# I've decided I'm going to start taking a full grocery cart to the express lane **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 14, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704 "2014-03-14T17:28:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Melchior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Melchior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melchior)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/21 "2014-03-14T21:09:08Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Huh. Around here, if you only have a couple of items, people with full carts will usually wave you past them. Of course, my grocery doesn’t have self checkouts. (And I tend to hate them, anyway. I only use them begrudgingly.) ‘Grudgingly’ not ‘begrudgingly’. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/22 "2014-03-14T21:12:12Z")
What supermarkets need most of all is a separate lane (or several) for shoppers with WIC coupons! Those take horribly long for the cashiers to deal with, and WIC shoppers commonly have a while handful of them! ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/23 "2014-03-14T21:14:11Z")
> [@Melchior](#): > > ‘Grudgingly’ not ‘begrudgingly’. What’s wrong with begrudgingly? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/24 "2014-03-14T21:30:41Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > **Shoeless** please don’t take a full cart to the express lane. Many people have guns and it may tip them off. Hate to lose a charter member of the SDMB. Where do you live that this is a thing to worry about? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/25 "2014-03-14T22:18:09Z")
I think supermarkets should have a milk/bread/eggs line, too. In fact, I have a theory that they should have a drive-through lane for those three items only. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/26 "2014-03-14T22:27:12Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Men Only lanes. We never buy more than four items, always pay with a $20 bill. Not always true, but I still look for a predominantly male line if I’m in a store with a crowd. No price checks (if there’s a dispute about price, we seem to skip getting the item), no coupons, cash ready to go. In general, men move more quickly, regardless of age. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/27 "2014-03-14T22:56:47Z")
I just want a system in place which lets other customers (especially me) know in advance of putting all their (my) items on the conveyor that the person in front of me is getting her bazillion items home delivered. No one (neither the customer nor the checkout operator) ever bothers to tell anyone unless it’s effectively too late to put all their (my) stuff back in the trolley and the process of writing the home delivery dockets, sticking them onto the 20 bags and then taking these bags to the home delivery sections takes bloody forever. I’m a patient woman, really I am, but this pisses me off no end. If I knew in advance that the lol in front of me was having her stuff home delivered, I could choose another checkout. But no one ever says. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/28 "2014-03-14T23:27:03Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Damn right. I don’t have to speak with anyone! Just hold your cell phone to your ear. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![expectopatronum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/expectopatronum/32/173_2.png) [@expectopatronum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/expectopatronum)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/29 "2014-03-14T23:40:16Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Not always true, but I still look for a predominantly male line if I’m in a store with a crowd. No price checks (if there’s a dispute about price, we seem to skip getting the item), no coupons, cash ready to go. In general, men move more quickly, regardless of age. even though you qualified with “not always true”, i’m REALLY tired of seeing this meme in grocery threads. i’m female, usually have less than 10 items, i don’t bother with coupons, and i have my card swiped and ready to process by the time my groceries are bagged. (rarely do i run into the mythical problems with the card reader that the cash-only types always seem to encounter) and i know i’m not alone in that. please, enough of this nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/30 "2014-03-15T00:12:08Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > **Shoeless** please don’t take a full cart to the express lane. Many people have guns and it may tip them off. Hate to lose a charter member of the SDMB. > [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Where do you live that this is a thing to worry about? This happened at the grocery store where I usually shop. > **[Health law glitches: fatal or fleeting?](https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/news/2013/10/07/health-law-glitches-fatal-fleeting/42736970007/)** > > WASHINGTON | The glitch-ridden rollout of President Barack Obama's health care law has opponents crowing: "Told you so!" and insisting it should be paused, if not scrapped. But others, including insu… ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2014, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/31 "2014-03-15T00:32:25Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > I’m old enough to remember when cashiers had to key in every price since there was no scanner. They also knew how to count back change. The carryout would then bag the groceries, take them to the car, and put them in the trunk. No carts were left in the lot because the carryouts took them back inside. All this new-fangled stuff just deletes jobs. > > Now, for up-to-date whining: > I wish places would reinstate cash-only lanes and enforce them. Some say cards are faster, but it always seems there is some problem with the card or reader, or the person has to try three cards before finding a good one, or they wait until $200 worth of groceries are rung up and bagged before starting to dig into a luggage-sized purse on a ten minute hunt for the card. Heh, keying in prices, I’m old enough to remember working in a shop where I added up the price in my head then keyed in the total. ETA it was a time of rampant inflation and the prices changed three times in six months to boot. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2014, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/32 "2014-03-15T01:07:54Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > So it’s YOUR fault! Here, most of the express lanes are automated, which is why the elderly prefer the ones staffed by people. Often I’m stuck in the express line while they try to work out how to scan items, weigh items, and pay by card or feeding bills in, and I wonder what they’re doing over here when they have no idea what’s going on. Now I know _you_ chased them away… Every generation tends to have a change that they don’t cotton to. My mother’s generation (born in the thirties) of women usually didn’t pump their own gas. My generation of women ( we’re in our late forties to early sixties) tend not to use self checkout. Come to think of it, my grandmother tended to “trade” at the local store where even in the early seventies, they would pick your grocery order from the list that you gave to them. It’s the level of service to which we become accustomed. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2014, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/33 "2014-03-15T11:08:52Z")
