Shopper parks his cart in line and goes off to do more shopping... okay to go around?

In My Humble Opinion
21

If the person is back before his turn, it’s a non-issue. If he’s not, and we haven’t agreed that I’ll give him a minute, then I’m going ahead of him immediately. If I did * agree to give him a minute**, and he exceeds his minute, I’m going ahead of him.

*I can’t imagine leaving my cart without saying something to the person behind me. Generally, it would be “I have to get xyz” (point to xyz 30 feet away) “do you mind if I leave this here and run over?”

**60 seconds is all you get. It’s as much as I’m willing to give, and as much as I’m willing to take. I’ve done the “Crap, I forgot xyz” thing plenty of times, and if I think it’s going to take me longer than 60 seconds to get it, I get out of line. It’s part of my life’s philosophy that it’s just plain rude to make one’s own problems *other * people’s problems.

We have *lots * of check out line anger around here. The supermarket nearest my house tends to be understaffed on weeknights, and there are too few registers open, and waaaaaay too few baggers. As a result, the place if full of frustrated people who just wanted to grab a few things on their way home from work, and are now watching their evenings ticking away from them. It makes us cranky and territorial.

22

Cheque (see, cause I’m canadian):cool:

23

This would be my position as well. I did have the rather odd experience the other day of the person in front of me in line at the grocery store decide while her food was being rung up that she should go out to her car and get her reusable grocery bags. My attention was on something else, and I didn’t even realize she’d gone at first until the cashier got to the end of ringing up her food, and no one was there to pay. So we waited for the woman to come back in and she did so without her reusable bags. She’d forgotten them at home. She didn’t even acknowledge holding up the line. Fortunately she’d only held the line up for a couple of minutes, or I would have gotten cranky, but it was one of those things that makes you shake your head at people who lack consideration for others.

24

Right, I agree 100%. You save his space until it’s deadline time, then he loses his space.

And no checks. Not anymore.

25

I don’t understand the hate for checks. If the check writer makes out all but the dollar amount prior to the transaction actually taking place, it doesn’t take much longer than digging out the card, swiping and waiting for it to register and generate a receipt. Why is everyone in such a hurry that they can’t wait an additional 10 seconds?

26

Kalhoun, if you’re that one person who fills the check out in advance, good on you. Me, I’ve never encountered that person.

And with all due respect, my answer to the question “why can’t you wait an additional ten seconds?” is always “why do you feel so entitled to ten seconds of my time?”

27

Most supermarkets here in the UK used to print cheques for you - you hand the cashier the blank cheque and the guarantee card, they feed it into a printer, it comes out with everything printed in the right place (including the card details on the back) - the cashier hands it back to you for checking and signing. Not significantly more difficult or lengthy than paying cash (including making change) or paying on a card (and signing/entering PIN/waiting for authorisation).

But they’re starting to phase them out now. Some of the major chains simply don’t accept payment by cheque any more.

28

Because it is my 10 + seconds that the person writing the check is stealing. And everyone behind me, too.
Most aren’t prepared to just write down the amount. The clerk invariably has to look at your ID, which most people don’t have out, and then stamp the check so that the ID information can be written down. Then many who write checks spend time updating their balance. If you are the only one in line then have at it, but there really are few valid reasons to use checks at checkout lines and have other people wait because of it anymore.

29

Old person and credit card = 1 minute - Slow to sign signature.
Old person and cash = 2 minutes - Sort for exact change
Old person with check = 5 minutes - Slow to fill out
Old person with debit card and PIN = 10 minutes - Keeps pressing buttons at the wrong time, thus PINS entered are random garbage. They don’t press next or enter. Requires intervention by somebody to clear panel and walk them through the process.

30

You can always look over his cart and see if there’s something you forgot. That way, you don’t have to get out of line to get it.

What? It’s not his till he pays for it.

31

We do that as well. I don’t see any difference in processing time.

32

Wait a minute! No one is stealing “your” time. You go into the store NEVER knowing how much time will be spent there. Whether the person in front of you has 100 items or 20…whether the person’s order requires a price check. Whether the person has coupons…whether the person is the speediest check-out of the day (but the cashier runs out of register tape)…or if the customer ahead of you is using WIC coupons or what have you. It is not YOUR time. It is MY time. I am entitled to every second it takes to check out. If it is a legitimate form of payment (and particularly when the difference in time is so miniscule), how does your 10 second make-or-break schedule become my problem? Maybe it’s you that needs to plan you time more carefully!

My grocery store never asks for ID. They swipe my “savings” card and that’s all they need. And they do that with everyone.

33

I can *see * how many items the person in front of me has. Register tape can’t be helped. Hagglers and coupon users need their own fucking line (I have, on occasion, said to people “You know what? I’ll pay for that, if you’ll just get the fuck out of my way, 'kay?”). So do people who want to write a check.

Honestly, if you can really pay just as fast with a check at your particular establishment, great. But people *can’t * at mine, and see how defensive you got there about “your” time? Well, I’m just as protective of mine.

Perhaps the supermarket should have separate “People who have all freakin’ day” and “People who have places they’d rather be” lines.

34

It’s a valid way to pay. In some stores, cash takes longer than credit, in others, vice versa. Do you keep track of the fastest way to pay in each store so that you are inconveniencing the person behind you as little as possible? As long as they’re using an accepted form of currency and are completing their transaction reasonably efficiently given their choice, they aren’t “stealing” your time.

As for the OP, the moment it’s his turn and he’s not there, his cart is getting moved and my groceries are going onto the conveyor.

