I saw a SC today in the express lane...

[Chromatix]

As an aside, we simply don't have express lanes in this country. I don't think there's a law against them - it's just not done. As a direct result, that particular brand of suck is eliminated.

[Oniontears]

Those customers should have to go back to the end of the line for each 12 item order.

BUT THAT WOULD BE LOGICAL.

[Grendus]

We aren't allowed to turn away customers with overly-large orders on express if they've already started putting stuff on the belt...no end of frustration. A lot of them get the 'bright idea' to split a massive order into transactions totaling less than 12 items as if that's OK (according to manglement, that's allowed) and then smirk at me.

I've said that the registers should scan no more than 12 items per customer card when the express light is on...but that would cause other problems (in the form of SCs bitching if a sup has to approve the big order, also I'll often let customers with 13 or 14 in if I don't have a line IF they're polite about it).

Simple solution: set the maximum item count to 5/10 higher than the lane limit. If you want to let someone with 17 items in the 15 items or less lane, that's fine. If someone with a full cart tries to sneak in, it cuts him off at 20 items. Set it so items that are rung in as groups (baby food, ramen, kool aid, etc) count as one item. Now you're being extremely generous with the express lanes and they can still be used for speedy checkout.

I used to dread having to work the Express Lanes. The 15 items or less limit isn't just to keep the lines moving fast - the bag carousels there only have three bag slots as opposed to the six on a regular register. If you come in with a full cart, that poor cashier has nowhere to put your crap. I've seen carousels with bags on top, staggered between bag slots, on the corners, up on the card reader, and finally on the ground. There's just no place to put crap in those tiny registers (and God forbid the customer actually be proactive and get their stuff off the carousel).

[Pixilated]

Well, let's say that you're buying a KitchenAid stand mixer (around $200) and a $50 food processor...

So now you only have two items, but you've got over $250 worth of merchandise.

So that's where the logic of the explainer falls apart.

Yeah, but you're assuming they are familiar with the concept of 'logic' to begin with.

Something that MBA's seem to forget is that everyone is a customer. When you make one big spending customer happy at the expense of others. AT some point, those others may remember that and do their big spending at stores that enforce the rules.

Another item of 'logic' and thus something that is incoherent to management ... quite right. If I'm held up in the express lane because they refuse to tell people with WAAY over the limit to move to a regular lane, that translates as lousy service. Why would I want to go back to a place with lousy service?

And of course management thinks it's quite acceptable to make one lazy customer happy at the expense of how many others who were stuck behind the SC ... ?

As an aside, we simply don't have express lanes in this country. I don't think there's a law against them - it's just not done. As a direct result, that particular brand of suck is eliminated.

That's it; I'm packing up and moving there.

[mathnerd]

Then there's the cashier who refused to ring through me and my mother in the express lane. We lived in the same city, in two different houses. We just happened to be in Hellmart at the same time. We got to chatting and when we ready, went to the registers. We both had about 10 or so items (each). In two different buggies. The cashier decided that we were "together" and couldn't do separate orders even though we came in two different cars and were going to two different houses when we left. Yeah. That went over well.

[EricKei]

Not having express lanes also eliminates the presence of signs that read "Express Lane: X items or less only" </grammarnazi>

[raudf]

Then there's the cashier who refused to ring through me and my mother in the express lane. We lived in the same city, in two different houses. We just happened to be in Hellmart at the same time. We got to chatting and when we ready, went to the registers. We both had about 10 or so items (each). In two different buggies. The cashier decided that we were "together" and couldn't do separate orders even though we came in two different cars and were going to two different houses when we left. Yeah. That went over well.

That was stupidity on the cashier's part. I couldn't have cared less if you were together in the same vehicle, going to the same house.. as long as you had two separate buggies and were paying by two separate means. (Or in one case, the mother was helping the daughter out with some meds for her baby.. and it was expensive! The same card was used during two separate transactions. Daughter wanted to be able to pay Mom back as soon as she got paid and a separate receipt made that easier to do.)

[Dreamstalker]

That's one thing I don't mind at all; I've handled plenty of transactions in 12-or-less where the customers were using the same store card, but obviously paying separately. Sometimes a customer will tell me to use their card for someone who doesn't have one themselves, so the cardless person gets the sales and the card owner gets the gas points.