I can’t be bothered with getting all junior high with what people do in the checkout line. I observe the rules myself and what others do is their business unless there is some direct attack.
I think everyone in the OP needs to grow up, with the exception of the cashier.
I’m fine until the person in front of me turns the process into a banking transaction, like trying to cash his paycheck, or get cash back, or pay with Bolivian money orders. Then I’m pissed at the customer and also the clerk for even entertaining such nonsense.
Or a haggling one. Or pulls out an exchange. Or says “this wasn’t tagged, can you tell me how much it is” or even if the money orders are just from Paraguay.
I think the Express Lane should be “baskets, no trolleys” and then most of the pedantic arguments can go jump.
A second Lane allowing neither baskets nor trolleys, i.e. items held in the hand, would be even better.
yeah, the lady was rude, but i’m with the “grow up” crowd. way to set a good example for your kid, dude.
i don’t get snarky with people at the grocery myself. i just look for the shortest line(which is not necessarily the express lane- there were dozens of times while working as a cashier i’d observe a line 6 people standing in the express lane while there were several other empty registers open) and go on my way.
I’ve never had anyone try to sneak in too, too many items. Then again, I often choose whichever line is shortest because they’re usually faster anyway. It’s the payment that slows things down most times.
Yesterday I was in the 20 or fewer line, with two heavy items I had to carry because there were no baskets. Murphy’s Law kicked in and the two women before me were over by several items, wanted to pay separately, with a combo of check and cash, disputed prices, put items back, and then asked for some things from the back.
I was seriously tempted to huff and snark, but it would have violated the rule of not letting others’ bad behavior drag you down to their level. All lack of restraint would have won me is looking childish and impatient.
I can understand the impulse though.
These days, I look for the lane with the fewest people, as it seems to me the actual payment procedure is what takes the longest. Unless the person has a totally overflowing cart that will clearly take 10 minutes to scan and bag, it’s really the line with fewest people that goes fastest, not necessarily the fewest items.
I’m trying to remember getting miffed at someone in the express lane for having too many items, and I’m not coming up with anything. It must have happened at least once, but apparently it wasn’t a memorable experience.
If someone is already at the cash register, I figure the cashier has waved them over. It happens to me all the time, so I figure it happened for them.
If someone is standing in line in front of me with a load that’s obviously way over the limit, I may be annoyed, but I’ve never said anything about it, huffed and puffed, or even rolled my eyes. It’s not that big a deal.
If someone is snarky with me, I usually just say “I heard you” or ignore them. I never engage, mock them, or get snarky back. Not sure why the OP felt the need to escalate the situation. Let the woman get upset and huffy. It’s not like it hurts you in any way.
I said very clearly in my OP that I was irritated and returned the rudeness. I’m not so pretentious as to pretend to be the Perfect Role Model All The Time on the intarwebs.
It was the way she said, “Yeah, this is the Express Lane. Aisle Six is for you.” That was ballsy.
A little bit less friendly? If there were other people behind her in the line, would it not your job to point this out to the lady, and would you not owe it to people stuck in line behind a fucktard like said lady to do so? If I’m a customer somewhere I would probably say something because if I’m going to be annoyed over something I might as well let someone else share in the misery, but if cashiers and others just did their jobs I would not have to bother.
Its really too bad we can’t come up with perfect comebacks at a moment. Like “oh, I’m here by royal invitation.”
So the lady got mad at you because you had *five *items!? Is there an Express lane in the world where five items is too much!? She sounds insane.
Well my friend had 4 things of soda and 2 dollar items. She left a dollar item in my section of the cart, so her total was 5 and mine was 11. I had toothpaste, mouthwash, 5 things of frozen food (all the same kind, not that it should matter), and three dollar candy items originally.
We didn’t line up there initially. We did the regular line. The cashier called us over.
I will sometimes very pointedly count my own items if I’m behind someone who is way over. “Yep, I’m OK,” I’ll say. Usually they’ll at least tell me to go on ahead. I’m sure it comes off as especially bitchy when I only have three items.
I wish my local store would limit the self-scanners to a certain number of items. I find that the number of items in one’s cart (or worse, carts) at the self-scanner varies directly with the amount of time one spends staring at the scanner between each item.
I’m Crawlspace and I whole heartedly endorse this message.
People had their whole lives to learn the rules, if they didn’t they need stern reinforcement.
No, but then I don’t remember ever being stuck behind someone with too many items so either I’ve been lucky or in very good moods those days. I’ve seen some stores that just have signs saying “Approximately X items”. Whether that’s to shut up the item-counters or the “fewer” pedants I don’t know but if it means I endure fewer annoying conversations about store signage, then I’m all for it.
I sometimes count the number of items other people have put down, but I’ve never challenged anyone about it. Getting stressed and correcting the behaviour of one person you’re not likely to ever see again is just hurting yourself.
There’s no point in getting peeved. In all likelihood, the person has been told to go to that lane because nobody is presently in line. Secondly, why get your panties in a wad over something you have no control over?
I agree with most who said that it’s not worth making a fuss over. I’ve noticed that the vast majority of people in the express lane really only have two or three items. So the total number of items in the entire line almost certainly comes out to less than ten per person.
I mean, if two people are in front of you in the ten-item-or-less lane and the first one has 15 items and the second one has 5, how is that worse than a proper distribution of two people with ten items each?