If you don't want to get judged by what you buy, use the self-check lane, because I guarantee every checker does it.

Waiting in line at a checkout gets boring real fast. I do look at what is in the carts around me, their owners and make guesses about how many people they are feeding and what type of diet they are eating. I also know that people are doing the same with me and my cart. I sure that the checkers and baggers are doing the same thing.

Like I said in another thread about what people should or shouldn't have in their carts... tampons, pregnancy test, condoms, duct tape, plunger....

Just because "everybody does it" doesn't make it right. That's what I tell my kids.... Face it, we get judged when we're heavy and doing Atkins for having all the "fattening stuff" in our carts, we apparently would get judged for trying to lose weight but being too gullible to do it "right" (apologies to my friends who are losing and maintaining with any of the low-fat foods...) and judged even more harshly if we didn't appear to be trying anything at all....

You can't win.

Gee, there goes my illusion that cashiers don't give a crap what anyone buys. I guess I'm not being paranoid after all, when I rehearse defensive comments in my head while I shop.

I wish all of my local grocery stores had the self checkout thing.

Seeee - Just cuz your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you!

I did see a guy in the checkout once that had all instant foods. TV dinners and such. I didn't want to shake him and tell him to learn to cook for himself (obviously single) but strangly enough I did want to make him a nice dinner.

I use the self checkout as much as I can, mostly because Im anti social and that idle chit chat annoys me. So do the stupid questions like "Someone having a birthday?" ... looks down and the "happy 4th birthday" cake... "Nope, I just like collecting them."

When I do a meat run I get these wierd looks, a combination of envy (for the whole rib roast) and suspicion, or veiled disgust (tripe, heart and tongue). And questions, mostly polite, "is that good?" and "how do you cook that?". I don't mind. I like shopping in Asian markets though, nobody gives your choices a second glance.

My local checkers are chatty - we tend to see the same two gals because we go to the store late at night (they close at 11, we usually go after 10). I don't mind chattiness at all.

I don't really care what they think of what I buy, though. I just ran out the other night and bought two feminine yeast treatment packs, for example (my take on those is, buy them before you need them, and I was just starting on a course of antibiotics so I thought I might need one). I took it through the regular line of the gal I know. Who cares? She didn't comment.

I looked in on this thread yesterday, and noticed the debate is still going on today. First of all, I'm not sure some people have heard what Unitydkn was actually saying. She wasn't criticizing the "300 lb couple" for what they were buying and eating--she was criticizing the misinformation that people (many of us included) have been given for years about weightloss. Her feeling that she had to bite her tongue was not to keep from sandblasting them with criticism--but to keep from telling them about LC because that would be outside the scope of her "relationship" with them as their grocery store cashier.

I've noticed that different people have different levels of acceptance/tolerance for chatty clerks. I don't mind them at all--I figure it makes their job more interesting--and would much rather a clerk chatted a little bit than stood there prunefaced and ignored me. I'll even tolerate a question about the birthday cake I'm buying because I know it's just idle conversation to pass the time and be friendly.

My 21-year-old daughter, on the other hand, HATES for clerks to strike up personal conversations with her. I don't know why--personality I suppose--but she always feels they are invading her privacy.

Anyway, I guess this thread is in the war zone for a reason. . .

wow people get defensive. I...personally...don't give a rats A** WHAT the cashier thinks of me. Just DO your job Dude.......!

It's probably my age..because is I WAS a cashier...I'd be one of those OLDER AGED WOMAN CASHIERS. LOL~~!!!!!!!!!

Okay...we've bashed fat people here...old people...and women...all in a matter of 4 pages~It's time to drop it folks!

Wait...we haven't bashed MEN yet!!!!

I can only imagine what the cashiers at our local store think if they try to figure out how we eat based on what's in my cart - I don't buy meat, poultry or eggs at the store and only buy produce this time of the year (CSA and Farmer's Market are closed here).....the only thing that is consistent with me at the store is cleaning, HBA and paper products and some dairy like the organic whole milk they sell that is local that I can't get anywhere else.

Or...more often...Dudette. If it was a dude, we'd all be cool because I don't think they'd pay much attention to what's in your cart (okay...now we got the dig in at the guys so we're all even ). I'm with you. Isn't it liberating to get to a point in your life where the opinions of total strangers are worth about as much to you as bellybutton lint?



Same thing happened to me this year as I was checking out of Costco with my DD's birthday cake. My response? "Nah...I'm tormenting my mother-in-law who has a phobia of getting older".

I had a twelve pack of beer (Michelob Ultra, of course!) in my groceries when I was checking out one time. The guy in line behind me said "So, party at your house?" to which I replied "Nah, I'm drinking it in the car on the way home". The checker very primly informed me that I shouldn't drink and drive.

To which I hope you replied....."Oh, no worries, I won't spill it going around the curves!"