Hee, my solution to all these shopping dilemmas? 24 hour supermarkets. We have a couple in town. There are seldom many other people shopping at midnight. Or, for those REALLY misanthropic days (and insomniacal nights) it’s even quieter at 3AM.
If I am in line alone and am not at the cashier and realise I’ve forgotten something, I will leave the line, go get it and join the end of the line (or another) again.
If I’m at the cashier and I don’t have someone there to pay for me and get my shit out of the way before I’m back, and I realise I’ve forgotten something, I’ll pay for my stuff then come back into the store and get the one item via the express lane.
If I’m there with hubby, I’ll keep getting things rung up and tell him where to find what I want. He’s fast and generally back before we’re done. If he’s not, he takes the item through the express lane.
We have many of those here, too. I frequently shop them late at night.
But at that time, it’s the store employees with pallets of product for restocking shelves who are blocking the aisles!
But since they are employees, and I’m a customer, I have no hesitation about being rather aggressive in saying “excuse me, could you move, please? I need to get through.”
Unfortunately I have this experience more often than most. If I make a list, I will usually leave it at home, but I mostly figure I can remember what I need, of course that’s hardly ever true. If I’m in line when I think of something else I will either go and get it, then start over, or more often just say, “The hell w/ it.” and get it next time. (If I don’t forget)
Forget the rude woman.
I’d be royally pissed at the grocery store manager! ELEVEN people in one line??? With the possible exception of Thanksgiving Eve, I have never been in a queue more than 3 people deep at my local grocer. In fact, I’d fear for the manager’s safety if he allowed lines to exceed that. That’s waaaay too much time to allow a bunch of aggravated shoppers, armed with tomatoes and avocados, to sit and stew.
In my neck of the woods, the cashier asks if you found everything all right. If you forgot something, you can tell her and he/she’ll have one of the baggers run and get it while she continues to ring up the other items. On the rare occasions that I used this service, I’ll take over the bagging. And all is well in the world.
Obviously I don’t understand the workings of a military base. What are all the old people doing there? Isn’t the commissary for military personnel and their families, and wouldn’t they be likely to be younger?
From a cashier’s POV, the OP’s situation was indeed rude. I would have asked her to get back at the end of the line, or find someone who was willing to let her cut back in line. Or I might have hurried and checked her out if she only had a couple of items (which is what it sounds like, if the cashier was able to stack the items around the till.)
If the lady waited until the cashier was ringing up the items, I (cashier) would have aborted the transaction until she came back, and then offered her no option of linejumping.
When this happens to me, unless I’m all unloaded onto the belt and the cashier is only just now starting to ring me up, I do the only polite thing: I stand there, do what I have to do, whether it’s bag and pay or just pay, take my stuff out to the car, put it in, go back, get what I forgot and take it into the express line. I would never make anyone wait. If the former scenario exists, I ask the cashier and anybody behind me if they mind if I run and get my milk or butter or whatever because I’m sure I’ll be back before they’re done ringing and this is only if that line has a bagger. If there’s no bagger, I have to bag and then I’ll do the latter. I’m not a rude bitch.
Military retirees have access to the commissary for life.
I want to shop where you shop. I haven’t been in a store that has regular baggers since primary school. My town’s grocery store has about 20 check out lanes, and four cashiers at any one time. It’s not unusual to have ten to fifteen people in every line. The cashiers are usually slow either because of elderliness or apathy. Every once in awhile, there are baggers, but of course we’d all be better served if they’d run another register instead. The store is always packed because it serves several towns, and it’s a super Walmart so you also have to deal with people buying clothes and electronics. There’s a good selection, but you can count on spending a good amount of time just standing in line.
As for the OP, yes it’s rude to just cut back into line.
To clarify: I missed the first part of this transaction. The part where the woman said “Oh, stupid me, I forgot my Peak Freens, can you please hold my groceries until I get back?” happened before I got there (maybe while I was waiting in line the first time at the other end of the store?). The clerk definitely owns some of the stupid here because she thought it was a good idea to “hold” the woman’s groceries for her and basically allow her to cut into line again at her own convenience. (What I witnessed was this: the clerk rings through what appeared to be the customer immediately before me. Peak Freen woman appeared and inserted herself in front of me in line. Once the clerk finished with what appeared to be the customer immediately before me, she started ringing up groceries that she had stacked behind the counter, plus the Peak Freens.)
