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

[XCashier]

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

Aww, thank you.

She's got lots of stuff on her site: http://www.chaobell.net/

[tigerlily0]

I agree that multiples of the same thing count as separate items. However, I must confess that at times I've cheated and gone ahead into the xx-items-or-less line (if the other lines were long) when I had multiples, but only if the multiples were small (e.g. cans of cat food). Small items don't count as much as big items, right?

[Lace Neil Singer]

I side with the store, and yes, the cashier was right to ask the manager. How many times has a cashier been bitch slapped for allowing a customer to bend store policy, even if a manager has allowed it to happen many a time? Best thing to do is to ask a manager and pass the buck so that whatever happens, you're off the hook.

Who's betting this lady will return with a trolley load of shopping to the express lane, whining, "Well, last time I was here the cashier let me go thru with over 10 items!" Give some people an inch and they take a mile.

[Anthony K. S.]

You know, when I wrote the original post (which started this thread), this matter all seemed quite clear and simple to me. And now . . .

I've read the OP and the subsequent responses and I side with the store. No, the customer. No, wait...the store. No, no - it wasn't that big a deal - the customer.

No...wait...it's the PRINCIPLE - the store.

No, on second thought.....

You know, that, in a nutshell, is my thought process about this now.

There have been several very good arguments made on both sides of this. It's gotten kind of hard for me to decide who I really agree with . . .


I would like to say this, though . . .

I DID ask the express cashier 1st however if I could bring them through and ring them up once.

Now, this, for me, is what it all really comes down to.

If there is ever any doubt as to whether not you can go through the express lane with a particular purchase, then I firmly believe that the proper course of action is to ASK them before you do anything, as donruss did here.

As I said in my original post, I honestly didn't care that this lady had four more items than the express lane limit. I've never worked in a supermarket myself, but having spent years in customer service positions, I've become rather jaded about this sort of thing.

It does irk me, as a matter of principle, though, when customers think that it's up to them to decide how rules should be interpreted, or that it's up to them to decide when it's okay to "bend" a rule. It's not. The store makes those decisions, not the customer.

Now, it's one thing when the store is clearly wrong (such as a cashier who insists that he/she is running a "10 items or less" lane when the sign clearly says "20 items or less") . . .

But in the "gray areas" (such as whether two of a particular item counts as two items or just one, or whether it's okay to have just a few extra items in an express lane) . . . The customer should ask, and be willing to abide by the store's decision.

I still think that the store handled this situation about as well as they could. But, as some posters have pointed out, even this "best" solution has its drawbacks. In particular, it encourages not only this lady but other SCs who might have witnessed this to continue being bigger and bigger EWs.

It was an imperfect solution. But, then, very few things in life are perfect.


By the way, XCashier, I want to thank you, too, for posting those links to Chaobell's comic strip.

I was actually thinking about those very strips (Sarah dealing with the asshat in the express lane who had 100 fruitcakes) myself when I posted this. But I couldn't find that comic online. Thanks!