It was either 8 items or 14, depending on how you look at it . . .

[Anthony K. S.]

I was in the Express Lane (10 Items or Less) in my local supermarket. At one point, I happened to notice that the lady ahead of me had 14 items on the belt.

Frankly, I didn't care. But I was little curious to see if the cashier (or the manager, who happened to be standing nearby) would say anything to her.

Well, when it was this lady's turn to be rung up . . .

Cashier : [Looks at the customer's items for a moment] Ma'am, this is the Express Lane. 10 items or less, only.
Customer : That's fine. I have 8 items.
Cashier : *Blinks* Ma'am, you have 14 items.
Customer : No, I have 8.

I glanced again at the items that this lady was purchasing, and realized right away what she was talking about.

Basically, she was purchasing more than one of certain items, and she was counting those multiples as single items. So, for example, two cartons of Tropicana orange juice would be counted, by her reasoning, as just one item, rather than two.

If you looked at it that way, she really did have 8 items, rather than 14.

Now, when the lady stated "No, I have 8," the cashier looked at her items again. And judging by the expression on the cashier's face, I'm pretty sure that she realized right away (just as I had) what the customer meant.

The cashier then looked over at the manager, who had been standing nearby the whole time, and had clearly seen and heard the whole thing. He just sort of sighed and shrugged.

Without another word, the cashier rang up the lady's purchase.

The rest of that transaction was perfectly routine. The usual "Do you have a discount card? . . . Your total is $XX.XX . . . Here you go, thank you very much, have a nice day" spiel, in other words.


When I was looking at that customer and her purchase . . . I had the distinct impression that arguing with her wouldn't have done any good.

More importantly, I believe that it would have taken a lot longer to argue with her than it would to just ring up her extra four items.

I'm pretty sure that the manager and cashier both got the same vibes about her, and that's why they just gave in.


I'm just curious . . . Who do you think was right here?

Personally, I'm inclined to side with the store.

After all, two items with the same bar code still need to be scanned separately, just the same as two items with different bar codes. Unless your register has a "Quantity" key . . . But, in my experience, that's really only useful if it's a large quantity of a single item, like 5 or more. If it's just two items, then scanning one and changing the quantity can take just as long as scanning them both.

And even if you don't have to scan them separately, you still need to bag them all. And the process of bagging several of the same item is surely no faster than the process of bagging several different items.

So, in my opinion, multiples of a single item should be counted as separate items, just as the cashier indicated.


I don't know if that lady counts as a sucky customer, exactly . . . She remained perfectly calm, she didn't make a fuss or anything . . . Then again, the store did give in to her almost immediately. There's no telling how she would have reacted if they had tried to argue the point.

As for the cashier and manager . . . I think it's unfortunate that they gave in when, in my view, they were in the right . . . But I honestly can't think of any better way they could have handled it. It would have taken longer to argue with her than it would have to just ring her up, after all. Oh, well.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I side with the store too, and I didn't need to think twice about it. If you have 3 boxes of the same kind of cereal, it's 3 items, not 1.

I'm also guessing the cashier and the manager had their hands tied by corporate policy and weren't allowed to boot the customer over to a regular lane, or were at least severely discouraged from doing so.

[IT Grunt]

I'd side with the store as well. Even if you can punch in a quantity and scan one, that's still three physical items to be pulled through and bagged.

I think I saw a cashier call someone out on it the other day. I can't be entirely sure, but her and the customer seemed to be arguing about something while she was ringing up the items, and then when the receipt was printed, the cashier pointed at it and said, "See, you went over by that much." The customer put on a cat butt face and walked off sputtering. The impression I got is that the customer insisted she only had X items but really had Y, and the cashier very bluntly pointed it out. Granted, I could be in error since I only witnessed the tail end, but from the reaction I think that's what happened. Especially since this was Wal-mart, which prints out "X items purchased" on the receipts.

[depechemodefan]

Personally, I'm inclined to side with the store.

After all, two items with the same bar code still need to be scanned separately, just the same as two items with different bar codes. Unless your register has a "Quantity" key . . . But, in my experience, that's really only useful if it's a large quantity of a single item, like 5 or more. If it's just two items, then scanning one and changing the quantity can take just as long as scanning them both.

And even if you don't have to scan them separately, you still need to bag them all. And the process of bagging several of the same item is surely no faster than the process of bagging several different items.

So, in my opinion, multiples of a single item should be counted as separate items, just as the cashier indicated.


I don't know if that lady counts as a sucky customer, exactly . . . She remained perfectly calm, she didn't make a fuss or anything . . . Then again, the store did give in to her almost immediately. There's no telling how she would have reacted if they had tried to argue the point.

As for the cashier and manager . . . I think it's unfortunate that they gave in when, in my view, they were in the right . . . But I honestly can't think of any better way they could have handled it. It would have taken longer to argue with her than it would have to just ring her up, after all. Oh, well.

