Mine (and your) Room101 exhibits

[sg31]

'can I get

I agree, but the politer alternatives are also ambiguous.
The pedantic response to "Please may I have..." would be "Yes - you have my permission...".
And the response to "I want ...." would be "Indeed - thank you for letting me know"

Even forms with a transitive verb such as "I would like to buy..." or (the awkward) "I would like you to sell me ..." have a similar snag.

The blunt "Sell me this XYZ please" is correct - it is a request rather than an expression of feeling - but is not the very "Could I possibly trouble you to sell me this XYZ if is isn't too inconvenient" British way. We are just too wretchedly polite!

Legally a shop displaying goods or advertising them is considered 'an invitation to treat'.

In a situation where you are being offered a number of items it seems reasonable to specify which of them you would like to buy.
By saying ' Please may I have,' 'I would like,'' I want,' 'I would like to buy ' and 'I want' you are simply offering to make a contract and specifying which items are to be included.

(In view of the nature of the thread I apologise in advance if my grammar, spelling, punctuation, reasoning or general demeanour irritate any reader who may now or at any time in the future cast their eyes over this post)

[AleisterCrowley]

I'm expecting them to put their own bags on the 'scales' (bagging area) and load them as they scan.

Have you ever actually tried that? It takes forever when it insists on calling the supervisor every other item, and then gets into a state where even they can't deal with it and politely suggest taking the bag off. Even if it didn't, it takes *a lot* longer to pack a bag item-by-item than all at once.

Yes, EVERY time I shop at Tesco and Sainsbury's - it works fine.
If you press the use own bag option it should take the bag weight into account just like any other item. Frequent issues are probably down to the particular checkout/scales rather than the fact one is using one's own bag.

[kiloran]

And while we're on the topic of self checkouts, another gripe...

"Unexpected item in packing area" (or the Morrisons' silly "Surprising item in packing area").
What is unexpected or surprising about buying a loaf of bread or a tin of baked beans in a supermarket? A Kalashnikov.... now that would be unexpected

--kiloran

[AleisterCrowley]

I'm expecting them to put their own bags on the 'scales' (bagging area) and load them as they scan.

Ideally, that would probably be a bit faster, but in reality I've found that:

* The machines tend to object to one's own bag (or at least to mine) and call the supervisor over to check that it's OK (my guess is that this is deliberate when a bag is a bit heavy, to deal with those who 'inadvertently' have let something fall into the bag). That often takes long enough to more than wipe out any time savings. [Works fine with a 'bag for life' or similar. Trying to use a really heavy bag probably will cause issues. ]

* Packing order can be awkward if one has something like eggs that one wants both at the top of one's basket and at the top of one's bag - transferring things from one place to another works most quickly and easily if one can simply transfer them one at a time, roughly reversing the order. So doing two transfers basket -> packing area -> bag does the job rather more smoothly than a single basket -> bag transfer. [Never been a problem for me. Easy enough to scan heavy stuff first from a basket. If you've got a trolley - go to a proper checkout!]

...
Gengulphus

[AleisterCrowley]

And while we're on the topic of self checkouts, another gripe...

...
What is unexpected or surprising about buying a loaf of bread or a tin of baked beans in a supermarket? A Kalashnikov.... now that would be unexpected

--kiloran

Not in a US Walmart....

[Howyoudoin]

The rise of 'fake' news and all purveyors of it.

https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/ ... e=5C4E46A1


HYD

[madhatter]

Folk

Comes from the Old English “folc” doesn’t it?

Indeed it would be difficult to complain about “young folk today“ wi’out it.

[bungeejumper]

"Unexpected item in packing area" (or the Morrisons' silly "Surprising item in packing area").
What is unexpected or surprising about buying a loaf of bread or a tin of baked beans in a supermarket? A Kalashnikov.... now that would be unexpected

It's the lightweight items that confuse them. You've scanned the birthday card, or the packet of seeds, or the packet of crisps if you're that way inclined, and put them with the other stuff, and the machine says:

"Please place the item in the bagging area."


"Please place the item in the bagging area."


"Please place the item in the bagging area."


"Please place the item in the bagging area."


"Please place the item in the bagging area."…….


I wonder if a good punch up the bagging bracket would make a difference?

BJ

[kiloran]

"Unexpected item in packing area" (or the Morrisons' silly "Surprising item in packing area").
What is unexpected or surprising about buying a loaf of bread or a tin of baked beans in a supermarket? A Kalashnikov.... now that would be unexpected

It's the lightweight items that confuse them. You've scanned the birthday card, or the packet of seeds, or the packet of crisps if you're that way inclined, and put them with the other stuff, and the machine says:

"Please place the item in the bagging area."


"Please place the item in the bagging area."


"Please place the item in the bagging area."


"Please place the item in the bagging area."


"Please place the item in the bagging area."…….


I wonder if a good punch up the bagging bracket would make a difference?

BJ

No, nothing so extreme. I used to have similar problems, until the assistant told me to just press the button "I don't want to bag this item"
I guess we should RTFM

--kiloran

[melonfool]

In that situation I just pick the half full bag up and dump it down again.

Only works if the single elastic band is not the *only* thing you are buying I guess.

