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

[mjr]

Ok, I was at the Mart of Walls today, and I had a few things in my cart.

So I pull into the express lane behind this SC, which was an elderly lady.

I notice something odd, and start mentally counting the things in her cart, and it looks like she might actually be over the 20 items. That's not the kicker.

She's blathering about whatever to the cashier, who I'm sure is doing what I'm doing at that point and half paying attention to the lady and just wishing she'd hurry up.

Then, SC lady stops about halfway through her cart and says "That's it for the first order."

WTF!?!? In the express lane??

Lady, if you're gonna do that, go to one of the REGULAR checkout lanes! People like me go to the express lanes for a REASON. They're supposed to be fast and convenient! Management at the Mart of Walls should have signage in HUGE letters all over the express lanes saying something like "NO MULTIPLE ORDERS", and they should also give their cashiers authority to tell SCs that the rule does, indeed, apply to them and that they must go to a regular checkout line if they want to do "multiple orders".

So I mumbled "Oh, geez" to myself, and went to the "self-checkout" down at the far end of the registers. I should have said it louder, but I did make a little bit of a show swinging my cart around to express my "inconvenience".

I would almost guarantee you that even though I had to go to the far end of the registers and go do self-checkout I beat the SC finished with her transaction.

[raudf]

What bites is that when I cashiered at the Mart of Hell, we couldn't turn away the large orders.. or I should say we couldn't when certain CSMs or the Ass manager were on duty. Apparently, pissing off one customer was a no-no, but pissing off every customer following the signs was a "good thing."

Now I try to find a manager and complain. If the manager explains they can't/won't do anything, then I contact corporate. The only way the policies will be enforced is if customers complain... often and loudly.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

People like me go to the express lanes for a REASON. They're supposed to be fast and convenient! Management at the Mart of Walls should have signage in HUGE letters all over the express lanes saying something like "NO MULTIPLE ORDERS", and they should also give their cashiers authority to tell SCs that the rule does, indeed, apply to them and that they must go to a regular checkout line if they want to do "multiple orders".

Yes, they should.

But doing those things will cause SCs to complain, in surveys or other ways, so it can't be done.

Also, it makes sense, so it's not allowed.

[Pixilated]

I heard it explained thus: the customer with the huge order is spending a lot of money. Those of us with a small order aren't.

Thus, we are second-class and they can hold us up if they want.

(Okay, the explainer didn't say that last part in exactly those words, but basically what it boiled down to is those who spends the cash, can spend it at whatever checkout they want.)

[mjr]

I heard it explained thus: the customer with the huge order is spending a lot of money. Those of us with a small order aren't.

Thus, we are second-class and they can hold us up if they want.

(Okay, the explainer didn't say that last part in exactly those words, but basically what it boiled down to is those who spends the cash, can spend it at whatever checkout they want.)

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.

[raudf]

I agree with mjr. I had a ring up of $1000 between two items once. The express lane over had a huge cart come in with nearly 300 items (and it wasn't a manager taking it over to ring only that order), but came to $200 after the extreme coupons used. The person I was waiting on said if he'd had to wait on the big cart, he'd have left the items and gone to another store.

Fortunately, we had more than one express lane open, but I still felt like kicking the CSM who told my coworker to take the big order rather than sending them to a conveyer belt register. I wound up with a looonnngg line of people who were complaining to ME about it, but refusing my hints to talk to management.

For the record there were more regular registers open than express lanes and the cashiers on them were in the "red line" position waiting for people to come up at the time the CSM made my coworker take the huge load. Can we say "Dafuq?"

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Sometimes I feel like SC's think that "Express lane" means;

Oh, the manager must put their fastest ringers on this lane for people like me who have a lot of stuff but can't be bothered to wait for a normal speed ringer to take care of my stuff.

What? It's for people with only a few items so everyone goes by faster? PSAWH! I'm buying a TON of stuff, so I'm the one who needs to the express lane.

[AyreBiskits]

the places i worked at that had express lanes, it's usually the lanes where new cashiers are trained because the customers have smaller amounts of purchases (in theory). if i'm in a hurry, i'll use the self-check out lanes.

[Cecily]

I hated handling the express register when I was a cashier in a grocery store. All the unwashed idiots seemed to flock to my line. I figured they either could not read or could not count. Or maybe the sign was not written in a language they knew.

[Lovecats]

I had a supervisor say that he always put his faster cashiers on the express lanes in answer to why I was always on them. I think he was just trying butter me up.

[Chromatix]

Technically, you need a cashier who is fast in handing cash and so on in an express lane, and a cashier who is fast at scanning in a non-express lane. I imagine these are two rather different skills.

[mikoyan29]

I heard it explained thus: the customer with the huge order is spending a lot of money. Those of us with a small order aren't.

Thus, we are second-class and they can hold us up if they want.

(Okay, the explainer didn't say that last part in exactly those words, but basically what it boiled down to is those who spends the cash, can spend it at whatever checkout they want.)

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.

[EricKei]

The only way the policies will be enforced is if customers complain... often and loudly.

Well, given what I have learned from that most wonderful and serious of scientific research sites -- I speak, of course, of peopleofwalmart.com -- Wal-Mart's target demographic is "people who can neither read nor get dressed for themselves" . . . Thus, those who are LEAST likely to dash off a letter to Corporate. This makes things simpler for the company: If they get a complaint letter that is legible and easy to understand, it is NOT from that demographic, and it can safely be ignored or even countermanded.

[Dreamstalker]

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).

[Ironclad Alibi]

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.

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