As most women, I love shopping. And how amazed I was the first few times I shopped in England ! The service, the quality, the efficiency, the courtesy. I loved it; I thought I wanted to live in England forever.
Nevertheless, I am in Spain now. Oh, sol, sangria and jamon. above: Cambridge market square, a shoppers' paradise
Marks & Spencer's used to be -and still is- one of my favourite shops for many reasons, this being one of them: I went to the -efficient- cashier to pay, shopping in basket. Can't recall exactly what I bought; a bottle of champagne, some strawberries, bread, eggs, meat, etc. I paid for it and after putting it all in the carrier bag, I walked out of the shop and the handle broke. Oh, dear. Broken bottle, champagne everywhere, broken eggs, a mess. I was devastated, felt like crying and cursing (well, I did say a few bad words). I just stood there a few seconds looking at my stuff all over the floor and thinking of what to do when a lovely lady walked past (that's another thing I love about England; courtesy) and told me that I should take it back to the shop, that they would replace it all for me. "Really?" I said, and decided to give it a go.
Off I went, feeling sheepish -I wasn't used to things like that, being from Brazil- and showed the cashier the broken bag and the damaged stuff.
To my amazement, she was incredibly polite, apologetic and helpful -actually, why shouldn't she?. Within minutes everything got replaced, and on top of that I was given a bottle of wine 'for my troubles'. I didn't know what to say. I mean, 'thank you' of course, but I was flabbergasted. WOW!
Then here I am in Spain; doing my weekly shopping at the local supermarkets; nothing pleasurable about it, just another annoying chore.
I'm so sick of bad, slow and moody service, people smoking inside, the fact that you cannot go in carrying bags (I like using recycled bags to shop you see) and if you do you need to show them to the cashier to prove that you have not stolen anything, lack of hygiene, rotten fruit and vegetables, the lack of variety (how difficult can it be to find parmesan and feta cheese????). And, on top of that, I have to meticulously check the receipt every single time, as it's bound to have mistakes.
El Arbol is where I normally shop, and today, again, I had to check the receipt. Sure enough, there were a few mistakes to do with discounts and promotions that didn't show. Politely and humbly, I told the cashier that there was a mistake. Instead of apologising and showing some interest in solving my problem, she frowned at me -after a few years in Spain I've realised that frowning at people is a normal way of communication, as it does not involve much thought process. Anyway, she asked me what the difference was, and I happened to remember the prices, so we calculated it and it came to 60 centimos. Not much of a difference, I know, but if you multiply this by the number of people who shop and do not check their tickets, well, they're making a lot of money and consumers are obviously being ripped off. I can't stand being ripped off.
I didn't get an apology; just a smirk and a sarcastic comment so that all those in the queue could have a laugh at my expense. I told her that this had happened before, that perhaps there was a problem with the machine/system/computer. She sighed. I was wasting her precious time and she wanted to let me know. She said, dismissively "No te preocupes. Tranquila, todo se arregla."
pictures from El Arbol and M&S websites
2 comments:
In order to make the purchase in Oviedo he is better to go to the LIDL, is cheaper and have better quality ;)
Thanks for your tip. I do shot at LIDL, the problem is that it's far and they do not deliver, which makes shopping difficult.
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