Mrs Sensible had a little bit of a fall out with Ipercoop today. She was studying the cost of a bottle of fizzy water and found Levissima, a premium brand, was priced at €0.48 for a pack of 6 bottles and underneath was marked the price of €0.05 a litre. This was truly a bargain, it was almost as cheap as tap water, so much so I nearly ran out and fetched a couple more trolleys so that we could take 500 litres home. I was already dreaming of what a bath in fizzy water might be like.
Mrs Sensible asked a shelf stacker if they were really selling fizzy bottled water at 5 cents a litre; he looked at Mrs Sensible as though she was stupid and said “of course it was an error: nobody would sell water at 5 cents a litre” Mrs Sensible was still talking to him, when he turned his back and walked away!!!
Now, Mrs Sensible is normally a calm and controlled person, but in circumstances like these she tends to quickly switch to teacher mode, so I was surprised that without commenting on the shelf stacker’s manners, she turned on her heel and wheeled her trolley off towards the entrance like a Formula One 1 racing driver.
Unaware of what was going on in her mind all I could do was to run after her trying to catch up. At the Punto Ascolto (Customer Care Desk) she explained to the supervisor, a tall and kind lady who looked a little German, that the shelf stacker had been very rude to her whilst Mrs Sensible was really only trying to do them a favour.
She explained that if they didn’t change the price tag quickly, a hundred people (because we would phone them all) would rush here and demand to buy fizzy water at €0.05 a litre given that under a European law, shops are bound to sell their merchandise at the marked price, despite any spurious pricing errors that might have occurred.
The German looking Customer Care lady tried to contact the head of the water department and said to Mrs Sensible “a shelf stacker has not the power to change price tags, but yeah, he shouldn’t have been rude, sorry….”
As the person in charge of the water department was nowhere to be found, the lady at the Punto Ascolto headed quickly towards the incriminated area, followed by Mrs Sensible and her trolley, followed by me, still a tad confused.
Together we examined the price tag and, yes it did say 9 Litres of water for € 0.43. The tall lady said “it is a big error and thank you for pointing it out, but only my colleague can change the tag, that is when she arrives from God knows where…” At that point a small woman who looked no more than 25 appeared panting and puffing: she had obviously just run from her office or just finished a marathon. She started babbling something that sounded like a lot of nonsense to me.
The argument about the cost of a bottle of water once again escalated: the small woman tried to justify the mistake saying that the tags always show the price of one bottle, trying to convince Mrs Sensible that she was wrong and they were right and therefore it was no problem; Mrs Sensible, on the other hand, was pointing at the price tag arguing that it clearly showed 9 litres for € 0.43 and said € 0.05 a litre; the small woman was still trying to explain a simple maths equations to Mrs Sensible not knowing that my wife teaches maths.
As Mrs Sensible broke into teacher mode, the little woman was producing ma, però , ecco, (but, so, maybe) sounds whilst the helpful assistant kept repeating “Togli il cartello! TOGLI IL CARTELLO!” (Remove the price tag!) I was enjoying the tennis match between the three of them when suddenly I heard Mrs Sensible shout “Cos’ha da guardare così in cagnesco?!?!” What are you glaring at me for? Now, it’s not often I hear her shout at people, so horrified and wide eyed I turned toward the direction of her words, where I saw the shelf stacker half hiding behind his boxes and glaring at Mrs Sensible.
“Io vi sto facendo un favore!” I’m doing you a favour she shouted, before people realize they can demand to buy water at the marked price! He was bellowing back angrily when the small lady was struck by a bolt of pure inspiration and decided to remove the price tag and the tall helpful lady yelled Grazie al cielo! Finalmente!
As we wandered off towards the meat counter I asked Mrs Sensible: “So how much was the water?”
Is Mrs. Sensible still speaking to you?
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Yes she is 🙂 I made her a cup of tea
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did you make the cup of tea by boiling Levissima bottle water?…. 😉
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We paid 24 cents a bottle….. Too expensive for tea
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About half the stuff sold by the supermarket in Toledo old town is out of date. MrsS would have a field day!
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I will send her over.
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Please! If anyone can sort out this town, it’s her! I have every confidence in MissS. Also, my printer’s up the spout…
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If it is warm over there, she will come. It is starting to turn cold here. PS she doesn’t do printers but she is a great cook.
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She’s on!!! 21 degrees, back up to 26 by the end of the week, so the forecast says.
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Very funny. Fizzy water or is it fuzzy water?
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Probably fuzzy 🙂
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We buy fizzy water for 0.05 a litre here in Casoli CH from the fontana di comune a pay as you fill water machine in town.
