Stupid deli workers, annoying as fucκ

I like my ham wafer thin - on the point of breaking up. I find the texture of processed ham quite unpleasant, but significanlty better when thin. It happens also to be quite a lot cheaper, but the reason for the preference is taste. The following is my routine every time I'm at a meat counter.

"Hi, will you cut me some of this ham, please?"

How many slices?

"If you could cut it as thinly as possible and then show me the cut, I'll say then"

Almost every time the person either asks, again, how many slices I want and I have to repeat the previous, or they just get on cutting without acknowledging they've heard me, which really grates, especially considering what happens next:

Over comes the ham, and they say, "That's as thin as I can get it," as if already defensive of their effort. I buy ham at least once a week and I get wafer thin ham each time. So I know that it's far in a way not as thin as it can be cut. (It's not that I'm asking they go to the unexplored outer-reaches of the machine's capabilities.)

Some will insist that it cannot be cut thinner, inspite of my claims that it can and was days before. Or they will say, "Well that's as thin as I can cut it" - the implication being "take it or leave it".

I ask that they try again. [Irritated intake of breath.] Over they go. Big turn of the knob. First slice comes out completely broken up. (I can see they feel vindicated!) A small turn of the knob. And out comes a wafer thin slice of ham! Success!

No one has ever apologised or acknowledged their mistake when they've gone back and been able to cut thinner. I'm polite throughout. But I leave feeling angry and disrespected.


I've probably read a mock dialogue on here before. And I guess I probably thought it was exaggerated for effect to the extent that it was unreliable. But, I promise you, this is my routine. If the scenario differs from the one above, I start to wonder if the world is spinning off its axis or if I'm being served by the future Deli King or something.

Samaris wrote: »

The ham thing can be awkward. It does take a bit of skill to cut many types of ham wafer thin, and it very likely is true that this particular person has trouble cutting them very thinly even though their colleague is a dab hand at it. The cut of meat adds to it - I'm not great with which cut is which, but the ones that have an eye and then a large "rind" around it? Those are far more difficult to cut than the more solid ones, as the eye slice and the rind slice tend to fall apart. Secondly, it's harder to sell the failed slices and a scolding from the deli manager is incoming if there's slices that don't fit the ones in the counter (as people tend to avoid buying slices that don't fit the pattern of what's there).

That aside, one is always going to get the occasional customer that wants the very thin (or more rarely but sometimes) the very thick slices (occupational hazard if they then complain about the price!) and one just has to get over the trepidation and get good at it. That's a specific skill that one only learns on the go, since generally you don't get practice cutting unusual slices, so it seems to hit a lot of people as unnerving when they are confronted with it the first couple of times, especially under the eye of the customer. In my experience anyway!

That's a reasonable post. But I struggle to accept what you say about it being a skill that must be attained through much practice. This is a routine that I've gone through approaching a hundred times now and none of them seems not to have the skill when I ask that they go back. But my main irritation is the way I'm treated. I'll accept anything from someone who's polite and apologetic!

This post has been deleted.

reason vs religion wrote: »

I like my ham wafer thin - on the point of breaking up. I find the texture of processed ham quite unpleasant, but significanlty better when thin. It happens also to be quite a lot cheaper, but the reason for the preference is taste. The following is my routine every time I'm at a meat counter.

"Hi, will you cut me some of this ham, please?"

How many slices?

"If you could cut it as thinly as possible and then show me the cut, I'll say then"

Almost every time the person either asks, again, how many slices I want and I have to repeat the previous, or they just get on cutting without acknowledging they've heard me, which really grates, especially considering what happens next:

Over comes the ham, and they say, "That's as thin as I can get it," as if already defensive of their effort. I buy ham at least once a week and I get wafer thin ham each time. So I know that it's far in a way not as thin as it can be cut. (It's not that I'm asking they go to the unexplored outer-reaches of the machine's capabilities.)

