I don’t leave my line unless I’m more than two people back, it’s not worth it. Once again, unless the checker says come on over to 4 and I’ll check you out, it’s first come first serve for a new line. If you snooze you lose. Everybody enjoy this thread, it’s been beaten to death with a stick so many times over the years I started thinking why did I post. Bye. I have to go grocery shopping now.
This is right on! Only, it’s not exactly a stampede…most people start to move to the other line, some stay put, and some even assess what other people are buying and if it’s not a lot, ask them if they want to go first. I must be shopping at the same place as Bertie Wooster.
Exactly. I would never try to step in front of someone who’d been explicitly invited to come over to the other register, but that’s not what usually happens where I shop.
This reminds me of a few weeks ago when I was shopping at Bath and Body Works. In front of me were two women: one who was in the process of being checked out and the other who was waiting for her turn but already had her twenty-some-odd items sitting on the counter (I actually didn’t realize at first that she wasn’t already being helped, since there were two registers side-by-side there and about four salespeople behind the counter).
A salesperson opened up a register on the other side of the counter and, though she smiled right at me, said, “I can help whoever is next.” Since both of the other customers already had their stuff on the counter, I started to take my one lonely bottle of lotion over to her, only to have the woman who was in front of me snatch up one of her bottles, cut right in front of me (seriously, she nearly stepped on my foot), and slam it down on the counter.
I looked over to the other line, where her husband and my boyfriend were both staring at her with their mouths hanging open. She snapped at her husband to pick up all the other stuff and bring it over. I was so shocked that I kind of laughed and asked my boyfriend, “Did she really just do that?” I then went back over to the other line, as the first woman was done checking out by that time.
Damn, I wish I’d tripped that pregnant bitch.
Emphasis mine. Oh yeah, that’s definately what we’ve got here.
Hm! I guess I’m the only person alive, then, who would be polite and let the person waiting in line in front of me go first?
No, you aren’t the only one. I always give the people in front of me a chance to go first, but if they already have their crap on the counter then I figure they are but moments away from being helped and it isn’t worth the trouble for them to move. Usually they seem to feel the same way.
If you forgot something and can run, get it, and return to the line before the point you need to start putting stuff on the conveyor, then it’s all good. Up to that point, no one’s going anywhere anyway. But once it starts delaying the line, out you go.
In that case, after you, sir! 
Yeah, it is fine for quick one exxtra item, also some shops have merchandise beyonde the check out (Trader Joes boxes of water come to mind) where this is practically mandatory. But the OP description is of a major abuse to the system.
I see four options in the case of the OP:
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Push the basket to the side, and tell the person to get to the back of the line.
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Allow the basket to be a placeholder for the person, provided they get back in time to check-out.
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Take the basket, and incorporate it into your cart, effectively making the person go do all their shopping again.
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Add stuff to the basket, preferably embarassing and/ or expensive. Archie comic, bubblegum, and condoms. Cosmopolitan magazine, tissues, and lotion. Nail clippers, personal lubricant, and dog collar.
I’d probably go with #3, because the inevitable confrontation would be so much fun!
“Hey! That’s my stuff.”
“Not any more. You just left it here and wandered off. It’s mine now.”
At the grocery store I used to live near, there was someone who tried the “cart as placeholder in line” during a particularly busy shopping day (pre-Thanksgiving, IIRC).
One of the supervisors calmly came over, asked the other people in line whose cart it was, and upon learning it had been left there, turned it over to one of the baggers to have everything reshelved.
I got through (express) before seeing what happened when that shopper returned, but I’d probably do the same thing with “basket as placeholder”: call over someone from the store, and tell them that someone left the basket there – and maybe mention it as a potential trip hazard…
At the grocery store where I shop, checkers will come and get the next person in line when they open a new line.
I think that basket gets pushed out of line. If the person came back I might be willing to let them back in, if there weren’t a lot of people in line behind me, and if they had just run back for something they forgot, but if they just left the basket as a placeholder, then forget it.
This is why I like the customers in the store where I work. Ordinarily we have only one register open, because that’s all we need, but if we open the other one what usually happens is that people stand back to let the next person in line move over. Or sometimes they send the person who only has a couple of things. I’ve heard the “You go ahead” “No, you go” discussion more than once. Of course, I always try to catch the eye of the person who should go next and invite her over, but it often doesn’t matter.
Nah, that wouldn’t get any much attention, when I’m carrying nothing but a raw chicken and lube 
I like Lightray’s suggestion about reporting a trip hazard- has anyone here worked in a grocery store? What would the staff do about something like that?
Is anyone else guilty of trying to judge the people ahead of you in the line? I’m 100% guillty of this. For instance if someone “looks” like a smoker, I"ll try to find another line since the cigarettes are locked up in a glass case which requires the cashier to leave the line, find the key, open the case, relock the case, return the key, and then walk back to the line and hope they brought the right brand!
I also try to avoid standing behind elderly people. Too likely to write a check or use their pennies.
I once went to the “10 items or less” line with my soda and chips. There was a basket there with eight items, which I pushed t one side. A couple of minutes later, the customer-from-hell comes back with seven more items, says “I was waiting here; this is my basket and I’m in a hurry” and proceeds to unload.
I exchanged a look with the cashier, but said nothing. When she had paid and left, the cashier took out a bag and put my two items into it. I said “But I didn’t pay for these.” The cashier said “No problem. I rang them up with her stuff.”
I’ve often wondered if rude drivers would act the same way in the grocery store. It sounds like some, indeed do. :rolleyes:
I was in the “ten or fewer” line with two items in my hands. The woman in front of me had a basket full, probably 30 items.
The cashier allowed her to unload every thing, then pointed to the sign, and motioned me forward. I thought the woman’s head was going to explode.
[QUOTE=picunurse I was in the “ten or fewer” line with two items in my hands. The woman in front of me had a basket full, probably 30 items.
The cashier allowed her to unload every thing, then pointed to the sign, and motioned me forward. I thought the woman’s head was going to explode.[/QUOTE]
When I worked at one of those big-box gorcery/junk stores as a cashier, we were specifically forbidden to say anything to those who came through the express lane with bulging carts. Nor were we to hold them to the “CASH OR CREDIT ONLY” standard.
It often became extremely difficult because the belts and bagging areas were smaller than usual, and when people had a large amount of items, it left very little room to work. People who do this sort of thing also have a habit of clinging to their carts. After they’d emptied it, they’d stand there leaning on it, ignoring the giant pile of bags stacking up in the bagging area until I asked them to move it forward so it could be re-loaded.
Of course, the cashiers bore the brunt of the irritation of the people waiting in line behind the asshole, holding their single carton of melting ice cream.
You know what I hate? In the summer, we go to the grocery store late and do a week’s worth of shopping. But the only cashier open is the express lane. So we have to go there, but then, inevitably, right as they ring up the first thing (so we can’t usher someone ahead), somebody walks up with a loaf of bread. Makes me feel like an asshole!
I have run back to get an item I’ve forgotten, but only ever while my groceries were on the conveyor belt, or actually being rung up, never while just standing in the queue. I also tell the person behind me to go ahead of me if I’m not back in time.
If I realise I need something before then, I go and get it with my basket, and lose my place in the queue, but then I’m also someone who counts their items and if there are 11, goes to the non-express till.
If I saw an unattended basket in the queue, I’d just walk past it.