I did glare at the clerk and she did (properly) shamefully refuse to meet my eye, and someone else took over for her at cash immediately following the lady in question (so perhaps this has something to do with it?)
Naturally, the Peak Freen woman was the sort who didn’t realize she’d have to pay until she was told the total, so that was when she started rummaging through her purse for her money.
It’s also the sort of store where you have to pay 5 cents for plastic grocery bags. So once Peak Freen woman had paid and recieved her change, and the clerk was finally ringing mine through (my poor melting ice cream!), she (Peak Freen lady) waved a quarter at the clerk and said “Three bags please” - clearly expecting the clerk to turn away from my groceries, get her three bags, and open her till and make change!!! It was then I realized that I was dealing with The Empress of the World and I apologized for not paying the proper respects when she first appeared with her godforsaken biscuits. (Fortunately the clerk gave her FIVE bags and no change, and barely missed a beat with my ice cream.)
Heh heh. I can’t remember the last time I’ve shopped in a store with courtesy clerks (at least, I’ve never used them … it’s always me running back to get my own damned forgotten Peak Freens, and usually with all my groceries in tow because sucker that I am, I don’t want to inconvenience the folks stuck in line behind me). In any event this one is a No Frills chain store, meaning that prices are low because they don’t have things like courtesy clerks. (Or courtesy, it seems.)
Don’t even get me started on the grocery store in question. I live close to downtown directly beside one of the only malls in a downtown residential neighbourhood. As a result all the local retail has closed because everyone does their shopping at the mall. So I don’t have a local greengrocer, or bakery, or butcher, or even a freaking variety store because it’s ALL in the grocery store at the mall. So yes, the line-ups are long and unavoidable (it’s reliably a minimum of 10 minutes wait during weekday evenings), and the hours are slightly longer than mall hours but midnight is not an option. I hate, hate, hate it, but it’s really hard for me to shop elsewhere.
You should try working there… 8 years and counting! :smack:
Sorry - I had to get a little actual work done. 
The guy behind me let out a low “ooooo” and walked off and the daughter was already headed to get her other item. The mother looked at me kind of sheepishly and nodded like “yes, she actually is going to do this here at 6:00 in the express line” then I gave her the evil glare of death and she turned to the cashier and paid.
I then had my milk rung up and was about done getting my receipt when the daughter came back with her item and mom kept shushing her when the daughter wanted to know why she had checked out. The mom was embarrassed but I couldn’t tell if she was actually embarrased by the situation or that she got called on it.
Anyway, I think she must have said something to her daughter about the mean lady behind them because it turned out we were parked next to each other and they glared at me and commented to each other all the way to the car.
I let it go at that point because I had already snapped in front of my kids and didn’t want to escalate it any further.
Then I went home and made dinner. It was good.
I pay for the items that I already have, then go get whatever it was that I forgot, and wait in line again. I then inform the clerk that I’m a repeat customer, and ask for a discount.
And I thank Og that most Dopers do not attend gun shows! 
Well, it depends. If you have a whole lot of stuff and can dash away and back before the cashier is done ringing you up, then I don’t see a problem with it.
If the cashier waits until you return before starting to ring you up, yes, that’s a problem.
It helps to have teenagers with you…you can send them back for what you forgot while you wait in line.
WTF? 
RandMcnally, my wife and I started a routine of going to the commissary on the first and third Tuesday of evry month while stationed overseas. It worked great. When we PCS’ed back to the states, we remembered why NOT to go shopping (or to the clinic for that matter) on the first Tuesday: retirement checks come in then and the commissary is closed on Mondays. If you go into any stateside commissary on the first Tuesday of any month, you will run into LOTS of retirees. They tick me off in line to.
To the Op: She was rude, you were way kinder than I could have been.
Oh man, this is why I shop around midnight, yeah, you have to navigate around the restocking pallets but it is still worth it.
If I get one more wide body parked in the center of an isle I will probably lose it.