Some will insist that it cannot be cut thinner, inspite of my claims that it can and was days before. Or they will say, "Well that's as thin as I can cut it" - the implication being "take it or leave it".

I ask that they try again. [Irritated intake of breath.] Over they go. Big turn of the knob. First slice comes out completely broken up. (I can see they feel vindicated!) A small turn of the knob. And out comes a wafer thin slice of ham! Success!

No one has ever apologised or acknowledged their mistake when they've gone back and been able to cut thinner. I'm polite throughout. But I leave feeling angry and disrespected.


I've probably read a mock dialogue on here before. And I guess I probably thought it was exaggerated for effect to the extent that it was unreliable. But, I promise you, this is my routine. If the scenario differs from the one above, I start to wonder if the world is spinning off its axis or if I'm being served by the future Deli King or something.

What a hot house orchid you are.

Oh and if you are constantly meeting with an attitude from deli workers, the common denominator is you. Think about that for a second.

Hollister11 wrote: »

I was ordering a sandwich once, and I'm a vegetarian so I asked her to change gloves, clean knife and surface ect.

She got the bread, first thing she did was put a slice of ham on the bread. She realised what she did, took the ha. Off and used the same gloves and bread that touched ham to make me the sandwich. ****ing scumbag, I ripped through her and the manager. Refused to go back, until I had a job interview there. (Got the job, and the deli worker quit that week) Goodridance. Serves the idiot right.

Samaris wrote: »

Because when someone makes a mistake, admittedly a very silly mistake, your automatic reaction is to call them a "****ing scumbag", to rip into them, then rip into the manager to ensure that the manager rips into them again after you've left, smug in having stuck up for vegetarian rights, and apparently to later bully them into quitting, if that was the inference there. I'd be mortified if I felt my presence drove someone out of their job because of how awful I'd been to them, rather than celebratory.

A normal person would have courteously interrupted the worker so they'd realise what they were doing and getting things back on track again. Sure, s/he shouldn't have done that and was probably on automatic, but your reaction just didn't improve anyone's day at all. It's even deeply embarrassing to be in the queue watching a customer throw a tantrum, hold everyone up, and turn the worker scarlet, let alone actually be the worker in that position.

S/he was -wrong-, bur you sounded horrible.

Couldn't agree more, Samaris, the way she was treated for a mistake doesn't paint the poster in a very good light. And if they are exaggerating here to engender sympathy? Swing and a miss!

__Alex__ wrote: »

As Samaris explained, it can be quite tricky and as delis often have a high turnover (wonder why?), not every worker might have the knack. We only have your side and if you are constantly detecting attitude, well, every action has a reaction and considering how often this apparently happens to you, I'm guessing they're reacting, not acting.

There's nothing wrong with wanting your ham wafer thin, but personally, I never expect delis to make my sandwich exactly how I would make it myself at home. If I hit upon a place that makes sandwiches I like, I vote with my feet and go there. I don't get huffy about places that make things differently to how I like. Restaurants vary widely, why not delis?

As I responded to Samaris, it's not sufficiently tricky that every single time they go back to cut it as I ask, they manage.

The attitude I get is resistance, not snark. How am I culpable for bringing that on myself? And I resent that you're maligning my character, picking and choosing from my account what suits.

Are you comparing making a restaurant meal, let alone a sandwich, to the simple task of cutting ham?! Are you comfortable with them being similarly blasé about how many slices I get?

Samaris wrote: »

To be clear, reason_versus_religion; you don't sound particularly rude in how you go about it (unlike the other poster!), and my comment was more to give the other side, that it's probably not down to sheer bloody-mindedness or anything. What you're looking for isn't unreasonable, just a little unusual and takes a bit more focus than doing it normally. The slices are also very inclined to fall or fold over on themselves messily, so it takes a bit longer to ensure you end up with a neat pile you can wrap without it looking like a disaster zone.

Appreciate that! Being indirectly called an asshole by others.