Possibly semi-literate

[tualha]

So I'm at the supermarket, and I want to buy some Bertolli pasta, because of their gay-friendy ads. There's lots and lots of Barilla pasta (they of the gay-unfriendly gaffe), and lesser quantities of various other brands. Don't see any Bertolli

Comments

[kiwiria]

Sounds to me less like illiteracy and more like an issue of reading what you think it says rather than what it actually does say. I do that all the time when I just skim something.

[babybeluga2003]

I don't think this is stupid per se, although it's made a bit worse because he was supposed to be providing you service. I'm guilty of this all the time though. I think most people do it pretty frequently. Our brains like heuristics.

[redbird]

Or possibly a hearing difficulty: if you're listening for key words (which people in that sort of customer service job do a lot), "Bertolli pasta" doesn't sound that different from "Barilla pasta." (Vowels are remarkably malleable across dialects.)

When you asked "What does that say?" it was also a clue that you cared about the brand name.

Looking for non-Barilla pappardelle did remind me how much of the market Barilla has. (I'm looking for Ronzoni, which is the pasta I defaulted to where I used to live, but I'd have to go to a further-away supermarket and wasn't up for that yesterday.)

[qafaddiction]

It's unfortunate that the two names are so similar, because until you mentioned Barilla, I was thinking Bertolli was the company who made the gaffe. Perhaps the person helping you out made a similar error, given the "B" and the two L's. Of course if I was going to purchase some pasta, I would probably Google the news item to be sure I boycotted the correct one. LOL

[eolo]

Having worked in customer surface most of my laugh, most of what my clients say have little resemblance to what it actually is, if I've had a penny for each time people described something bright red or with glitter "natural" I'd have a lot of pennies, but I don't think he was that stupid and you were just mistaken for a customer who doesn't know what he's looking for.

[dandelion]

This happens all the time in pharmacy - "I need some ommyprazzle and some Dom Perignon".

[stasia]

That sounds like a great combination! I'll have a big bowl of the Ommyprazzle and a neverending flute of the Dom.

Cheers! *raises flute to toast you*

Stasia

[daundelyon]

There are some medication names I won't even try to pronounce without looking at them. Amuses patients to no ends some days. :)