I hate regular self checkout, but my local Tesco has recently introduced these little handheld scanners that you take round the store with you. They are great. You scan items and bag them at your leisure as you go round the shop, instead of having to do it all at once at the end, in a panic, with people behind you in line getting mad. (Here in Britain we don’t have baggers, even on manned checkouts. You have to do it yourself, though you might get a little bit of help from the cashier if you are lucky.) Then at the end it downloads all your data wirelessly into the checkout machine. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2014, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/34 "2014-03-15T11:15:09Z")
> [@expectopatronum](#): > > even though you qualified with “not always true”, i’m REALLY tired of seeing this meme in grocery threads. i’m female, usually have less than 10 items, i don’t bother with coupons, and i have my card swiped and ready to process by the time my groceries are bagged. (rarely do i run into the mythical problems with the card reader that the cash-only types always seem to encounter) and i know i’m not alone in that. please, enough of this nonsense. Yeah, I’m tired of white ladies clutching their purses more tightly as I go by on the street because there’s tons of 50-something purse-snatchers that look like Rog from What’s Happenin!, but hey, let me help you with that cross, soul sistah. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2014, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/35 "2014-03-15T11:30:27Z")
I’d like men only checkouts. Maybe it’s an Aussie thing but 90% of the time women seem surprised that they have to pay. Long after being told the damage they reach into their handbag, get out their purse, extract the requisite money or card, pay for the groceries and then laboriously reverse the whole process before leaving. It is the same at self serve checkouts and ATMs. It’s as though they have no awareness of how to hurry things along. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/36 "2014-03-15T12:52:45Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > I’d like men only checkouts. Maybe it’s an Aussie thing but 90% of the time women seem surprised that they have to pay. Long after being told the damage they reach into their handbag, get out their purse, extract the requisite money or card, pay for the groceries and then laboriously reverse the whole process before leaving. It is the same at self serve checkouts and ATMs. It’s as though they have no awareness of how to hurry things along. I’d support the idea of ‘men only’ checkouts if men had to use those checkouts and no other. I’m tired of putting my items on the conveyor only to have some entitled bloke saunter up, show his three to five items and expect to be allowed to jump the queue. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2014, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/37 "2014-03-15T14:33:39Z")
OP, I too am annoyed that there are other people in line. Don’t they know that there are in my line? They should be in some other line. They are not buying that food for my house, so why are they in line ahead of me? ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2014, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/38 "2014-03-15T14:44:02Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > It’s happened again. As I’m heading to the checkout lane with a cart full of groceries, some clueless old lady with one of those mini shopping carts with maybe a dozen items in it, manages to get in front of me in line. There are six self-service checkouts and an express lane just a couple of lanes over with no waiting, but these ladies insist on going through the regular checkout lane. And then chatting with the checkout girl, and taking for-freaking-ever to pay and get the hell out of the way. > > I swear the next time it happens I’m going to say “Excuse me - the express checkout is over that way”, and if they don’t use it, then I’m going to. I feel for ya. Just the other day I was heading to the checkout with a full cart. The regular lanes had people in them, but the express was open. I walked past and the express lane cashier waved me in. I said I had too much for the express, but she said come on ahead. So I’m getting a full cart scanned-and-bagged in the express lane when someone else comes up with 2 items in their hands and gives me very dirty looks. That wasn’t you by any chance? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/39 "2014-03-15T15:07:36Z")
If I’m in an express checkout line and the person ahead of me has more than the number of items, I count them very loudly and state “It’s been said that 10% of people don’t know how to read or count. And they’re all in the express line.” I then turn to the person behind me and ask their opinion on it. I’ve had some fine conversations on the subject. If the person ahead of me says anthing, I said in a very haughty voice “I wasn’t talking to you.” ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704/40 "2014-03-15T15:17:37Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > I’d support the idea of ‘men only’ checkouts if men had to use those checkouts and no other. I’m tired of putting my items on the conveyor only to have some entitled bloke saunter up, show his three to five items and expect to be allowed to jump the queue. Surely you are making this up. In my many decades of grocery shopping I have never seen anyone jump the queue at all, let alone by showing a number of items. Do you shop in some weird place like Vaucluse or Toorak. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-decided-im-going-to-start-taking-a-full-grocery-cart-to-the-express-lane/683704.md?page=3)