Some people demand that it be cut fresh in front of them. Not common, but it happens. Not to generalize, but I never saw anyone younger than at least 70 ask for this.
That could explain it. For unknown reasons, there are not a lot of old people in our Safeway. (at least when I shop) (and by “old,” I mean older than me)
How many types of deli meats do you sell? I’d estimate my supermarket has at least 40 different meats and 20 cheeses. That’s an awful lot to have pre-sliced. You’re on the West Coast, right? I wonder if it is a coastal thing - I’ve spent my life on the East Coast, and I’ve never shopped at a large supermarket where the default wasn’t that your order was sliced when you asked for it.
I’m on the West Coast, and our market deli always slices meats and cheeses to order. There is a separate display with some already packaged products, but if you go to the deli counter it’s going to be sliced for you.
Once I was on a checkout line at a home improvement store behind a couple other people. There was one person on line behind me. A cashier opened up another register and announced they were taking customers, so I moved over to it.
The woman behind me was upset and announced her angst loudly. Apparently I violated the unwritten rule that only the very last person on line can take advantage of a newly opened register. 
Sounds backward to me. I always assumed the unwritten rule was that the person waiting the longest got first right of refusal.
Typically, I’ve seen the cashier directly lead their chosen customer to the new line.
The two major chains in the St. Louis area are Schnuck’s and Dierbergs. In their bigger stores the deli has many meats presliced, but they ask if you’d like fresh sliced. I live a little west of the metro area and we have a smaller Schunck’s store. Every time I’ve gone in there the meats been fresh sliced to my desired thickness. They do have some presliced, but it’s packaged and not actually at the deli counter.
When I worked at a grocery store in 1999-2000, it wasn’t unwritten, it was actual store policy. Cashiers weren’t supposed to just open up a new register and allow a mad dash of customers trying to avoid the line. They were supposed to go up to the person who had been waiting longest in the next lane, say something like “I can help you over on register 3,” and walk with them over to the register, and then open the new register. And if someone else happened to notice you were about to open a new register and tried to sneak in line ahead of them, you were supposed to tell that person “This person was actually next; I can ring you up after them.”
ETA: Or what @Pleonast said.
When I worked in a supermarket deli in high school in the Chicago suburbs, we had dozens and dozens of lunch meats I’ve never seen since I moved away. When I moved to Seattle, my local grocery store didn’t even carry corned beef. We just don’t have the same Eastern European population that other parts of the country have. I haven’t even seen any German potato salad out here except for the rare German-themed restaurant.
The meat that supermarket deli counters do sell out here tends to be mostly varieties of ham, turkey, beef, and maybe a corned beef and a couple pastramis. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed any salami, bologna, tongue, mortadella, etc. for slicing, and definitely not head cheese.
There will usually be a nice cheese counter with mostly hunks of cheeses, not so much sliced.
it might just your store, but in stl proper Schnucks will slice cheese, meat to order
I can confirm that this is also the policy in the store I work at.
Probably about 15-20 meats, most of which are various kinds of turkey and ham and chicken, and no cheese. Our store’s deli probably makes more money off the fried chicken and the cold salads.
There are other grocery stores in my area which have delis closer to the size you’re describing, and I go to those stores if I’m looking for something like mortadella or capicola or prosciutto, but they don’t use numbered tickets either.
Fred Meyer has a Murray’s Cheese counter, and it’s the only place in town that I can find real Roquefort and Maytag Blue, but the stuff they carry is also pre-portioned.
My supermarket has a deli section with a lot of meats and cheeses that they’ll cut to order. Since covid, they also have packets of pre-sliced stuff nearby.
They also have one of those ticket things, but it’s rare to see so many customers that they are actually using it.
I might be a little fuzzy on details, because i almost never buy stuff from the deli section. But i walk past it to get to the meat section, so i think that’s accurate.
The meat section has a butcher who will give you stuff from behind the counter. That usually works on the “cluster of people keep track of who was in front of them” method. Works well enough.
I thought I’d said that. But in addition they have pre packs of the common stuff. Roast Beef, ham, some cheeses as well. Usually 1/2 pound packages. But I order corned beef or 5 oz of beef fillet and they are happy to slice it for me.
This is a small Schnucks in Warrenton.
It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten anything from the deli counter when I shop, so I don’t know for sure if they have a number dispenser there. I have gotten stuff from the butcher/seafood counter, though, but there’s never a line for service there, or at worst one or two people so it’s pretty much self-policing.
Now when I have an appointment at the hospital I do have to take a number. They have several monitor screens in the waiting area showing what numbers are being served, and what cubicle to go to.
I’m in Michigan, but have also purchased sliced meats and cheeses in several other states and at least once Canadian province, and I have nice story about Mexico.
The entire purpose of the deli counter is to slice the meat and cheese that you want, right? Why else is it there, and why else is there an employee?
In the last few years, of course, there’s been a tendency to sell “deli cuts” in pre-packaged bags; this makes sense for the store because they can cut meat assembly line style, while letting people who want it fresh-cut still get it fresh-cut.
My Canadian province story is that the deli girl didn’t understand “half a kilogram” and I had to resort to asking for “about a pound.” This was in the GTA, Ontario.
My Mexico story is at Walmart (of all places) I wanted some thick ribeye, and they only had thin ribeye, so the butcher (yes, they had one!) took an entire freaking ribcage section of a beef-critter, and chopped it down bit by bit for me until they were able to give me some super thick ribeyes. Hell, when I go to Kroger in Michigan and they don’t have ground pork, they’re too freaking lazy to grind pork for me.
And Oaxaca cheese is a bit tricky for the deli person to deliver, as it’s not sliced.
While I don’t get deli meats much now, one of the reasons I did so was because almost all of the pre-packaged sliced meat is thin-sliced or shaved, and I prefer to use thick-cur meats when I make sandwiches. This confused one deli worker, who responded to my request for thicker slices by adjusting the cutter by an infinitesimal amount and offering a slice for approval, only to be told, “no, thicker” each time. It took about three tries before I finally got the nearly 1/4" thickness I wanted.
Yep. I mean unless they have a line, in which case, why numbers?
You should stay within earshot, however. Missing your number call is a little rude. That means a delay while they call your number several times.
So altho I voted “You’re free to leave the counter and continue shopping, but if you don’t return before your number is called, too bad for you, pull another number and start your wait over again.” the “free” means within hearing distance.
Right.
“Leave the counter”- yes. leave that section of the store-NO.
I actually meant leave far enough that you can’t hear your number. If you can hear your number and can respond, then you haven’t really left the deli, have you? And in my store you get about 3 seconds of them calling your number before they move on, so you aren’t causing an inconvenience any larger than the multitudes who can’t find their shopping list when their number is called.
Yeah, stay in that section, which is often the deli section, with cheeses, cold cuts etc in cold racks, etc.
Glued to the counter is not necessary.
Hieing yourself off to the produce dept on the other side, betting you will get back in time- no.