35

People do this often at Trader Joes, since the line usually snakes down one aisle and across the back of the store. (could be 30-40 people on one line) As long as they say something to me like “I’ll be right back. Could you watch this a second?” so I know they didn’t just decide to leave the store, I have no problem waiting for them to return as long as it does not become their turn to checkout. Whether or not they are standing there or not has no effect on how long I’ll be waiting. It’s only polite, and there were a couple times when I had to grab something I had forgotten.

36

Perhaps. But they don’t. We all have to live together without getting our bowels in an uproar over 10 seconds. Or even a whole MINUTE! Its the price we pay for living in civilized society.

Perhaps we can make appointments for shopping just as we do for health care and tax preparation.

37

If the person has 100 items I can move to the next line where the person has 20 items. I don’t know you will be using a check until after the teller has rung through all your purchases.
I may have coupons, too. I can’t fault someone for trying to save money.
Register tape running out is a chance you take. Nothing anyone can do about it. Same as a price check.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a terribly big deal. It rates nothing much more than a roll eyes to the customer standing behind me in line.
What interests me is that you think you own the teller once you get up to the front of the line. Have some consideration to those behind you. Would you think I was out of line if I complained that you wanted to pay your bill with pennies? It too is a legitimate form of payment.
And I do plan my time, I plan to get in the store and get out of the store as fast as I can. I’ve got better things to do than wander aimlessly and stand in line behind slowpokes. Which is why I like the self checkout lines so much. I can scan almost as fast as the most experienced teller, plus most people only use debit as the form of payment. Heaven!

Vihaga, checks might be a legitimate form of payment, but I don’t understand why people would continue to use them when there are better ways to pay for things that don’t require a person to lug around scads of paper and a pen.

38

Shrug

Acknowledging the existence of other people who have things to do today is also part of living in a civilized society. Your right to move slowly does not exceed my right to move quickly. Why is always the people holding up the line who insist that *I’m * rude?

39

You may WANT to get in and out of the store as fast as you can (don’t we all?) but you can never PLAN to. There are too many variables. Life doesn’t work that way. By far, the biggest delays I experience in the grocery store have absolutely nothing to do with the form of payment my fellow shoppers choose to use. I just don’t get this attitude that a few moments of time is such an imposition that people feel the need to even mention it. Yes, if someone lugged a bucket of pennies to the checkout, I’d be pissed, but only for a second, because the store can refuse to accept it (and most probably would) But we’re not talking about 10 or 15 minutes here. We’re talking about a few moments. It’s petty.

40

I’m the same as most of the previous posters- as long as you say something, I’ll even watch your cart and make sure nobody adds or subtracts. :stuck_out_tongue:

If there’s an unattended cart at the end of a line, I’ll pick another register, if that’s not possible, I’ll get in front of the cart but not push it out of the way. If the shopper comes back within a minute or two, I’ll offer to let them back in. Nine times out of ten, they’re just glad the cart is still there.

If it the unattended cart comes to the front of the line in any of these circumstances, I’ll push it aside and put my stuff on the conveyor. I generally don’t leave the line, and if I do it’s only when there is a long and slow-moving line ahead of me (like at least 4 carts between me and the one being checked out. Also, I make sure to ask the person in front of me or behind me to watch the cart so it doesn’t get caught in a re-shop sweep.
long, pointless story ahead****

The last time that I was in this situation, it turned an otherwise tedious trip kind of fun. I was at the semi-trashy discount supermarket near my house* on a sunday afternoon, which is the worst time to go to any grocery store (after-church crowd) but is always brutal at this place- and it wasn’t until I got in line that I saw that there was only one cashier on duty. There were 50 people in line. Even when they got a second guy on (I think they had to call him in) the line was still not moving. If I had had anywhere to be I would have just left, but I wanted my chicken for dinner more than I wanted to go home, so I decided to stick it out. A young woman got in line behind me who only had sour cream, and we joked about that for a bit. Then the guy in front of me asked me to watch his cart while he went to grab something, which I did. Then the woman’s husband showed up to find out what had happened to her (we had been in line for almost a half an hour at this point and she had left her cell phone at home).

Something in their conversation reminded me that I had forgotten carrots for the soup that I’d be making with the chicken carcass. I asked them to watch my cart, offering to switch places with them when I got back (which I had planned to do anyhow, since they were just getting the one thing). They waved this off, and I went and grabbed the carrots. There was also some nice looking spinach, so I grabbed that, too. When I got back, they were amazed at how nice the veggies looked. Apparently it had never occurred to them that their local trash-mart had a decent produce section. My parents were amazed too. It just goes to show that you shouldn’t judge a grocery store by your prejudices about its customers. To be fair, other stores in this chain that I’ve visited have been pretty crappy, with no produce at all, but still- don’t you even look?

Anyhow, I chatted a bit about how the selection of fresh stuff there is sparse, but what they do have is generally top-notch. A good rule there as at other supermarkets around here is that if it’s cheap it’s probably good. If tomatoes are $.89/lb or less there, they’re fresh and fantastic, but if bell peppers are $1.50 each they’ll be soggy crap. I held their place while they went off to experience the wonders of the produce aisle, and they both came back loaded down. Finally the line started to move with a third cashier, and we were out of there. long story, but that was how place-holding in line turned a 45-minute wait into a fun time, and an opportunity to share my produce secrets!

*semi-trashy in that it basically marks the geographical border between my neighborhood and the projects, and the food is pretty much all generic and super-duper cheap, but it is generally clean, well lit and the staff is friendly. I feel blessed, especially since it means that I can spend less money when I just run out to grab something during the week compared to my big bi-weekly trip to the somewhat more upscale joint across town. Also they always have roma tomatoes for less than $1/lb and they are usually tasty after a few days ripening in a paper bag. O luxury!