I'm with you. Even if it's the same thing it's still more, not one item. I see a lot of people buy like 30 2-litter bottles of a soda, and it's not on sale (I hope not!) Imagine scanning each one, since the cashier has to make sure it's 30 bottles. Granted she probably could count the bottles, then press 2 extra keys to get them....

Though sometimes it just gets picky. I bought stuff, and it included some fruit, lets say 6 for a $1. So even though the cashier didn't have to scan each individual fruit, just type in the sku (SCU?) code and then the mulitple key then the number, I still had more than 10 items. She didn't like it.

slightly OT, I did have a case at Wal-Mart where I went to the 20 items aisle and I said, "I have more than 20 items, is that ok?" Sometimes it's ok, if it's not busy. The cashier said "This is a 10 item lane." I said "It says 20 items." She repeated "It's a 10 item lane." It says 20, should be 20, and when I went back another day it was still 20. I guess she was confused which lane she was in but still, I wasn't a happy customer....I did go to another lane, since it wasn't worth the hassle of arguing with her or getting a manager.

[Chanlin]

I'm going to side with the customer on this one, and lord knows I don't do that all too often.

For the record, the customers logic was wrong. I completely disagree with her. But from what I can tell from the OP

1: The manager was ok with the 4 extra items.

2: The express lane transaction, despite the 4 extra items, was still handled in a fairly express fashion. Hence the purpose of the express lane was still met.

Now had the lady's extra items held the line up and slowed down the one line designed to get people out of the store quickly then I would be a little bit miffed, but as the OP pointed out it would take longer to argue than it would to simply ring up the items and send the lady on her way.

Basically it all boils down not to just how many items there are, but how unwieldy they are to handle. For example 15 candy bars are much easier to ring up and bag in a timely manner than say 15 cases of soda. So its not just the number of items I would consider, but how long it takes to process them as after all the express lane is supposed to move people through the checkout process quickly.

[Evil Queen]

I'd side with the store too.

[marasbaras]

I side with the store. I think it's time that we all started enforcing those little rules. Got 11 items, go to another lane. It says 10 or less.

With the 20/10 thing ... it's TWENTY. I'd take the time to get the cashier to wake the hell up and look at the sign.

Again, store posts the sign, we all follow it. That's how it works.

I was at a Wal-Mart getting my prescriptions filled. There was a GIANT sign in the pharmacy saying that one could pay for the drugs up front. The moronic cashier droned "each store has the option to do this and we choose not to".

I asked the question three different ways. She droned the same answer.

This wasn't some minor sign. The sign was 15 FEET LONG, 3 FEET HIGH. Bloody HUGE.

So, I went up front, found an AM and asked. She said the pharmacy drone was technically right. So, I asked about the giant sign.

She admitted I had a point (amazing coming from a Wal-Mart manager ... people who I am sure are trained to speak in non-speak). It took them two weeks, but the sign came down.

[sarahj]

I agree with Chanlin. She only had 4 more items. They clearly fit on the register. The transaction took maybe 10 extra seconds. I don't see the problem. And for the record, I work on an express lane for most of my shifts at the grocery store.

[One-Fang]

The store is technically correct. But sometimes in our 'real world', technicalities don't hold much sway. As was correctly pointed out, arguing with the SC would've been less productive than simply getting her through.

I think the store handled it brilliantly. An initial "no" and advice that it wasn't okay to do that, then when the customer obviously argued rather than politely went "Oh whoops, I'll go to a real lane", just handling the transaction and getting them out.

If she'd had 8 unique items, and three of each, I'd have had to think that was really pushing it. But a grand total of 6 over? Better just to do it quick and get her out.

[XCashier]

Ah, to be Chaobell...
http://w00t.chaobell.net/20021220.html
http://w00t.chaobell.net/20021221.html
http://w00t.chaobell.net/20021222.html

[bainsidhe]

I also agree with Chanlin. I mean, was it even worth asking a manager about? It's one thing when a customer comes through the express lane with a cartload-that's just annoying and very rude. But for a few items? The cashier could've checked this woman through in the time it took to argue about the items.

Don't get me wrong, I side with the store as well. But it's wiser to pick your battles and frankly, this isn't worth the argument.

[Apathy]

/agree with most people.
Yes, it's more than 10 items. Is it a big deal? No, not really. And the lady probably would have flipped out anyway, and it's not like scanning four more items is going to cause the earth to crack open.
If she'd had 20 items or something, sure, boot her. But in the end, who cares? Let's just get this moron past and get on with life.

[mattm04]

I side with the store. If you have just one or two items over that does not bother me, but the SC's who bring up a cart full will than say well the person in front of you had 12 items.

If it were me I would be inclined to have the register limit the number of items purchased to the max. allowed according to the sign.

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

I think the store handled it fine, arguing over 4 items over would be counter productive

as bainsidhe said, pick your battles

[JustADude]

Ah, to be Chaobell...
http://w00t.chaobell.net/20021220.html
http://w00t.chaobell.net/20021221.html
http://w00t.chaobell.net/20021222.html

I officially love you, XCashier! I've had ZILCH luck trying to find those comics for a long while now! YAAAAAY!