCKING CHECK AT THE FUCKING GROCERY STORE LIKE IT’S NINETEEN SEVENTY-FUCKING-SEVEN, so I should probably go ahead and do that thing.
Eventually, Estelle digs through the gargantuan patent leather chasm that is her purse far enough to find her checkbook, only to discover that, alas, the pen has fallen out of the checkbook. So in she dives again, even though the cashier has a perfectly good God damned pen sitting three inches in front of Estelle’s massive red, sparkly, patent leather monstrosity her friend Gert bought her for her fucking 10th wedding anniversary. This time Estelle finds her car keys. They’re in the way, so Estelle decides she’s going to set them on the counter next to the OH GOODNESS A PEN! Our elderly shopper now has to ask 4 times what the total is, because, well, she’s fucking old and forgets everything, only to write a check that’s practically illegible for a total much less than the cost of the paper on which it’s written plus the time of everyone around her that’s been wasted.
By this time, the person (or people) behind our slow friend are dealing with screaming children, melting ice cream, warming milk that will soon be infested with all sorts of bacteria, rising blood pressure, and an overwhelming desire to club this old bitch about the head and neck with that God damned massive purse until her dentures protrude through the top of her skull and her blue hair is caked to the terrazzo floor with her red blood. And you know what? In my book, that is pure WIN.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I have a whole new level of respect for you.
I’d like to take this one step further. If you are inclined to write a check, you should only be allowed in the store during certain hours, say 1 to 3 pm.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
You might need anger management. But I love it!
October 28th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I have seen men do the equivalent of this. Their masculinity could not be less suspect if they were standing there wearing a dress and a wig.
October 28th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Billy should know. He’s one of them.
October 28th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Damn. That was YOU behind me in line??
October 28th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Whew! I knew there was a reason I preferred plastic rather than paper!
October 28th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Right on man!!
If stores insist on taking checks (which they shouldn’t), then only allow them in one lane and man it with the slowest, worst cashier you have to discourage people from using it.
Along the line of Cameron’s comment: if you are collecting Social Security, you shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way of people who are working to support your retired ass so no more old farts getting in my way at the store during my lunch hour or right after work. Since they have all freaking day to shop, do it when working people are not in a hurry. Maybe 9-10am and 2-4pm weekdays
October 28th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
People like this and the “differently-abled” baggers at Krogers are why I exclusively self checkout.
October 28th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Very well written.
October 28th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Are you trying to be funny again?
Let me guess…this was in Morton at either Wal Mart of Krogers about 20 minutes before you had to be to work? If so, that happens to me every time!
October 29th, 2008 at 8:50 am
That is so freakin funny!! Love your blog and have been a reader for awhile, just never had the opportunity to write…that scenerio is what happens to me and my 4 kids (under 7) every damn time I am at Walmart, and don’t forget to add the old person smell radiating from them as well everytime they move, or the old candy from the 1980’s they try and give my kids: )
October 29th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I am glad to say I had not seen anyone write a check for quite some time. Until Friday. I was at a small grocery store that has added some kind of scanning device, I guess to check and see if the check is bogus or maybe debit their account immediately.
It was UNREAL how long it took for the lady to hand write the check, the clerk to run it through the scanner, the scanner then apparently used some sort of 33.6k modem to individually send each pixel of her check off to who knows where for approval. We all stood there silent for about two minutes during the scanner process, then AFTER that was done the clerk had to run it through some thing to imprint the check, hand a receipt to the lady to sign and then gave her her check back.
Why in the hell you would want to be the person writing that check, waiting and realizing you were causing such a delay is beyond me.
October 30th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I write checks.
November 2nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I once had a similar rant, about another annoying thing when in line at a grocery store:
http://bjstone.blogpeoria.com/2007/05/22/dude-back-off-please/
Cory, you made me do spit takes. Nicely done.
November 5th, 2008 at 2:35 am
You mean bastard…Estelle is my grandma. She told me about that incident and she said you smelled funny and to go fuck yourself.
Or maybe not.
I don’t know. I need to go to sleep sometime. Insomnia sucks.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
You can’t stop Morton Malaise; you can only hope to contain him.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Ah, just as bad: Paying in cash and digging through a purse the size of the Grand Canyon looking for one freekin’ penny at the bottom of that chasm to make the exact tender.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
This rant has inspired me. I’m going to switch back to using checks in hopes that you or someone like you are in line behind me. Every time I dig to the bottom of my purse from now on…. oh wait, never mind.
November 26th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Haven’t you heard – the people who pay for stuff on credit are the reason the economy is crashing, for that reason it is now totally uncool to use a credit card. That old chick with the check is a trend setter – she has cash. Actually that makes her better than anybody who is paying with credit. She is doing her part by making it inconvenient for you and others like you to just roll up and start swiping away our future. You go Grandma!
May 7th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Funny…
I was actually looking on Google to see if people were starting to go back to cash and writing checks in this new era of ID theft and all.
I hate check writing but it may be safer than paying with the CC or ATM card and having some jackass swiping the numbers off of your card and using a skimmer to put your data on cards in their name.
Doubt if I’ll ever go back to writing checks but I may end up using more cash and CC’s vs ATM card