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There is one of those in the next village, but it tastes a bit strange and it was broken last time we went.
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Ipercoop isn’t the only one doing a whoopsy in that manner:
http://money.aol.co.uk/2013/09/18/money-savers-caught-out-by-tesco-glitch/?icid=money|DL_2_link
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101105565
Bless the shelf-stackers. They don’t know the half of it! I’m waiting for V.W. to offer a Golf GTI for 25p because someone forgot to add a few zeros. One of the few occasions on which I’d thank the E.U. for its laws. 😀
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Thanks for the link I was looking for this. I thought it was Asda 🙂
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You’re lucky you didn’t get a litre bottle in the head! 🙂
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I just wanted to know if she had managed to get the water for 5 cents a litre or if I needed to take the other 5 shopping trolleys back to the carpark
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Ha ha! I was starting to wonder if your feeling poorly was directly related to Mrs Sensible’s fury 😉
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Nope my doctor told me I was a sick man….
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Well I hope you get better soon! If only for Mrs Sensible’s sake!
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She hopes so too. But I think I can drag it out for at least another week 😉
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The video probably just gave you ideas!
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She made me cook today!!!! Me a sick and wounded little soldier.. Even when I made lots of coughing sounds and the occasional moan she didn’t come and take over. My days of sickness are numbered.
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Ha ha, I love that woman!
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Stop taking sides..
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i loved every second of this! let’s celebrate by shaking up and shooting a bottle of fizzy water all over the place.
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Just like in the Formula One races? You should have seen how Mrs Sensible manoeuvred her shopping trolley and disappeared down the aisle. I couldn’t keep up.
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This was an amazing story though I was a bit distracted because I thought the brand was Iperpoop. Clearly my mind is not all here today.
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Lol Ipercoop is a huge supermarket. I have gone off it because their fruit and vegetables always look fresh until you get them home and within 24 hours, the carrots are soft and look good enough only for our hens. But their bottled water is cheap, or so we thought.
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Mrs Sensible most definitely rocks. I want her to come and sort out the Pit bull at the scan-you-own tills. Maybe we could bludgeon her into submission with bottles of fizzy water.
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I am thinking of renting her out, kind of like a hit squad for troubled places. She doesn’t need a catering facility because she is an excellent cook..
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So… how much WAS the water? Did you put any in your trolley? I am dying to know…. 😉
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We put it back and bought the cheap stuff 🙂
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Very sensible! 🙂
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When the teacher mode is on, one tends to be unstoppable. Thanks for this! Had a good chuckle! 🙂
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When Mrs Sensible turns teacher mode on, it is best to answer sorry or maybe yes, otherwise one should start looking for an exit strategy.
The funniest time I saw her go into teacher mode was when a Carabinieri (Italian army police) stopped our car and then tried to tell her that the UK on my English licence stood for Ukraine and because I was British I couldn’t use a Ukrainian licence in Italy…
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Haha. I can already picture it out in my mind without you even describing it! Thanks for sharing.
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Am trying to figure out what is funniest on this post: the story or the pictures? Oh, both! Well done, Pecora! And cheers to Mrs Sensible for standing her ground 🙂
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The funniest bit for me, was either watching the three of them discuss the price of a bottle of fizzy water whilst waving their hands about, or maybe the face of the shelf stacker when Mrs Sensible told him off. 🙂
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And all that was priceless 🙂
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Another normal day in Italy 🙂
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Mrs Sensible would have field day in my village as the shops have no checkouts just a (duh !!) girl with a piece of paper and a biro. Ralph 😀
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Thanks Ralf, I am negotiating sending Mrs Sensible t a trouble spot in France and then t Spain, she can stop off at your place on the way back. 🙂
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I need to add my words of praise to you. I do look forward to reading your blog, and looking at the stuff you use to illustrate it. You’re truly inspired. I hope you’re all better, very soon.
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Thank you, we get a lot of fun not just from living in Italy but from writing about it and finding pictures to illustrate it.
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I would have phoned the 100 customers after the talk with the rude shelf stacker:-)
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🙂
It was very entertaining to watch Mrs Sensible in action.
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OMG, I laughed all the way through this. What a smart man you are not to intervene and try to stop Mrs. Sensible. 🙂
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She is a force to be reckoned with.
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I wouldn’t have done them the favour, I would have stocked up on water at that price and let them deal with their own problems. Ms. Sensible is a much nicer person than I.
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PN, Mrs. Sensible should have checked her cart load of water first, then reported the discrepancy. About the time the water lady refused to admit the price was wrong, you two should have loaded another cart full of H2O and marched to the checkout counter.
And your parting comment? I think you and my honey must be related!
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