Why are the lines in supermarkets the slowest and the longest in Europe? Usually only very few employees work

Why are the lines in supermarkets the slowest in the EU?

Usually only very few of supermarkets employees work.

Everyday I see large supermarkets have huge waiting lines, you have to wait even 20 minutes to buy a kg of apples,

and the most crazy thing is that only 1 or 2 paydesks are opened from 10.

I have never seen all paydesks opened,

Are polish supermarkets owners the greediest in the world?

Sounds like your last visit to Poland was about ten years ago. I remember it being like that at one time but it's improved a lot. I've never had to queue for more than ten minutes and they have those self-service checkouts now in a lot of places, if you only have a few items.

Polish supermarket owners? There aren't very many. Most of the large supermarkets are French or German, not owned by Poles.

Right now as we speak I live in Poznan, I moved here in June from Lublin.

The situation is like this in every large supermarket from both cities.

Ask them at customer service what the problem is. Ask to speak to a manager and complain.

Atch I'm jealous

My local Tesco is a nightmare, I prefer to drive the 10 minutes to Lidl than go there. Old people everywhere and the people on the tills must have the education of slugs or something. I spent 20 minutes this morning queuing with 10 others for one checkout while other staff stacked shelves and looked on in slack-jawed wonder. Only for the poor hound had no breakfast I'd have left.

It's a common occurance here too, so usually I do the big shop in Lidl. Also avoid all Beidronkas for the same reason, really slow. I wish they'd bring in those awesome self-service tills everywhere

I do not speak polish to complain. It seems laziness is a total characteristic of supermarket employees,
everything moves slower than anywhere else in Europe

You need to learn a simple phrase.

'Proszę, można otworzyć nową kasę?'

It means please can you open a new checkout....I sometimes get a grunt when I do it but more times than not they ring their little bell and another one is opened whenever someone bothers turning up.

Y'know, I don't blame the people working there, I wouldn't work hard if I was getting paid pittance either, but I'm lucky that I'm in a big city and I can just drive to better shops

Have you ever been to a store in Germany? I'd be happy to only wait in line for 20 minutes.

Been to Germany 5 times this year, I find the customer experience in supermarkets there about 1billion times better, more choice too.

Got to say the supermarket here annoy me.

1. They stack shelves but leave stuff in the middle of the aisle so you cant get past them.

2. Staff pretend to be busy when they need to open a new checkout, you have to shout at them to do it (Works tho)

3. Selling stuff that is out of date, a common practice here.

4. They just throw stuff across the till (sometimes causing damage cakes and stuff) , and don't give you a chance to pack.

5. Always expect you to have loose change, it's their shop,up to them to have cash in tills to run it.

6. When waiting at the fish or meat counter you can be completely ignore by staff if they are gossiping or moving a few thing around.

7. people trying to barge the queue at the meat counter.

Having said the above its no big deal, after all I am in Poland as the locals say, Fair enough I am getting damn good at shouting and barging like a local.

One of the main reasons is that they don't keep the right change in the till and the Pole's also never get their payments ready while they stand in line

also seems to be a lot of holding up items and then shouting at someone to get the right price, so their scanners might be old.

I think Lidl is very good though - till line always moves quickly and they have the correct number open.

Here's the phrase Mr Atch gave me for that situation:

'To jest sklep. To Pan/Pani powinna wydać mi resztę a nie ja Pani!'

This thread has already provided two useful supermarket vocubulary phrases for the learner of Polish :) Not that you need it Dolno. By the way the other day when I was rambling on about something, I most unintentionally lumped you in with the 'hysterical' Poles on the forum. You're also an exception, cast in the same mould as Ziemowit, a proper Polish gent!

Yep lidl is probably best I agree.

Funny just been out to Biedronka , as usual couldn't get to the chillers for a stack of pallets , potatoes had gone slimy, onions no better really.

One breakthrough a lady on the opposite checkout recognized us and went out of her way to say hello, so off to Lidl tomorrow to get fresh onions potatoes and chilies, for the life of me I don't know why someone would buy slimy onions and potatoes , someone must, they have sacks of them.,

Oh the other trick they have is to peel the slimy skins off the onions and the put them back on the shelf, they are usually still rotten inside the core.

Atch Thank you for your kind words, but my wife would be the first to tell you that I am still prone to some Polish hysteria at times (getting less as I get older).

I must admit if someone started lecturing me about change at the till I would be tempted just walk away leaving all the stuff behind, but my wife would step in and sort me out.

I think it's unfair to lump them all in the same. My local Biedronka in Kurdwanów was always quick on the bell when the queues mounted up and they got a new one open in no time. I won't blame the staff for some of the Babcias moving at the speed of light to get in front of you in the queue only to lose all concept of speed once there.

"Babcias moving at the speed of light "

They are like racing snakes, I have never been able to beat one to a new checkout it's like they have a sixth sense.

Hilarious, thanks for that dolno, :D

And British and Portugese.

Although Intermarche and small Carrefours ("Carrefour Market", if I remember well) are franchise branches, so they are not owned by Carrefour. Leclerc, I think, as well, although I am not sure about that.

Hahahaha! Brilliant :)