I would only do it if there was something in the top basket / trolley (I might if the wheel sticks, but I tend not to realise that till I'm in the store and I can no longer be bothered to go back), and even then I'm more likely to just take the end one from a different row of trolleys (unless it's really busy there are usually three or four rows at most supermarkets here)

As for taking things off the shelf, same as others have mentioned; fresher is usually at the back (though I always check dates etc. just to be sure it is fresher) and also items at the back haven't been handled as much (worn in the case of clothes, sampled in the case of toiletries or just squished about and touched in the case of food).

I'm not a germaphobe, but I have reasonably bad OCD and I wouldn't bother wiping down the handles of a trolley... life is too short for that shit...

Everything you said just sounds like life as normal haha

Shopping trolleys are filthy. They never get washed and kids are snot machines, which is a bad combination. Still, washing hands when you get home should be more than enough, and taking the second trolley or basket is basically a placebo. I always check the sell-by-dates on bread and other perishables. You don't need to have worked in retail (I have) to know that when stacking bread, employees are asked to put the freshest loaves at the back. For all I know the rules are different in America though. Maybe the 80% sugar content makes their bread effectively immortal.

Since you brought up grocery store behavior, drives me nuts that people park their cart near the center of the aisle, blocking traffic. Some do so not just by putting it in the middle, but also by angling it a bit instead of being parallel to the aisle. And, of course, they have no peripheral awareness, to be able to see that the cart is in the way of others trying to use the same aisle.

<move the cart>

"Oh, sorry about that"

<see them in the next aisle, cart in the way again>

"Oh, sorry about that"

I'm pretty sure sergeant Detritus will not appreciate that remark.

^ This!

Anyone watch "Impractical Jokers"? It's the greatest show on TV IMHO. XD

Anyway they do a lot of stuff in grocery stores. My favorites where tossing toilet paper into people's carts and seeing how much they could take out of people's carts before they noticed.

Yes, saw that the other night. Some people actually got involved moving the trolley around and stuff. Very funny. Some of their stuff is classic, the whole Whinnie interview was very funny.

Maybe we should do a forum version...

I never noticed this when I worked at a grocery but then again I was too busy talking to the cashier chicks most of the time

Have never seen such. It's definitely not common here. Probably only means that they make themselves more work than necessary for little outcome - unless there is a reason to not take the last basket/cart in your area??

I also work in retail, and if this is your biggest peeve, I want your job.

Things that are worse than OCD customers:

1) Finding half-eaten bags of chocolate or candy on a shelf somewhere. Usually at 5:30 a.m. Nice of them to not pay for their snack, and then leave it for me to clean up.

2) Someone who decided that they don't want what they picked up in aisle 3, so they set it down... on the bottom shelf in aisle 26. Bonus points for when they toss it behind the stuff that's supposed to be there.

3) Shoplifters who decide to leave the box behind (often because it's electronically tagged) and feel the need to bury it under half a ton of other stuff, like a cat covering up their mess in the litter box. Thank you, o thieving one, for not only cutting into next year's pay raise by reducing the store's profit margin; but also for leaving me a completely unnecessary 10-minute straightening job... with a fabulous "prize" inside.

4) That one shopping cart by the bus stop, all the way at the other end of the parking lot. Or even better: at the train station, three blocks away. Bonus points for when it happens to be freezing and/or raining.

5) Extreme couponers, post-holiday shoppers, and other bargain hunters.

6) That guy trying to put $500 on a Visa gift card. In the middle of August. At 2 a.m.

7) Everything, basically.

Five blocks away, in an apartment building, on the fifth floor (yeah, I saw that when going up the stairs to my place on the eighth floor).

I think he was referencing the slices within the loaves. Having that been said, I'm pretty sure they are supposed to put the freshest in the back.

One more for the list: Unbought perishables are not returned to a refrigeration unit by the customer. They are just left on a random shelf.

Not exactly, around here it is a common practise for the store owners/workers to put the oldest stock first in roll in order to be picked first and so if you want a fresh stock you have to get something from the middle at least.

Aah ninja'd by markrichardb :D