Mel

[Gengulphus]

No, nothing so extreme. I used to have similar problems, until the assistant told me to just press the button "I don't want to bag this item"
I guess we should RTFM

Your local shops make manuals to help one use the self-service tills available??? 8-)

Gengulphus

[kiloran]

No, nothing so extreme. I used to have similar problems, until the assistant told me to just press the button "I don't want to bag this item"
I guess we should RTFM

Your local shops make manuals to help one use the self-service tills available??? 8-)

Gengulphus

If only! But it was there on the screen if I cared to look. Never noticed it before the assistant pointed it out

--kiloran

[bungeejumper]

I guess we should RTFM

Your local shops make manuals to help one use the self-service tills available??? 8-)

I think he may have meant Return To Food Merchants.

BJ

[Rhyd6]

The Island or Ireland, a phrase that irritates the excrement out of me. There is Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ireland or Eire these terms are usually understood by those of us living in Britain. The Island of Ireland seems to have become the new "go to" BBC speak. I will not get annoyed by the BBC, I will not get annoyed by the BBC. Thank the deity of you choice for the off button.

R6

PS. I used a self service checkout once, I decided life was too short for this vision of hell.

[Gengulphus]

No, nothing so extreme. I used to have similar problems, until the assistant told me to just press the button "I don't want to bag this item"
I guess we should RTFM

Your local shops make manuals to help one use the self-service tills available??? 8-)

If only! But it was there on the screen if I cared to look. Never noticed it before the assistant pointed it out

Yes, I realised that... On the other hand, why should I think that "I don't want to bag this item" is an appropriate button to press when I do want to bag the item??? Its function is not obviously to tell the till not to expect it to be put down in the bagging area - as an example in the opposite direction, I've had times when my shopping consisted of a few reasonably small items plus a large pack of loo roll or washing powder. I want to put the small items in a bag, carry it out in one hand and the large pack in the other - no point in using a bag for it, especially as I may not have a big enough bag available. But the bagging area is the obvious place to put the large pack down while I pay...

Basically, if the button is meant to mean "I'm not going to put this item in the bagging area", that's what it should say! (And yes, I realise that presumably wouldn't have made any difference to whether you realised the button was there - but IMHO it does to whether the blame can be laid on a failure to RTFM: it's instead a failure to write TFM correctly.

On-screen instructions that don't say what they mean are a really top candidate for room 101!

Gengulphus

[melonfool]

The Island or Ireland, a phrase that irritates the excrement out of me. There is Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ireland or Eire these terms are usually understood by those of us living in Britain. The Island of Ireland seems to have become the new "go to" BBC speak. I will not get annoyed by the BBC, I will not get annoyed by the BBC. Thank the deity of you choice for the off button.

R6

Funny, I heard "the island of Ireland" today for the first time, I was like and telling the radio that Ireland is NOT an island. Idiots.

Mel

[swill453]

The Island or Ireland, a phrase that irritates the excrement out of me. There is Northern Ireland, The Republic of Ireland or Eire these terms are usually understood by those of us living in Britain. The Island of Ireland seems to have become the new "go to" BBC speak.

I don't see it as BBC speak, or politically correct, or even particularly contentious or political.

It's simply that the contiguous chunk of land sitting to the west of us on the other side of the Irish Sea has become very relevant, as a single entity, in br*xit-related discussion.

Given that it's an island, and contains the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, then the "Island of Ireland" seems to me to be a reasonably succinct way of referring to it.

Have you got a better one?

Scott.

[GoSeigen]

...with another armed guard to escort my wife and I to our table.

The use of "my wife and I" instead of "my wife and me".

If you are not sure which to use, try the sentence with just "I" or "me".

"...with another armed guard to escort I to our table" is wrong; likewise, "...with another armed guard to escort my wife and I to our table" is also wrong.

"...with another armed guard to escort me to our table" is correct, likewise, "...with another armed guard to escort my wife and me to our table." is correct.

One of my annoyances too, but actually there is no correct/wrong in language, just more or less inconsistent or more or less standard -- until we have language law and police anyway. My wife manages to get "me and my friend" and "my friend and I" reversed on close to a 100% basis, so I guess she is at least partially consistent! And thankfully she does't use the horrendous "myself and my friend"!

Speaking of politicians saying "eh", am I the only one who gets riled by the use of "eh" in place of the usual indefinite article "a" [schwa] by politicians and media persons who presumably want to sound important or weighty? I'm guessing it's an Etonian affectation that has mysteriously found its way into public life...


GS

[Watis]

"Irregardless"!

A colleague uses it all the time in place of the correct 'regardless'.

Even the spell checker on this website isn't happy with it.

Watis

[bungeejumper]

It's simply that the contiguous chunk of land sitting to the west of us on the other side of the Irish Sea has become very relevant, as a single entity, in br*xit-related discussion.

Given that it's an island, and contains the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, then the "Island of Ireland" seems to me to be a reasonably succinct way of referring to it.

Exactly. It comes as no surprise that people get confused when we use so many names for so many things. The British isles include the Republic of Ireland; Great Britain excludes Northern Ireland until you make it "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"; and the island of Ireland has made geographical sense for the last few million years, even if we happen to have allowed some of it to secede. (Including the northernmost parts of Northern Ireland, which are part of the south.)

And then there are the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, which are something else again. Pass the headache pills.

BJ