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So - another little rant about the supermarket.
The other day I went there, and the year-long revamp of the shop is still under way. They are adding lots of shopping space in what used to be the parking lot, and there is work going on everywhere. The outside work is fine, but all around the shop there are guys on ladders and they are a health and safety disaster waiting to happen.
A few days before, they had been taking out the ceiling panels, dropping dust all over our heads. Now, they were upping the ante. I happened to have my camera with me so I surreptitiously took some pictures.The surreptitiousness compromised the quality, for which I apologize.
Look at this guy! (Click on the picture and you get a better look.) He is at the top of the ladder, using a drill. This drill is in his (hopefully steady) hand, right above those people's heads. Dust and bits of pipe were falling down. I'm still coughing just thinking about it. There were gas bottles sitting underneath the ladder, and I'm so glad I wasn't there when he used them. There was hardly any space for people to get their barrows past. To his right, there are open bags of bread on the shelf. There was another ladder and another guy with a drill just behind him. People were squeezing past the ladders to get to the meat. How many kinds of wrong is that?
This is at the checkouts, where there is usually a queue well beyond where there is now a ladder. See the wires hanging down and the toolbox on the edge of the lightbox?
They also had wires going across some of the isles, at neck height. No warnings or ladders in sight. Just white wires, ready to snap the heads off absentminded or optically challenged customers.
I'm considering upsetting my sacred routine and changing to another shop. I just can't cope with it any more. Shopping with two little kids is hard enough without that kind of obstacle course to contend with.
Crazy ladder climbing idiots with crazy drills and crazy wires showering me in crazy dust... *walks off muttering expletives* ...
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Happy Anniversary!!!
ReplyDelete(& go shopping somewhere else for a while - if they start losing customers they'll cop themselves on).
I'm shocked. I thought that Belgium was right up there with the northern european, sensible, safe countries. When did it get a bit of Mediterranean coastline?
ReplyDeleteWOuldn't you think that Belgium, home of all those EC laws, would have better Health and Safety stuff?
ReplyDeleteOh, and Happy Anniversary!
Happy anniversary!
ReplyDeleteH&S issues aside, I see that Belgium supermarkets looks as uninspiring as their Spanish counterparts. Oh how I miss Asda, Sainsburys et al...
Happy Anniversary!
ReplyDeleteI think remodeling should be done at night, when the mess and the presence of men on ladders wouldn't disrupt the shoppers.
Oh my. I would have knockered over the ladder, that's sure. I keep on bumping into things (and people, sorry!) when in the supermarket, as I am 'talking' to my little one.
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary! Quite impressive this is.
Happy Anniversary! Wow ten years is fab. If me and hubby haven't killed each other by then it'll be a miracle!
ReplyDeleteI can''t help but chuckle at your 'barrows' - I have images of shoppers with wheel barrows. You have trolleys in Belgium right? Cause if not the move is off lady. I ain't doing my shopping in no barrow...
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interesting blog. i grew up in a bilingual household as well
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary and that guy? Full of The AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary to you too!
ReplyDeleteThey should hand out hardhats with every barrow. Hardhats and tranquilizers. I hate grocery shopping
ReplyDeleteIn the US, when they remodel a supermarket, they wall off the section that is being worked on and when it is done they knock down the fake wall and voila! a whole new vast array of products on display. However, I think our stores are a good deal larger, like our waistlines and cars.
ReplyDeleteheaven forbid they do the work when the store is closed- on sundays, at night, or close it for a few weeks!
ReplyDeleteand "barrow"? that's certainly a term I've never heard before! What is that, short for wheelbarrow?
wires at neck height! sounds like the name of a horror movie.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary :)
This could be Italy!! - We've just had family over and they were all complaining about the health and sfety issues just walking down the road - as my Aunty said 'they don't seem to do pavements in Italy do they??'
ReplyDeleteSeriously, that's just all kinds of wrong. IS that a Colruyt store?
ReplyDeleteIt made me smile to see someone else mention the Spanish supermarkets. I had the misfortune of also being stuck in Spain for a short while and shopping was NOT FUN.
I meant Delhaize*
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary! I've been with my husband 15 years too (although married for 8). 1994 seems so long ago now... Those supermarket pics are something else - not good when you have little ones running around!
ReplyDeleteI posted a rant about supermarkets recently. Must be something in the air!!
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary indeed! A fabulous rant about the supermarket - hope you feel better for getting that off your chest! Award for you at mine. Enjoy! :-)
ReplyDeleteHappy anniversary Mwa and Babes.
ReplyDeleteSupermarkets can be a health hazard on a good day. Your supermarket is taking it to the extreme!
Yuk, Dust and food!
Happy Anniversary.
ReplyDeleteObviously, you should stay out of supermarkets.
@tinman18 - Thank you very much. I went to another shop today, but I'm so much a creature of habit - it's not the same.
ReplyDelete@Pueblo girl - I don't know. This is particularly bad for here, though.
@Expat mum - Thank you. And I know!
@Very Bored Housewife - They are. I know there's a lot of needless shop-pimping that goes on in the UK, but I don't think it would hurt to at least make the displays a bit prettier.
@Badass Geek - Thank you. And it so should. Or behind a partition.
@Metropolitan Mum - I'm a bit paranoid about that too. And thank you.
@Josie - Thank you. We have our days, too.
ReplyDeleteNo fears, you can still move. It's a Scottish thing, I suppose. Babes won't let me call it a trolley or a cart, it has to be barrow.
@Franzine Kafka - Welcome! Have you blogged about that? I must come and look that up. Otherwise you should because I love to hear how other people dealt with that, and what the problems were.
Aunt Becky - Thank you. Are you meaning the guy on the ladder?
@Erin - Thank you.
@michelle - Tranquilizers would be great. That would totally help with the experience. I hate it, too. Especially when it's busy.
@GingerB - That sounds like a far more practical way to do it. This is a particularly small shop, though. I was amazed when I was in Canada how huge some of the normal cars/trucks were. In the States, I've only been to NYC - there, the cars seem reasonable.
@Megan - Honestly, just Scottish I reckon. I double-checked with Babes, and he's sure he's always called it a barrow.
@Maggie May - We should make that movie together. In that supermarket. You free Thursday?
And thank you very much.
@Kathryn - Turkey is really bad, too. Huge holes in the road everywhere, and no warning.
ReplyDelete@Fatbrideslim - It is a Delhaize indeed, and I'm thinking of switching to Colruyt for the duration of the works.
@whistlejacket - Thank you. 1994 seems like another lifetime now.
@Lakeland Jo - In Britain that would be the artificially-scented-like-bread kind of air.
@Hot Cross Mum - Thank you so much for congrats and award! I did feel much better after that, thank you.
@Countess - Thank you. The dust does my head in.
@the mama bird diaries - Thank you. I really should. From now on, only restaurants for me.
Nice post - health and safety pictures ..Keep Posting
ReplyDeleteRon
health and safety pictures