Why are the shortest check-out lines always the ones held up by an SC?

[greensinestro]

It always seems like this happens. I go into a store to buy one and only one thing, maybe two if needed. Nearly every time I get in the shortest check out line, the customer in front of me, who has one or two things, always has to be the one who holds up the line.

In Target yesterday, I was only buying a new book and a bottle of antacid. The woman in front of me had four items, which looked like some candy, some socks, and this grilling machine. When the grilling machine was scanned (after all of the other items), the lady said, "Oh, that's ringing up $2 more than the shelf tag was." The guy behind me mumbled to himself "Why the hell does this always happen in the not so busy lines?" The cashier had to briefly shut down her line, then call a manager over for a price check, and the five or six other people that have by now piled behind me are getting irritated because of this lady's $2. I'm there suffering from heart burn, but don't want to rip open my Tums because I haven't paid for them yet, others are behind me waiting to purchase their stuff, and we're all waiting for this price check. Five long drawn out minutes later, the manager came back, and told the lady that the price that rung up was correct, and that the other price was for another appliance altogether! Ugh! And of course, she decided not to get this, so the cashier then had to void it off.

I think I'll try the busier lines next time being those do seem to move faster.

[ditchdj]

I swear to God I ALWAYS get the slowest freakin' lane in the store! And it's always for a variety of reasons: the product doesnt have a price tag, the produce has to be looked up for a price check, someone has 50 coupons, the cashier has a disability with her elbows/wrists/hands/arms, making her go very slowly (OK well then why cant the store put her on the 10 items or less express lane???), half the damn line uses only checkbooks. I know that some of this crap is not really anybody's fault, but regardless it just irritates me when I'm standing next to another line and the people in that line are moving past me like they're on one of those floor escalators you see at airports.

[Becks]

It seems that I only get stuck in the slow/short line when it's less than five minutes to closing and I only have 3 items, tops. :sigh:

I must be special.

[powerboy]

I hate that crap. I could just be buying 1-3 items, and I get behind someone who has to complain about the price or needs a price check.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I think it's some kind of corollary to Murphy's Law.

[Crazyredhead]

I never get into the 10/20 items or less lanes, as they are usually the slowest. It always seem to me that the newbies are trained on the express lanes, which makes them slower. I usually get in the regular lane and most of the time get out before the people in the express lanes.

[CRXPanda]

as the customer being held up, i have been known to pull out a couple bucks or so to cover the slow-poke. usually prefaced with..."if it will speed things up a bit, here, two dollars, there ya go, chop chop, places to go...things to do"

...no, never had an attidude thrown back...probably because i am another customer...and they seem to be hit with the stun gun on the way out (not gabby)

[Jack7957]

I don't know if it was a full moon last night, but it was interesting at the grocery store last night. 8 self serve checkouts open, only two being used. 4 regular checkouts open, 2 express (15 or less), 2 regular. Only 1 person in a regular lane had a cart full, I was also in line for a regular, since I had several cases of bottled water and soda and did not want to have to lift out each one at the self serve. Every staffed checkout lane, regular and express, had at least three people in it with only a few items. I don't understand why they weren't using the 6 available self serve lanes.

[katie kaboom]

Every staffed checkout lane, regular and express, had at least three people in it with only a few items. I don't understand why they weren't using the 6 available self serve lanes.

some people fear technology and avoid it like the plague. but, better for them to get in a line with an actual cashier than hold up a self serve line because they just don't know what they're doing.

[Kiwi]

I hate it when stores wont let cashiers override the system to take the next person in line while they are being held up with a price check, espeically if its a freaking express line!!!

[MadMike]

Something like that happened to me at Wal-Fart just today! My brother invited us over for his younger boy's birthday (he's turning 2), and we had forgotten to get a present, so we swung by there to get one.

I went to one of the self-checkouts that only had two people at it. Unfortunately, the did not know what the they were doing.

Eventually, a cashier opened up the regular checkout that was right next to us, and called us over. By the time she got us checked out, the idiots were still trying to figure out what they were doing.

[rdp78]

I always used those self-checkout lanes when the store has them available and well, I've been using them ever since those stores got them which has been a few years so I'm a bit of pro at them now. Anyway I've only had few problems like when I accidently put my purse on that scanner and it throught it was scanning something so an item got scan twice so I go to Customer Service to get fix after I paid (learn not to do that again). Usually their not to many people ahead of me when I'm using them and most seem to know what they were doing. But mainly I like'em because you can scan and bag your way not to mention it is usually faster then going through other lanes.

[greensinestro]

I don't understand why they weren't using the 6 available self serve lanes.

Because those are the people that normally mess them up, don't know what they're doing, aren't sure how to insert their bills/coins/S&H Green Stamps, etc. Probably the same people who hate using automated services on phone calls and would rather have a person helping them.

[ForestDragon]

I don't like self-serves much personally because they TALK REALLY REALLY LOUD ABOUT "PUTTING YOUR EYE-TEHMS IN THE BAG." Call me neurotic but I don't like the feeling that they're drawing attention to me (I hated the talking Coke machine for the same reason). If there was some way to make them stfu I'd use them more often.

[katie kaboom]

(I hated the talking Coke machine for the same reason).

whoa, what's this about a talking coke machine?