You're in the checkout line at the supermarket.
 

margin

This is what the queue looks like:

1. Person who's currently being served
2. Someone else
3. You

Person at the front has an extraordinary amount of shit they are buying, with coupons, paying with a check, the whole deal and everyone's clearly getting a little perturbed by the wait. The adjacent line opens up and the new cashier is all like "hey i can help the next person over here!"

Do you

a) run over to the adjacent line to be the first person in that line

or b) let the person who's in front of you go into that line first, because they were, after all, there before you were

old people love choosing a)

it happens to me all the time. i usually let somebody else have it unless i really need to get out of there

i try to go to grocery places with self checkout

I usually only run into this problem at shitty gas stations. If you're going to open a new register, you're supposed to help the person who is "next", not whoever wins at running over there first.

This is easily in my top 3 pet peeves I feel you so hard JB.

It's that typical "got to get lucky and get ahead tit for tat small minded" mentality that is ruining America. Nobody has the foresight (unless prodded like cattle) to figure: we all get through this more efficiently if there is only one line that branches off as registers open.

But no everybody wants to spin the wheel and beat the system fucking selfish rags to riches stories the lot of them

best buy does this. it's the best. unless you were waiting a specific cashier because she is cute.

banks do it. book stores do it. best buy does it.

what does that tell you about intellect.

i do this at wal-mart.

There has only been one time in my entire life where the cashier has shooed a runner away and said (referring to me) "no i'm sorry this gentleman was next"

i was SPEECHLESS

as long as you're not literally running over, if you walk over and get there first, it's yours. if the person in front of you dallies you have no duty to let them ahead of you.

what I hate is people who think they can be in two lines at once. part of being in line is staying in line.

that was one of my first life lessons. my dad always drove three blocks to get his lotto ticket when there was one right by the house. i says dad why you drive all the way out here and he says because, son, some guy cut in line and the cashier told him to get back in place

it tought me how to be a good customer when you get good service. or something

it all depends on whether the the checkout situation has designated checkout lanes (supermarket) or not (convenience store).

in the case of the latter it should be the responsibility of the cashier to maintain order.

if you're in an open area with multiple registers and a new register opens up, it should not suddenly become a free-for-all game of chance.

but again - its up to the cashier to control the animals.

I had a run of few years where it felt like I always ended up in the longest line. It's all better now.

i mean if you're in a store that has no more than a dozen customers at one time during a busy shift, you're creating some real tension in the air by disregarding the waiting pattern that already has been established for one line. to open up a new register and completly disregard that established pattern is like pissing in the faces of every customer in line.

sometimes i don't think people understand the true power of words there is such a difference in stating "i can help whoever is next over here" vs "i can help someone over here". the first one is right and just whereas the second statement is lazy and apathetic. he or she doesn't give a fuck who they help, fuck your world and your established order, just please help anyone at all. doesn't matter.

moan louder every time the cashier scans one of your items

this thread is all http://images.elephantjournal.com/wp...avid_photo.jpg

certainly!. I can't wait for the next season.



in your opinion, does this only apply to people already in line? what happens if you're not in line yet and a cash opens up right next to you? it doesn't make sense to me to wait for someone from another line to saunter over and get ahead of you.




I've got to let you guys know that I'm really go at packing my bags at the store. I make sure to be as quick as the cashier and not cause any delays. First of all it's important to stack your items on the conveyor belt properly so the cashier rings up your heavy items first letting you put them in the bottom of your bags right away. My dad taught me well when I was a kid. He'd also make me add up all the prices in my head and estimate the total. By the time I was 9 I knew to add up the taxable items separately to add the tax accordingly. The exercise evolved into memorizing the prices and coming up with a total only once we were at the cash emptying the cart. That got tougher because I had to guess how much the $/kg items weighed, I was never good at that. I tried cheating a few times with a reference weight (like a can of soup in one hand and the tomatoes in the other, knowing the can of soup weighed X amount...). maybe I could learn that skill now as an adult. bla bla bla.

the thing with the supermarket is that, if it's backed up, it's going to be more like

1. person using coupons/check/etc, all rung up but paying
2. person with all their stuff on the belt
3. person with a bunch of stuff in their cart
4. person with 2 things
5. person with a cart full

should #3 be next? yes, but if a register opens up, the cashier is just going to grab whoever because getting to person #3 is a pain in the ass, and #4 will get done in 30 seconds

obviously, if there are 3 people in line and #1 is holding it up, a new register should take #2

but in practice, that's not how it necessarily works. and no, my job is not to police the line. if someone cuts someone, yes im not going to just let it go im going to tell them someone else was there first or at the very least make eye contact with the person who was cut and see if they even care. but if it's a matter of people coming over from another line and they are fighting and i dont really know what's going on except what i thought i might have seen, it's up to them to be adults about it.

