This Is the Most Obnoxious Thing You Can Do at a Grocery Store — And Too Many Shoppers Are Guilty of It
Smartphones are practically everywhere — including the grocery store. And, while they absolutely make shopping easier (and could even help us save hundreds), these mobile devices can be as annoying as they are useful — especially to the people shopping and working nearby.
Answering a text in the middle of a crowded aisle; holding up a finger to ask a deli worker to wait while finishing a phone call; taking photos or videos for social media while others are trying to shop anonymously in their daytime pajamas; scrolling through videos or photos while blocking whole displays or checkout lines … These are all disruptive, not to mention disrespectful, behaviors to everybody in the store. But, in my opinion, the very worst one — that’s becoming an alarmingly common practice — is using your speakerphone.
A good majority are considerate enough to pop their headphones in before using their phones in public places, but there are plenty who don’t. It’s not just shoppers trying to keep young kids occupied as they’re weaving through the store aisles, either. Too many people are answering FaceTimes, attending Zoom meetings, and watching TikTok videos (at times with explicit content) as if the grocery store were their living room. Some even blast music, like performing this everyday chore entitles them to a personal soundtrack.
Shoppers like me are noticing, and annoyed.
Too many people are answering FaceTimes, attending Zoom meetings, and watching TikTok videos as if the grocery store were their living room.
The range of rage varies from irritated curiosity to all-caps PSAs on Reddit. “It’s obnoxious,” says Tricia Hindman Dittlau, an everyday shopper in Atlanta, GA, with strong feelings about speakerphone use in captive spaces, like standing in line at an airport, deli counter, or checkout line, “especially when the volume is loud.”
This relatively new trend is (unfortunately) not limited to grocery stores, either. It’s “one of my daily annoyances,” wrote one Reddit user about shopping at Walgreens. It can also make workers’ jobs more difficult; a former Walgreens employee had to stop assisting one customer to help another whose speakerphone was so loud, it was hard to hear anything else.
Frank Palermo, a fishmonger in Sayville, NY, recalls an elderly customer who always had her husband on speaker when shopping at his seafood market. “They would argue for what seemed like 20 minutes regarding what to eat for dinner … I started yelling over her to talk directly to her husband. It became comical, but it was beyond rude.”
It’s been more than 20 years since Chris Abed worked in a grocery store, but as a paramedic in Long Island, NY today, he finds speakerphone use disrespectful and, potentially, an invasion of privacy for the persons on the other end of the phone, in the store, or both. It’s definitely invasive if you’re the one with the medical issue, or a condition easily triggered by the noise.
Supermarket employees don’t feel empowered to ask shoppers to turn their speakerphones off.
For example, someone with a condition that makes them sensitive to certain sounds, like misophonia (*raises hand*), hyperacusis, or autism, the tinny quality of cellphone speakers and repetitive high pitches of children’s games and shows can be a veritable nightmare. In some cases, it can actually trigger panic attacks, much like the way flashing lights can trigger photosensitive epilepsy.
Yet supermarket employees don’t feel empowered to ask shoppers to turn their speakerphones off. In fact, several attempts to get managers to weigh in for this article, even anonymously, were fruitless; They each expressed some fear that speaking about a store’s policy could jeopardize their jobs. One Kroger employee referenced a past lawsuit caused by a confrontation over questions about service dogs, which cost the company millions, before hurriedly ending the conversation.
What this means is that the solution lies in empathy, compassion, and consideration by individuals for those around them. So please, go ahead and pop in those earbuds, mute those games, or just wait to doomscroll and video chat in private. Everyone will thank you.
Have you noticed more people using their speakerphone at the grocery store? Tell us about it in the comments below.
Further Reading
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