The inevitable trip to the grocery store! Something that can not be avoided but the differences between grocery stores here versus back in Canada are stark, leaving me to wonder what exactly are the Swedes doing.Firstly, most grocery stores here seem very cramped for space. Its understandable that space in the city center is at a premium and the interest is to use the space as effectively as possible however with the manner that aisles are spaced you have a hard time fitting two people down one without stepping on top of one another. As a minimum they should space these so that you can comfortably fit two people.
Perhaps the biggest most irritating part of the entire Swedish shopping experience originates at the check out line. Now this is normally the final impression you have of the store so a speedy passage through the checkout leaves a good impression however instead you wind up with a bad taste in your mouth. Normally there are far too few check outs open leading to long lineups and on top of that the people working behind the till take their time in processing peoples goods from their comfy seats, while the rest of the people are standing for ages in the lineup.
You also find those that think they are making a contribution to the speed of moving through the checkout by meticulously placing each and every item in a perfectly neat line on the belt with all of the UPC codes facing upwards. Not only does this take forever and results in slowing down the whole process but i dare anyone to prove that all this actually has any positive effect on the speed of moving through the cash register. The people working behind the till have a scanner in two locations, and any item moving past them will easily be caught by one no matter what direction they are facing. I suppose that we should be lucky we don’t have to take a number just to get into the lineups to pay as opposed to many other Swedish services.
Just a little rant!
The Swedish word of the day is Tålamod which means Patience.
i also think swedes are seriously obsessed with queues,i am sure a swede would unneedingly join a queue to hold someone up.someone pointed out to me that they dont interact so much so being in a queue is a way of achieving that
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