yea like i mentioned i think the supermarket is a pretty bad example of line etiquette.you have to commit to an aisle because there are already numerous designated aisles. like you mentioned the person that is "next" probably already has their items on the belt and would have to back out of the line, passing others, to move. not very practical at all.

it's a real problem at a place with only an open waiting area and multiple registers.

i don't understand the cashiers that won't begin ringing my items until i have given them my rewards cards. I guess maybe because most people will want to see their savings as the items are being scanned?

sometimes i'll be in the middle of unloading an entire cart and the lady is hassling me going "kroger plus card?" "do you have an ID?" and i'm like "damn lady give me a second i'm still unloading my shit."

i dont have to deal with that, but i think they generally they have an order they do it in so they don't forget to ask. that's what i do, anyway, with stuff i'm supposed to say. i have cues i follow so that i don't forget something or ask twice. because it's very easy to forget what you've asked when you check out 300 people a day. so everyone comes up with their own formula for how they do an order. or maybe im just crazy and am the only one who does that.

i've stretched out the time before. they're pleading with me, "kroger plus card??" with 5-6 people behind me and i'm unloading my cart still. i refuse to be forced into a panic.

and that's what sucks - it puts me on the spot like i'm doing something wrong or being ineffecient.

whereas you're going to stare at me for 1-2 minutes (an eternity in line) while i unload my cart, then scan my card, then begin to ring me out when everything could have been ringing while i was unloading. give me the savings at the end like i've won a prize. if i forget to give you my card to scan to save money that's on me.

cashiers don't treat coupons this way.

i honestly can't say that's really happened to me before.

that's why the rewards programs are a sham - they're not a bonus they're a pre-requisite

but in practice, if you forget to give me the card and i dont ask, you'll remember at a later time and come back to get your money and if that happens a lot i'll get in trouble. hypothetically, since like i said we dont have a loyalty card.

i live in a shitty neighborhood - i witness full-on traffic jams in the milk aisle as well as the parking lot. just a whole cluster of shitty people not moving metaphorically and physically.

yes they are just for store loyalty. and also, some stores now use them to impose limits on deals. like CVS, the sales are tied to your card, and there is a limit on certain ones where you get extra care bucks back. this is so one person doesn't wipe out the shelf.

it also allows them to track your shopping habits if they desire. to sell the info or change their sales, etc

i can't decide if it's actual savings in exchange for data mining or its all just an illusion

you know like the classic 1,000 dollar item now on sale for 100 dollars kind of thing

any savings you get are really from the manufacturer. at least at major chains. they get comped for sales. at least i know albertson's and publix does.

im really glad we dont have a loyalty card. fuck that shit.

The last time I was at my local Walgreens my digital card wasn't scanning (it never does at that particular store but I have to access it to type in the card number) and the lady actually tried to blame it on my phone/app.

I wanted to punch her in the mouth. Trust me she was no computer whiz.

some stores are shitty about this and some aren't.

like publix, we don't mess with numbers when there's sales. if it's a buy one get one (which are the major sales we have), that original price is the same that it always is. they never jack it up to cover any loses from the BOGO sale. but i've seen that at winn dixie before on their meats. round steak is 4.99/lb, and then the next week it's BOGO @ 6.19/lb. bull.shit.

walgreens is a terrible store. their rewards programs are complex and very few employees know the rules. like, you can stack coupons - that is, use a store coupon and a manufacturer's coupon on one item - but you have to have at least equal amounts of coupons and items. so if i want to buy tylenol for $10 and i have a store coupon for $1 and a manufacturer's for $1, I can use them both - but since that's two coupons and one item, i have to buy something else just to be able to use both coupons.

like, accept coupons or don't. let people stack coupons or don't. be transparent.

and the register rewards and balance points are so complicated i don't even bother. the register rewards also count as coupons w/r/t the item-coupon count. i dont shop at walgreens.

cvs has a great rewards program and i get hundreds of dollars worth of free stuff from them. CVS is happy because they get the money back for all the manufacturer coupons i use and some of the store coupons (most, they get comped just like grocery stores). and i get free stuff. the company gets advertising (which is the real point of coupons, from the POV of a company). everyone wins.