Supermarket gripe No.1

I was in a bit of a rush on Friday morning and had to stop off for some bits in ASDA that I wouldn't have time to pick up later. There are entrances at either end of this vast supermarket so I pull up at the end nearest the stuff I want. I get out and check the pay & display machine to find have got there a fraction after 0800hrs which is the time you have to start buying tickets. Okay. Have I got a quid for the machine? No, I have 90p. Sod it. Chance it or go and get some change? Okay, I'll walk up to the other entrance where they have a kiosk to get some change. I wait for some exciting float-deposit action and the person in front of me to get served, then:

"Hello, can I have some change please?" - proffering five pound note.
"No, sorry, you have to get change at the customer services desk." - nearly at the other end of the shop as I look towards it.

Arse.

"No hang on," says another member of staff. "It's not open."

So, I get an apology and some change and walk all the way back to the car at the opposite end of the supermarket, get a ticket and go in to get what I want.

Two minutes later I come back to the nearest checkout and realise no tills are open. I wander up to the barrier so I can see down the entire line of checkouts and realise that out of what must be 25 checkouts they are all empty, apart from, oh-yes, with my binoculars I can just make out two open checkouts right at the other end.

It is obviously too much for the manager of such a vast supermarket with two main entrances and the intention to open just two tills at this time of day to have the mind-shattering foresight to open a checkout at each end, for example, as that might possibly be useful to the customers. Oh, hang on... that would mean the two people on the checkouts wouldn't be able to sit and have a chat though. Bugger.

So I walk all the way back to the other end of the supermarket and pay. Then exit. Then walk all the way back to the other end of the supermarket to get my car. Bloody marvellous.

Now, most of the staff in ASDA seem quite nice, even if some do appear to have been brainwashed by the ten-point smiley customer checkout plan (or whatever it's called - check out the bit of perspex they have to look at when serving you). I don't genuinely know first-hand how evil and ruthless the Wal-Mart machine is, just what I've heard other people saying, however I think it's kind of heartening that even such an allegedly well-oiled, world-dominating retail behemoth can still piss off their customers with such an obvious lack of consideration. Or perhaps it's just a sign of the way things will be if they get it all stitched up the way they want it?