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At Safeway deli counter, part two

10th June 2004, late at night | Comments (24)

When you buy anything at the deli counter they always try to recommend something else as well, so if you buy ham they say Can I recommend some cheese to go with that, sir?, or if you buy cheese they say Can I recommend some ham to go with that, sir?

Today I was in the mood for shrimp and filo pastry parcels:

Deli woman
Next Guest please!
Dunstan
Hello, can I have F.I.V.E *holds up five fingers* Shrimp parcels, please?
Deli woman
Sure thing. Can I also recommend some macaroni cheese with that?
Dunstan
Wha?

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Comments (24)

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  1. Adrian:

    Haha.. beautiful! I'm starting to love this deli woman. What's even better is that I'm imagining this happening at my own local Safeway down the block!

    Posted 1 hour, 46 minutes after the fact
  2. Pierce:

    Yum.
    You know you're going to have to get used to new foods in a foreign country.

    Posted 2 hours, 25 minutes after the fact
  3. Tyler From.:

    shrimp and mac & cheese, the true staple of american cuisine. see, I am from Canada, we simply just eat whale blubber and cheese whiz. mmm, good.

    Posted 7 hours, 27 minutes after the fact
  4. Karen:

    One wonders how they decide what to recommend. Do they have lists of complementary foods that the employees have to memorize?

    "Quick, Employee #1, what do you recommend when the customer orders chicken salad?"

    "Um...fresh strawberries?"

    "Wrong! Baked beans. Now drop and give me twenty."

    Posted 8 hours, 12 minutes after the fact
    Inspired: ↓ Dunstan
  5. Nat:

    Perhaps she doesn't speak English, but has learned all these sentences by heart. She will recommend macarroni even if you ask for a yogurt. That;s why she's didn't know what ALL OF THE HAM meant, because she is only learnt 100g, 200g.
    Poor woman...:(

    Posted 8 hours, 37 minutes after the fact
  6. Monkeyinabox:

    Don't feel too special about yourself getting wacked out recommendations at the Deli counter. As someone who worked in said industry for far too long, I know that these stores are subject to the constant barrage or 'mystery' or 'secret' shoppers. Certain departments are required to offer samples and make selling suggestions. If you want a real treat, go into the bakery and find a cake you like. Take it up to the a worker and ask, 'What does this taste like?'. If they are playing by the rules, they should take the cake out and cut you a small piece. Do you have to buy it? Nope.

    Posted 8 hours, 46 minutes after the fact
    Inspired: ↓ Justin
  7. Dunstan:

    Ha ha, I like that picture, Karen :op

    Posted 10 hours, 7 minutes after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Karen
  8. Ed:

    Deli people have very advanced taste.

    Beep!

    Posted 14 hours, 47 minutes after the fact
  9. Irfandhy Franciscus:

    A comment off the topic.

    I've been browsing other parts of 1976design,while reading Mr.E.Feist Magician Master and Apprentice.

    I spent some time looking some of your neat portfolio.

    And I noticed that you once worked as a web developer before 2 years before going independent.

    Hope you dont mind me asking some questions bout your work ^___^ ''

    Is it difficult to get clients knocking on your door for projects? What did you do to get them to notice you ?

    Cheer's

    Posted 23 hours, 55 minutes after the fact
  10. MaThIbUs:

    That's just hilarious.

    Posted 1 day, 5 hours after the fact
  11. Andy:

    This is standard training in places like Burger King, and McDonalds.

    Probably even before they get to Health and Safety

    Posted 3 days, 5 hours after the fact
  12. Dennis:

    Once the employee of a supermarket has offered me beer to shrimps...
    Probably they study " store politeness " before care of health...

    Posted 4 days, 11 hours after the fact
  13. Dunstan:

    Testing

    Posted 4 days, 14 hours after the fact
  14. Nick:

    what pisses me off is when i ask people if they want any salads or desserts with their meal, they're all 'only if you're giving it away free' or 'did you want to ask me if i wanted anything else'? suggestive selling can kiss my ass.

    Posted 6 days, 18 hours after the fact
  15. Justin:

    Exactly. I used to work for Ralphs, owned by Kroger which is the competition to Vons, owned by Safeway. Grocery store "secret shoppers" are actually customer service Nazis. The whole district had to be at 97% satisfaction. Our store was at 99.7%. If you didn't say "hello" to the secret shopper (which was the first thing they looked at) you just got 0%.

    It was tons of fun. Out of pure bitterness towards secret shoppers I would recommend the most bizarre food combinations I could. Buying chicken? Better get some corn dogs with that.

