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The other day, while picking up some ingredients for dinner at my local grocery store, I stumbled upon an unexpected sight: every single potato was adorned with its own price sticker. I mean, I get it—potatoes are important, but seeing them all lined up with little price tags made me feel like I had somehow wandered into a bizarre potato fashion show. There were red potatoes, golden ones, and even some lumpy, misshapen ones, each boasting their own little sticker. It was like the potatoes were preparing for a runway, strutting their stuff with their price tags as if to say, “Look at us, we’re fancy and worth your money!”
The absurdity of it all struck me as I watched a confused elderly man trying to figure out why he had to peel off price stickers from six different potatoes just to get a good deal on a bagful. I couldn’t help but chuckle, imagining a potato manager somewhere with a power trip, giving orders like, “Each tuber must be accounted for! We must know our worth!” It was an ordinary trip turned into a potato comedy show, where the only thing missing was popcorn—and a potato no one could find because it was hiding under a pile of price tags!
H
When you give the new hire some busy work so they don’t mess anything up.
R
“Congrats, you’re now in charge of labeling potatoes. If you survive week one, we’ll let you graduate to bananas.”
T
And if you F up, you’re tagging rice
R
Violation right there
R
better than salt, or flour
T
Either that or malicious compliance. I could see someone thats assistant to the assistant manager up front in check out storm back on their break and complain that they had to sort several bags of different potatoes, and none of them had lookup stickers on them. She now they do.
E
And corporate was visiting
H
🤣🤣 I thought the same thing
T
Not a price sticker. It’s a PLU. Price Look Up. For the self checkout.
T
Every self checkout I’ve ever been to has a produce lookup feature. The codes are only for us OG produce workers that used to have to memorize them
S
Yes and LOOSE POTATOES DON’T NEED A PLU (I work in a produce, it’s super unnecessary and a waste of time, labor and stickers). They should have the price on the self check out or on a book, if not over the potato table.
A
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy
T
Not metonymy. A PLU is not a price sticker, and no one uses the terms interchangeably.
A
again, wrong, and either way, not needed. they have a list at the front with the correlating codes if needed
O
Not wrong, you can clearly see “code 4073” And id rather have the code than the lookup, faster and makes sure you get the right thing, plus are universal
H
And you think customers are going to bothered with searching and validating? Or are they more likely to pick the easiest option and select whatever is the first one they see? And then who’s gonna report later that they were over charged? These are all potential outcomes that can be reduced by having the PLU on the item itself I think you’re lacking real world experience and challenges in your understanding of the cycle of the grocery store. Seems like you definitely worked in one but were more of a grunt than manager
C
Ever self checkout here has a camera that detects and narrows down the option and then the customer selects from a picture, or can just do a a-z lookup
H
It’s because each type of potato has a different code (PLU) to ring up at the register so: A) you can be charged correctly B) their inventory stays accurate
A
Are there grocery stores that don’t let you pick from every potato at checkout?
H
The high majority of US grocery stores will allow you to select your individual potato’s and use weight based pricing. So if you buy 1 monster, 2 pound potato, you’ll get charged more than a baby potato Many also sell bags that are a certain weight. Those you’re really not supposed to open and pick from
A
Yeah I know the price is by weight. But all the stores I go to let you pick the exact kind of potato at the register so you don’t need all those stickers
H
Yes almost every self checkout has that feature. But most people don’t know the difference between a Gala apple or a Fuji apple. There are obvious ones like red potato and white potato, but may not know which one is a russet potato and which one is a baking potato. And that’s why this store thought it would be productive to add a sticker to literally every potato
H
That makes a lot more sense. Still the first time I’ve seen this here and have been shopping here for years.
H
The rise in usage of self checkout is probably the main reason why you’re seeing this now Before, it was done by the cashiers, whose job is to differentiate between Gala apples and Fuji apples and all the other apples that look alike
A
no, this is stupid I worked in inventory for far too long, I assigned the SKUS- this is grocer produce inventory. It’s based off of pallets. Each potato doesn’t have a different code. The inventory is accurate this isn’t Chanel holy smokes. I’m trying to be nice, but this is really silly. Someone did this as a joke or because they did not wanna work the register because working the register is the fucking worst he would rather do anything on the floor. Apologies for typos I’m speaking to my phone and apologize on your behalf for that incorrect explanation
H
Each type of potato has a code, a PLU code. Notice the potato’s, all the reds have the same code, a unique code to that type of potato. Now notice all the white potato’s all have unique number, which is different from the reds. For someone who worked in produce, I’m not sure why you’re referring to skus when discussing PLU This probably wasn’t done as a joke, this is to prevent shrink (merchandise unaccounted for) When your cashier (or customer) rings up a red potato as a white potato, now you have a shortage in your inventory of white potato’s (1 less than your physical count). And in turn, your inventory has an overage of red potato’s compared to the actual amount you have physically. This will lead to over or under supply, both are bad. Bad shrink and inventory control is one of the leading causes for store managers or higher to get the ax
C
These are not price stickers per se… They are PLU stickers. If you look at them, they say 4031, 4727, 4023, and 4083. Since they do not have barcodes, these stickers tell the cashier which PLU should be entered into the register by hand. It’s to ensure correct price, inventory, ordering, and statistics.
C
Damn those are some fine looking spuds…
B
J. R. “Bob” Dobbs takes this as a compliment, and gives you his blessing.
F
What u gonna make with em
C
Spud cake.
A
$3/pound for potatoes? That’s nuts
H
They’re actually potatoes, not nuts
C
They’ve been doing this to apples and tomatoes for ages
L
I guess there’s different ideas of what funny is.
D
It’s a PLU not the price.
W
Well, taters gonna tate I guess.
R
$3 a pound?!! That’s ridiculous! No wonder my grocery bill is so high. I thought $6.99 for a 10 pound bag was bad🙄
A
Came here to say this! Insane!
D
It’s not a price sticker, it’s for the PLU code. Even though the code is right there on the price sign, people will still walk up to you and ask “what’s the PLU code for this?”. It gets *really* old after awhile. So, I get why a produce worker would do this. Source: I work in a grocery store.
J
Oh man, show the hunky Canadian potato guy on YouTube
C
“I just think they’re neat.”
1
We all know who did this…
R
Oh wow..😅
S
I feel like this was malicious compliance of an employee to a jabby supervisor.
B
I would’ve done this just to be obstinate as a teen working at a grocery store
W
Plu code .. it makes it easier for the cashier to type in the code off the sticker instead of memorizing the code or having to look it up on a sheet
F
I’d guess malicious compliance.
H
Someone’s first time shopping at a grocery store?
W
That there is a man getting paid by the hour
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