I have to agree that people are idiots- or just incredibly lonely and love the companionship of the checkout person. I don’t let the checkers bag my stuff, because I am faster than they and as such I am usually half way to the door by the time they try to hand me the receipt.
Cash Only??? that’s exactly how to get all of the antiquated slow people out of the fast lanes!
In my corner of Canada we don’t really use cheques anymore. In fact, most people I know only have cheques to pay their rent.
Debit and credit is so much faster! I’m in Japan right now and paying cash for everything and I feel so slow. Gotta dig through the wallet for the right yen note, and deal with all these pesky 1 yen coins…ugh. Back home I do debit for everything.
To elaborate on my points above;
People don’t read signs. This is a fact of life. No matter how big you make the sign, no matter how many signs there are, people will stare right at it and not register its existence. In my store, I’ve had people ask me where the eggs were - while they were standing on the right aisle, less than ten feet away, and there is a giant sign on the wall above the cooler that says “EGGS”, which is in fact plainly visible and legible from six aisles away.
You can put up all the signs you want that say no checks, no cards, no coupons, etc., but one way or the other, some people will fail to see them.
Which brings us to point #2: enforcement. What happens when that customer who fails to read the sign gets to the register, gets rung up, and presents the wrong kind of payment medium? The business has two options; accept the payment anyway, or void out the order and make them stand in another line for however ungodly long the lines are at this store.
Option #2 risks provoking a fight with the customer and/or losing the sale and possibly their future business entirely - doubly so, since people who have a bad experience with a retailer are more likely to tell others about it than if they had a good experience. Making that particular register incapable of accepting that kind of payment medium doesn’t make a difference to the customer who just wants to pay for their stuff and go home.
So in the end, what’s easier for the business - making customers follow the rules, or making customers happy? That, basically, is why this sort of thing doesn’t work out. It’s easier for the store management to placate the customers who don’t pay attention at the expense of slightly inconveniencing others, than it is to provide a so-so experience for most at the expense of teeing off those people most likely to raise a stink about it.
I’ve never had a client try to pay me with EGGS, but I did have a client who tried to pay me with a chicken. I declined and asked for a cheque instead. He seemed to have cheque and chick confused. One of these days I should get around to taking payment by chip reader, for as noted by kushiel, cheques are not that common in Canada other than for rent payments.
Once upon a time, paying with cards was a real time-waster. The clerk first compared the card with a printed list of bad cards, then put the card through a mechanical imprint device, then dialed the CC center, occasionally put on hold, then got an authorization number and finally required your signature. Now I stick the card in the machine, accept the amount, enter a PIN and wait maybe ten seconds for approval. I think it is generally faster than cash. Since either I have to look for change or the clerk does or both.
What I cannot understand is why the local dept. store is giving a 15% discount if you pay with their CC (it is an MC in fact, but with their name on it). They are actively discouraging cash payments.
The purpose of selling items to you via store credit rather than cash or debit card is to make interest on the loan that you use to pay for the goods.
My current discover card never seems to take when I swipe it - and I always feel a pang of sympathy for the people behind me. I swipe it twice, then hand it to the cashier.
Why the swipers at the store don’t work, I can’t understand - it has worked 100% of the time in gas pumps.
Check writers annoy me. If you *must *write a check, be prepared. Have the check book out. Have a pen. Don’t wait until you get the total to start looking for either of those.
I used to have a friend who only used checks. When he wrote a check for 7.46 I always thought: right, because who would want to carry that much cash around…
Simple fix - round up/down to the next dollar. Make line “Card or cash only. No change accepted or given”.
You must choose cash or card first. Rounds out for the store, some customers win some loose.
A little gambling at the grocery? How can human nature resist?
“I was at the store yesterday and the cashier stole 53 cents from me! I demanded to see a manager and he said it was my fault for going through the wrong line! Can you believe the nerve? I’m telling the rest of my quilting circle to to go to Other Grocery Store from now on!”
You’re doing online shopping wrong.
The answer is Amazon. Almost everything qualifies for free shipping, which isn’t that slow at all. On top of that, you can opt for Amazon Prime and get free second-day shipping. There’s even several ways to get Amazon Prime for free. Amazon Student, Amazon Mommy, etc…
Also…you’d be paying tax if you got it retail, too…so I don’t get that complaint. Especially since (IME,) actually getting charged tax online is pretty damn rare. 
Oh God, please let some store do this. All the “fuddy duddies” can go to the Other Grocery Store, and those of us who know how to pre-swipe our CC, and/or use a self checkout can be in and out of the grocery line in 30 seconds.
So no eggs, but I wonder if anyone’s tried to pay with donuts.
Just seconding Amazon prime, here. I’ve had items weighing as much as forty pounds delivered second day delivery for free. Or if I really REALLY need it NOW I can pay a flat fee of $3.99 per item to have it next day, typically less than twenty-four hours after purchase. They are currently working on a SAME DAY delivery service.
I’ve had similar happiness with Walmart online. They have site-to-store for free. Some orders consisting of certain items past a certain amount ship free. I’ve had large items shipped to me for only 98 cents. They are also pretty good about beating their delivery dates.
Online shopping has come a looong way in recent years!
I usually (depending on how many items I’m buying) have the cheque partially filled out and signed, and am just waiting for the cashier to tell me the total.
Used to be I didn’t even have to fill it out or even sign it - just handed the cheque to the cashier and let the register fill it out - but about six months ago Stop & Shop’s computers decided they hate my bank, so now I have to fill it out completely and sign it, and then if the cashier is new, he/she/it has to call a supervisor over to assist. That’s the real time-waster…
You’re doing the internet wrong. You’re assuming everybody lives in the US. In Canada, for instance, there’s no Amazon Prime, which doesn’t really matter anyway since Amazon itself only sells books, DVDs and other such media.
Is that only in Canada? Because you can get almost anything at Amazon.com in the USA. Looking at the Canadian website, there seems to be less than for Americans, but more than you describe. Prime is indeed not available for Canadians, but you still get free shipping on orders $25 or more. Just buying a blu ray disc would just about do that by itself. Just saying.
It’s moot, because in Canada we all have personal shoppers, so none of us wait in line, be it cash or not. In fact our largest drug store is specifically targeted at the personal shoppers who act for seniors, and thus calls itself Shoppers Drug Mart.
Amazon.ca doesn’t list most of the stuff on the US site (food, furniture, kitchen goods, stuff you wouldn’t find at a Best Buy). If you try to buy something on Amazon.com it will tell you they can’t ship to your address.
Indeed. Reading complaints about too many people using cheques at the checkout is like reading complaints about too many people smoking in the grocery store.
I wish more stores would have just one line. Then when you’re at the front of the line, you just get called to the next available cashier. This way you don’t have the problem of getting stuck behind some dumbass who argues for minutes over 10 cents.
Word.
A very good way of reducing the frustration.