little blog on the prairie

Now that I’m a mom I find myself shopping at places that I would never in a million years have stepped foot into B.P. (before Peanut), mostly because of time constraints. The World’s Retailing Behemoth happens to have a store right along the road near her caregiver’s home. Yesterday, I had to pick up a few things, so I stopped there. The trip was mostly uneventful, until I got to the self-check out lane.

All four checkouts were occupied, so I was waiting to see which one opened up first. Some lady (and I use that term as loosely as possible) decided that you don’t wait for all of them; you pick which one you want and wait there. So she decided to ram past my cart, almost bumping Peanut, and get as close as possible to the one register she decided had her name on it. That’s a mild description of what actually happened.

That would be great except that there is no room to do such a thing. Those stations are simply not set up for each one to have their own separate line. So that “lady” and her very trashy family crowded the person at their designated check-out counter, harassing her until she finished tallying her order.

Fittingly, I waited patiently for the next available checkout, and got out of there well before they did.
Does anybody have any manners anymore? And is there any such thing as self-checkout lane etiquette? And why doesn’t the World’s Retailing Behomoth not have some sort of line mechanism set-up for that area?