Saving the supermarket-queue culture<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): \"Antri dong!\" (Queue up!) is not the sort of
\nphrase one yearns to hear, it is, however, an oratory prompt that
\nmy ears are abuzz to audibly perceive.<\/p>\n
I discovered recently that along with the globalization of the
\nlast decade, there is a specific genesis of a nouveau generation
\nof queue jumpers. A generation which believes that \"who-jumps-
\nahead-gets-ahead\" and are a social menace to some passively mute
\nvictims. Perhaps it is a result of raised stress levels or maybe
\njust a celestial conspiracy that has inadvertently attracted the
\nproverbial line jumpers toward some of us recently.<\/p>\n
The one rare place you can see people religiously adhering to
\nthe simple etiquette of forming a line is in movie theaters,
\nwhere the threatening presence of green-uniformed men means no
\ntickets if one is caught jumping the queue. While movie theaters
\ndo not face this problem often, queue-jumping is grossly abundant
\nin Jakarta's supermarkets and stands out like a wart on the nose
\nin the mushrooming mega grocery stores of Jakarta.<\/p>\n
I was beginning to believe that perhaps my perfunctory
\netiquette was just not Indonesian enough. Was it being
\nantisocial, if one were to grudge the man who slips in front of
\nmy stuffed cart with one item in hand at the supermarket check
\nout? Was it not required of him to even ask if he could pay for
\nhis solitary purchase before I unloaded my cart?<\/p>\n
As most supermarkets have a solitary weighing machine in the
\n\"Fresh produce\" department pushed against the wall, this is the
\neasiest place where one sees the supermarket-queue culture at its
\nworst. People are left tottering on their toes behind the
\nattendant, in a sort of tap dance to get their fresh produce
\nweighed. Since the attendant's back is up front there, shoppers
\nare left to their own means of getting their unweighed bags onto
\nthe metal tray first. Carrefour has constructed a wonderful oval
\nsort of table with three weighing scales -- it would be nice if
\nthey had an attendant behind each one of them -- and aisle ropes
\nto restrain queue jumpers, too.<\/p>\n
Very often, the attendant who is going to grant me the visa
\nfor proceeding to the cashier is missing-in-action and has to be
\nfetched first. Invariably as I return triumphantly with attendant
\nin tow, there is a bored looking customer with a bulging plastic
\nbag already balanced on the scales who has beaten me to it.<\/p>\n
I cringe inwardly while the tails of my bean sprouts curl and
\ntake their last breath. By the time all her plastic bags are
\nweighed, there is another interesting phenomenon slowly
\nmaterializing that never fails to amaze me. Slowly and silently,
\nlike the courtiers of Julius Caesar, other entities brandishing
\nyet-to-be-weighed plastic bags zero in on all sides on \"my
\nattendant\". But this is no Ides of March and before someone
\nbarges in and gives me a chance of exclaiming Et tu Brute, I
\naggressively swing my stickerless bag onto the gleaming tray and
\nget my visa to exit the country of \"fresh produce\".<\/p>\n
If only the attendant would take the initiative of maintaining
\norder and utter the pious words Tolong Antri! (queue up please),
\nlife would be so much easier. No stress of pushing and shoving. I
\nwould not be surprised if someday a survey were conducted and the
\nresults say that 15 percent of heart attacks are triggered by the
\nfruit and vegetable-weighing counter of a supermarket.<\/p>\n
I have heard people's supermarket sagas -- friends admitting
\nto committing ignominious acts of desperation in the fresh-
\nproduce battlefield. Frustrated at the commotion, one said she
\nsaw a packet of weighed and labeled vegetables discarded on the
\ncarrots stand and triumphantly flipped it into her shopping cart.
\nThat evening her family had to plow through one kilogram of lotus
\nstems at dinnertime. I have even heard of a desperate someone who
\nresorted to bribing another lady shopper for her weighed and
\nlabeled packet of French beans.<\/p>\n
But what is a regular supermarket shopper to do? Short of
\npledging to stop eating fruits and vegetables that have to be
\nweighed, there seems to be no other solution other than declaring
\nwar and getting the jump on the jumpers at nonexistent queues.
\nAfter all, \"if you can't beat 'em, join 'em\".<\/p>\n
The supermarket-queue culture in our country is fast vanishing
\nand if we do nothing, it will soon be as extinct as dinosaurs. So
\nwhile Greenpeace volunteers save the bald eagle and the blue
\nwhale, let us find a spot on the HI (Hotel Indonesia) roundabout
\n-- somewhere between the \"Gus Dur turun\" (Gus Dur step down) and
\n\"Anti communist\" demo banners and plant one that reads -- \"Save
\nthe supermarket queues\".<\/p>\n
--Pavan Kapoor<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/saving-the-supermarket-queue-culture-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }