Christine the Curmudgeon

Christine the Curmudgeon gets annoyed when supermarket checkers don’t know the identity of various items of produce.  However, I can cut them some slack when it’s an unusual variety.

However, I take issue when the cashier listens to what some 17 year old punk kid, who looked stoned, deems to be the true identity of the produce, rather than that of me, the person who is buying said produce.  Hey, if I’m buying it, I obviously know what it is, or else I’d not be buying it.  Right?

This is what I was buying – these are called tomatillos.  They look like little green tomatoes, but in actuality, they are not tomatoes at all.

I wasn’t surprised when the cashier at the Stop & Shop didn’t know what they were.  I was about to tell her, when some punk kid nearby told her that they were ugly tomatoes.

This is what ugly tomatoes look like.  These actually ARE tomatoes, completely different from my tomatillos.  They also cost almost twice as much as tomatillos.

I tried telling the cashier that no, they were not ugly tomatoes, but tomatillos, and they cost $1.99 a pound.  But she listened to the dumb stoner kid instead of me, and rang them in as ugly tomatoes.  To the tune of about $7.50, when it should have been about $4.00.  Then I had to argue in order to get her to ring them up correctly.

This sort of thing is why I hate Stop & Shop.  You can’t win when trying to buy produce.  They do have these self-service scales, where you can enter the PLU of the produce, and it’s supposed to generate a price label complete with bar code.  That way, all the dumb cashiers would have to do is scan them.  Too bad these machines have never worked, every time I’ve tried to use them.

After one particularly frustrating experience with these scales, I went home and fired of an email of complaint to Stop & Shop corporate.  I complained not only about the scales not working, but about a cashier who was so dumb that she could not identify broccoli.

A S&S rep wrote back, apologized, and said she would look into the issue of the scales, as well as training cashiers in Produce Identification 101.  She also sent me a $10 gift card.  That’s what they always do when people complain…I had once complained a few years ago about some cashier who mouthed off to Mike over HER screw-up, and we got a lame apology and the $10 gift card.  I guess that’s their idea of business gifts, you know, gifts to customers to get them to come back to your store.

But obviously, this was never done, as the scales STILL do not work.  Maybe I’ll have to email them again to complain, and see if they send me another gift card.  I never ask for them, they just send them.

So why, you may ask, do I still shop at that store?  Well, usually, we don’t – we much prefer Shaw’s or Market Basket.  But tomatillos are kind of hard to find.  They are used mostly in Latin cuisine…I wanted them for a roasted pork loin recipe from Rick Bayless.  Rick is an authority on Mexico and its cuisine, is the author of many cookbooks, and is host of the PBS cooking series, Mexico:  One Plate at a Time.  You never really see tomatillos used in any other cuisines, not in Chinese, Italian, or American foods, for example.  So unless you live in a primarily Hispanic neighborhood, they can be difficult to find.

Anyhoo, this particular Stop & Shop is the only place I’ve been able to find them.  This store does have the benefit of having a larger selection of ethnic foods than other stores around here do.  So I just go there when I need something I know I won’t be able to find at Shaw’s or Market Basket.

At least I know that this dish is very tasty, and will be well worth the aggravation!

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