Said customers often go on to vent their frustrations at the cashier.
Fine, but I am filling my whomping sack with 34 cans of Campbell’s soup. That I will purchase in the quick lane.
I think it depends on store/cashier. I once bought IIRC Sobe, which was like 10/$10 at Safeway. You still get the deal if you buy 1, but I ended up grabbing a bunch. The cashier was huffy because I got 2 of each flavor, so she couldn’t just scan one and key in “x10.” Had to scan each one, presumably for inventory purposes?
And agree that two different peppers are two items. The green ones are usually much cheaper, anyway.
Ok, so I’m getting a little leathery myself and had to have a broken tooth pulled this year. I’m not going to pick on the white trash, they have enough problems in this economy. I want to gripe about you younguns.
I live in a college town. It’s September. Squirrels are diligently gathering nuts; the weather is about to get crisp – football is in the air. You’re a fine young thing with a basket of food – mostly produce – at the self-checkout. I’m right behind you in line. It’s an exciting time for you: after spending a year, maybe two, in the dorms you’ve moved into your first place. The summer has been spent on the elliptical. You lost that freshman 15 and are determined to eat healthy, hence the produce.
You scan a can of Spaghettios. Good eatin’ there. Then you try to scan a hand of bananas. You try again.
“You have to weigh them,” I say.
You look at me confused, but finally put the bananas on the scale, flip through a couple screens on the display and receive the order to move the bananas to the belt.
Then comes the red pepper. It has a sticker on it so it must scan, you think. You try to scan it a second time, then a third. “Goodness, gracious,” I mutter under my breath.
I step over and receive a glare as if I’m some creepy high school health teacher. “The produce sticker has a four-digit code that you have to put in,” I say. “Some things like peppers and onions are sold by weight, others, like lemons, by number. Put in the number, the computer will tell you what it needs.”
Five minutes later, after much confusion and operator error, the ten items are safely ensconced in plastic bags and, without so much as a “Thank you,” you’re on your way.
For the past three years or so, since my local grocery store put in the self-checkout lanes, this scenario has played itself out three or four times. And when it comes to my neighbors who are from abroad, I’m very understanding. These young adults, though, – and they’re usually, but not exclusively women – are people form my own state, maybe my own city who have never shopped before, at least for food. It’s a Goddamn disgrace!
C’mon. In most public high schools in the United States we have courses --required courses – in which young people learn how to put condoms on penises. Couldn’t we at least offer an elective on how to go to the fucking grocery store?! Damn kids.
That made sense back in the days when they’d ring up the price of those fourteen Cup-O-Noodles once, then punch in ‘14’ for the quantity.
Nowadays, when they run every item past the scanner whether you have one or 40 of them, the appropriate measure of how many items you have is how many scans are involved.
The item limit is like the speed limit. There’s a lot of wiggle room and that’s the way it should be.
This time it’s the leathery toothless old woman in front of you with a few extra items, but next time it may be you and you should be happy that it’s a very bendy rule, otherwise you and your 15 items will be standing behind a long line of people with 200 items each.
Which is understandable when you note that the cashier is the embodiment of the organization that posted the “12 items or less” rule, and pretty much the only one in a position to enforce it.
But cashiers understandably don’t want to play the bad guy, and often have been instructed not to. This leaves conforming customers in the position of either feeling like jerks for confronting a rule-flouter, or saps for putting up with it.
How much wiggling can you do past 12 without reaching 13?
How much over 55 mph can you drive without getting a ticket?
I’d say if the item limit is 12, going through with 15-18 items is ok. 20 is pushing it. 24 is being a jerk.
But just like the speed limit, I’m not in charge of enforcement.
I haven’t used a trolley shopping for 10 years or more, just a basket or bag, so I use the express lane a lot.
Years ago I was behind this young couple who had a trolley load of stuff and had obviously not noticed the 12 items or less sign. When they started putting them on the belt people behind me noticed and started bitching and moaning and the young couple were quickly uncomfortable.
I turned around and said, “Don’t worry, I’ve checked their trolley and they only have 3 items - food, cleaning products and other stuff.” A few people laughed and all was forgotten. So I’ve used it again since that first time.
You seem to have missed an essential point: Unlike driving above the speed limit, violating this rule directly inconveniences all the shoppers behind you.
The analogy would be valid if exceeding the speed limit caused all the cars behind you to slow down. Which would make it a truly obnoxious thing to do.
So what did she have… 14, 15 items? A bag of apples counts as one item, even if they aren’t bagged.
My standard line: It’s said that 20% of Americans can’t read or count…and most of them are standing in the express checkout lane.
I wouldn’t personally go over 12 items but I wouldn’t be mad at someone who went a few items over. I’d be more annoyed by someone who had three items and paid by check or had coupons. I think if it fits in a basket instead of a cart it’s ok.
Personally I’d like to be able to get in the aisle when I do the prescan and bag in cart option since even though the cart is full, they only have to scan one barcode and there’s no bagging to do. I should give it a try.
I’m almost 46 and I don’t have them, either. The OP is a whippersnapper. Also, he should GET OFF MY LAWN. 
Walmart sign makers need to go back to school. The signs should read “or fewer.” Target and Miejer get it right.
I just long for the return of “cash only” checkouts. I’m always getting stuck behind someone who has to write a check or has some issue with three or four different credit or debit cards.
I so agree with this. To me, debit isn’t any faster. Since all boxes aren’t the same, everyone has to enter their pin, read the screen, verify total or whatever, read the screen..and so on.
There should still be cash only lanes for people like me that just want to hand over bills, gather change and be on my way.
Oh, I LOVED playing the bad guy. The express lane was the only time I got to say no to a customer. When you work in retail for years, it’s something you learn to really appreciate.
Totally agree but I would take it a step further, here’s the sign:
Express Lane
If you’re a bad-ass mofo shopper that doesn’t f*ck around and just wants to get in and out and not hold up every other bad-ass mofo shopper behind you, then this is the lane for you, otherwise get your ass over to coupon-alley-start-writing-a-check-after-you-get-the-cigarettes-and-then-can-i-buy-this-candy-bar-separately-because-it’s-for-my-boyfriend-and-we-keep-our-transactions-separate lane
What if you have a coupon that allows you to exceed the express line quota by 3 items can I take 15?
Not that I’ve ever seen such a coupon, but if they started to exist perhaps more people would respect the limit.
Put three things back – those are the rules – I’m asking you real nice.