    Posted 1 week after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Monkeyinabox
    Inspired: ↓ Rob Mientjes
  16. Rob Mientjes:

    That is quite genious. I - being an absurdist - would have done it even more idiotic. But I'm going to spare you.

    Posted 1 week after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Justin
  17. Joe:

    This is standard at Vons. They use so called secret shoppers and a 10 point system to evaluat there coustermer service and employees. When a customer walks up to the service delli the employee has to greet them with eye contact and a smile and ask them if they can help them. If the customer sais something like oh im just browsing or im not ready yet, they still half to offer a sample of something. It also has to be a specific item like munster cheese and not just cheese. after they serve you they half to make a selling suggestion of again a specific item untail you refuse and say your finished. Try this: go into a vons and get some meet from the service delli. keep accepting their selling suggestons. they will continue to badger you untail they have no products left to offer and they will struggle over constantly thinking of a new product to offer you since they usually stic to one product as a selling suggestion tats easy o remember. or evan better, ask them where a product is in the store. they will offer to take you. if you accept, they must do it. you can have employees from any deepartment following you all around the store taking you to items; they will never get any work done and if you reaiily want to be mean you can tell the store manager that there is more than 9 carts in the parking lot and that its hard to park. you will get all the courtesy clerks (baggers) in trouble...

    Posted 4 months, 2 weeks after the fact
  18. Jay:

    i work at safeway and it is a load of bunk that we have secret shoppers, but the big wigs are so out to lunch that secret shoppers are the only clue they have as to how the service is doing. if anyone needs help i am obligated to help them when all i wan to say is "how the hell should i know if we have decaffeinated chai tea, i work in the back".

    Posted 10 months, 3 weeks after the fact
    Inspired: ↓ Marina
  19. Marina:

    Hey, I just happened to be in a Safeway this early AM and a lady came on the intercom and said, "Attention Safeway Employees: we got a 10!!" and she went on to list about 10 different names (of employees, I discovered after asking my cashier) that the secret shopper must have personally had contact with and rated. So to Jay: Learn your store policies and as an employee be curteous. I absolutely love Safeway, have never had a complaint as a guest/customer there for more than 10 years, have always recieved impecable service, and DO NOT want to ever have to think it will EVER be otherwise. Shame on you, Jay! Wise up!

    Posted 1 year, 1 month after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Jay
  20. Star:

    Just a friendly heads-up - Safeway 'secret shoppers' are actually real. And they do have to mark whether you say hi. But you don't fail the whole thing for not saying hi. There are other things, too.

    Posted 1 year, 4 months after the fact
  21. Shopper Nazi:

    I am a Safeway Secret Shoopper - Believe me we DO exist! You do NOT get a 0 for not saying hello but your store is penalized for it.

    Posted 1 year, 6 months after the fact
  22. Just:

    Corparate Safeway and their secret shoppers are nazi's. The secret shopper program does force the employees to give service but only makes it more bland and impersonal. Haft the time the employee is smiling but inside alot of them feel beligerant to the customer and safeway. If you have to spy on the employees to make them do their job then what does that say about your company?

    Posted 1 year, 6 months after the fact
  23. I AM NOT A CROOK:

    This is probably way late, but I work for Safeway. Mystery shoppers are paid by Safeway to be sure that ALL shoppers have a quality experience. MS do NOT hunt for bad behavior. They want you to succeed in your customer service. They get paid very little for a lot of tedious work. They have to work undercover - if they are discovered, they are terminated. If you work for Safeway, and do not care about serving their customers, then go find a job where you can Supersize someone's order. Most SW employees make WAY more than the "Shopper Nazi". Why not always just try to do the best job possible? What do you care if you have to cut open a cake, or take someone to the dog food aisle? Isn't that what you get paid for? Get over Mystery Shoppers. It's NOT personal. They don't know you. They don't want to know you. They're not in the store that often. Sometimes, managers even ask for a shopper, just to check out a problem they suspect. The store is actually more of a target than any employee or department. Shoppers know what you are TRAINED to do. Just DO IT! You will get a positive shop and make more money than the Nazi. Get a grip...

    Posted 1 year, 7 months after the fact
  24. Chris Boano:

    I just got hired by Von's and I am very pleased that they do have this secret shopper program. It will keep me on my feet. While many people do not worry about a situation when a manager is not around but in fact that customer that you are talking to may be a "Manager" (at least report to my manager). So I want to be sure to offer the customer my very best service. Anyone who has a problem with this type of job has probably got something to hid, so they had better start looking for a new job.
    I also like the idea that Von's does not offer the self check out station like at Albertson's. Von's offers a more personalized check out service and is probably just as quick.
    Von's is very customer oriented unlike most (if not all) of their competition.
    Good job Von's.

    Posted 1 year, 8 months after the fact

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