A trip to a Polish supermarket

I did that once and got escorted out...but then maybe groszy means something different in the local dialect???

yeah they are miserable cows. we had a laugh with my boyf when we went to this shop and this woman literally never lifted her head up to look at us ha ha. there was this space just in front of her to put your basket on (kinda like in poundland in uk) so we went to do that and she's like no no, take your shopping out and put the basket away. yes ma'am! she never said hello, thank you or goodbye. stoopid byatch. made us laugh tho, she was obviously having a bad day.

It means tiddler here in Silesian, gtd ;) Couldn't leave u uninformed, know what I mean amigo?

THATS why she was so offended. I thought I was fulfilling her request.

sing them the song 12 groszy next time

you may have misunderstood my reply. :)

Groszy can also mean inches ;)

are you sure?

I prefer to measure things in centimeters. Gives a bigger number and makes me feel more manly.

12 is still short tho, ;) The 12 groszy song, LOL

ha ha that's a bit sad :( lol

Yes it is.....I never said I was proud of it :(

I did indeed but now I understand it. :)

So now I realise that no one has it right... :}

So how do they ensure the shoplifter stays put and waits for the police?

technically that's false imprisonment and you can't really detain the felon.

Whether it's false or not is not decided in the store by the store's security, or even by the cops.

In fact shoplifters are detained, and it is legal for them to do so if they have reasons to do so. A great amount of touching may occur and it does if the person resists, tries to escape etc. What actually happens varies from store to store and from state to state, but store security is not forbidden by any law from detaining a shoplifter if the process follows all the steps required by law, and if the amount of force used is adequate to the situation.

Well when I took business law in college they presented a few cases where the store owner actually got sued. Slippery slope but if you say so.

Of course they would have been sued. After all it's good ole' US of A.

Without any power to detain a shoplifter any security guard would be simply an additional waste of money, and frankly a laughing stock of all petty criminals.

omg.... it was driving me crazy when i was in PL... making the payment more complicated then it already was lol... just give me back my change! it's never happened to me in the us...

i hate shopping... it was always painful to watch when a woman (usually) cashier was slow with a customers in front of me, she had the time to chat with everybody around, but do her job, often didn't know the price of the product (somehow) and yelled through the store to find it out, and at the end this lovely conversation how much of a change i do carry... wrrr...

I didn't care. If I didn't feel like giving them 2.33 then I said I had no change and that was that.

Now, here I sometimes see people doing just that. They will offer the change so that they don't end up with yet another jar of pennies. Some cashiers (older ones) know what to do. Younger ones are confused because the monitor doesn't show them what to do in this situation, and they just can;t come up with the simple idea of applying rudimentary arithmetic in real life.

Great story! And so very true. If the issue is just a few groszy, I say to keep it. I don't want 9 groszy in my pocket anyway. And most stores are willing to give you a groszy to make it easier to change.

I am a bit upset about stores now charging for bags. This is silly. And a recent development. You have to get your own permanent bag, this is best way. I used my extra bags for picking up after my dog, though, so now my source has dried.

Mostly I get tired of aggressive people encroaching on my space while I am paying. Normally I look at them, say excuse me loudly, and wait for them to step back, with implication that I will not pay and let them have their turn until they move. Usually it works. You have to be willing to make a small scene.

I also have bad luck in front, there is often a soldier from Armii Moherowych Beretów in front of me paying in groszy one by one from a small bag. And grumpy kasa girl who gets easily confused, unable to do basic arithmetic, and paid too little. Next time you see one, try joking to brighten her day, although this does not always work... last one who asked to see ID for my card, I said, "why, do I look suspicious?" with smile, and she just answered with voice of steel, "yes".

Mostly street vendors of fruits and vegetables are more personable than corporations.

This is actually a good thing. Environmental friendly.

I am not upset about environmental impact, but rather not having free plastic bags anymore to pick up after my dog. It is the law now to pick up your dog's land mines. Everybody uses small plastic bags. So I have to ask you, would you prefer that people did not pick up after their dogs in order to be friendlier to environment? I know that's not a fair question because new policy is still being realized, but imagine Poland was fully compliant. I am tired of stepping on land mines on my way to the store and back, with arms full of produce. :)

Have you tried to go to the pet shop and ask for a kit designed to use for that purpose? It's about a quarter of the size of the plastic bag. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying moralize here, it's just very Polish when people try to find a shortcut to do anything.

Maybe this quarter-size bag is good for your little chihuahua, but my dog's land mine takes up a big bag.

And those specialized bag dispensers with the rolls are quite expensive. Every time your dog does his business, it costs 25 groszy for the special bag. That's 180 zł per year, or 2.000 zł over the lifetime of your dog. I think anyone who is interested in saving money would try to find a better way to pick up land mines. Call it frugality.

One tiny quibble - 'Armia Moherowych Beretów' and 'paying in grosze'. Groszy makes me cringe

You people really have run out of things to talk about, havn't you?

Przepraszam, ale ja powiedziałem "żołnierz z Armii Moherowych Beretów" i jestem pewien że mam rację. W tym przypadku to celownik i nie mianownik.

Jeśli chodzi o groszy to oczywiście masz rację. Podejrzewam, że ta druga natura tkwiła we mnie. Barrrrdzo mi przykro.

True, it went out of topic a little.
I like trips to a supermarket in Poland especially from the sociological point of wiew. There is nothing more amusing than watching people going crazy for bargains. I have even seen a fiew fights :)

Don't be silly, it's nothing :)