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So when did "10 items or less" stop being exactly that?

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p01ar said:
Ok, then what's the difference between a pre-packages bag of apples and adding 10 apples to a bag.

The difference is it's quite easy to manipulate and scan one bag of apples and throw it in a sack. The same way if someone gets a bag of walnuts i'm not upset because they have "300 items". I think I'm even being kind on the count of 60. I think it was way above that. The cashier had to come from behind the register and bag all that damn corn and count it from the other side and then go back around and accept payment. The corn guy also had some bags of chicken.
 
Wraith said:
Two lanes. I'm in the left doing 75 in a 65. Someone is tailing me, obviously wanting to go faster. Just ahead of me in the right lane is someone doing ~65, maybe 70. Ahead of him is another car, maybe a truck, and so on. I'm not switching lanes in this situation. If there's an opening in traffic in the right lane then sure, I'll let you over. Otherwise, forget it - You'll have to lose those extra 10 miles per hour for a few precious minutes because I'm not going to switch lanes, turn off my cruise control by braking, let you by, and then switch back.

Edit: And how in the world is me having to brake and get behind some guy in the right lane any less safe then you having to brake and get behind me in the left? Furthermore, isn't the guy going faster actually less safe overall?

similarly, when I am going 85 in a 55 and there is someone about 20 feet in front of me also going 85, tailgating me and flashing your brights at me isn't going to get the person in front of me to go any faster.
 
i used to work at a store called Sack N Save as a teenager and i had absolutely no problem telling customers to GTFO if they had too many items. however, this was nothing like a Wal Mart. a cashier doesn't have the time to sit and check and count every single item in every customers cart there and then tell them to go somewhere else and even if they did do that, it's WAL MART. the customer would probably just run off to a manager and get the cashier in trouble. simple solutions:

1. go to a self checkout
2. go to another line
3. shop somewhere not so busy
4. suck it up, a few extra minutes isnt going to kill you or anything. but an angry wal mart customer that you had pulled out of the line might
 
When I'm in line at the self-checkout and I see some twat ahead of me with a number of items significantly higher than the quota indicated by store signage, I always want to start grabbing shit out of their cart and throwing it back toward the merchandise area of the store. I wouldn't do it, but it would be nearly as fun as my desired choice of retribution (stabbing them in the parking lot).
 
If you want to get into a serious debate, let's talk about those winners that want to use their government assistance card (the Loanstar Card in my neck of the woods) to pay for things that blatantly aren't covered, such as crappy snack foods, booze, and magazines. These same people will gleefully hold up a line and make a scene.
 
BirdBomb said:
i used to work at a store called Sack N Save as a teenager and i had absolutely no problem telling customers to GTFO if they had too many items. however, this was nothing like a Wal Mart. a cashier doesn't have the time to sit and check and count every single item in every customers cart there and then tell them to go somewhere else and even if they did do that, it's WAL MART. the customer would probably just run off to a manager and get the cashier in trouble. simple solutions:

1. go to a self checkout
2. go to another line
3. shop somewhere not so busy
4. suck it up, a few extra minutes isnt going to kill you or anything. but an angry wal mart customer that you had pulled out of the line might

Of course I'm just bitching and I could follow any of the things you mention but it does annoy me that stores don't even follow simple policies that would improve efficency and not annoy customers. Not to mention that these problems are not just Wal-Mart centric as some of you suggest. The most common probelm I find at other stores is they simply don't have enough cashiers working. I shop during the day right now and when I go to non-walmart stores they often have only one or two cashiers working in the whole store so the lines gets clogged up anyway. Of course not every grocery store is like this nor is it every time but just saying...
 
Wraith said:
Two lanes. I'm in the left doing 75 in a 65. Someone is tailing me, obviously wanting to go faster. Just ahead of me in the right lane is someone doing ~65, maybe 70. Ahead of him is another car, maybe a truck, and so on. I'm not switching lanes in this situation. If there's an opening in traffic in the right lane then sure, I'll let you over. Otherwise, forget it - You'll have to lose those extra 10 miles per hour for a few precious minutes because I'm not going to switch lanes, turn off my cruise control by braking, let you by, and then switch back.

Edit: And how in the world is me having to brake and get behind some guy in the right lane any less safe then you having to brake and get behind me in the left? Furthermore, isn't the guy going faster actually less safe overall?
This is seriously every single day of my life since moving to Florida 2 years ago.

If I'm already speeding by 15-20 MPH in the fast lane, and you want me to get out of the way so you can go FASTER, you're shit out of luck. Either learn to drive like a somewhat sane and reasonable person or go terrorize some other lane. I'm already fulfilling my obligation of going fast in the fast lane.
 
Stoney Mason said:
Of course I'm just bitching and I could follow any of the things you mention but it does annoy me that stores don't even follow simple policies that would improve efficency and not annoy customers. Not to mention that these problems are not just Wal-Mart centric as some of you suggest. The most common probelm I find at other stores is they simply don't have enough cashiers working. I shop during the day right now and when I go to non-walmart stores they often have only one or two cashiers working in the whole store so the lines gets clogged up anyway. Of course not every grocery store is like this nor is it every time but just saying...

well from 16 until i started school i worked almost nothing but grocery. i have worked kroger, albertsons, piggly wiggly, walmart, tom thumb, sack n save. none of them had any set in stone policy about the express lane, because no one wants pissed off customers. basically if a customer has a little more than the allowed amount you werent supposed to say anything. the only time you were really allowed to say anything is when the people came up with carts full of crap. i have always thought of the express lane as more of a suggestion than a clear cut rule, much like apparently some of you believe the speed limit and which lane you should drive in to be as well. i mean if the limit is 10 and someone has 20, should they really go and wait behind someone who has 2 entire shopping carts full? is that really improving customer service? is that customer really not going to be annoyed?

grocery stores are usually pretty under staffed, mostly because a lot of them switched their methods of working people in order to make more money. i used to make $13 an hour overnight at a kroger to sit and check out maybe 20 people a night. if i went back to that kroger now, even with 7-8 years of experience, they would purposely only schedule me part time hours and pay me maybe $7 an hour. they dont offer full time employment anymore and that allows them to save money on benefits and wages but also turns away a lot of potential employees. albertsons made a similar change, but not as f'd up AFAIK.
 
tedtropy said:
If you want to get into a serious debate, let's talk about those winners that want to use their government assistance card (the Loanstar Card in my neck of the woods) to pay for things that blatantly aren't covered, such as crappy snack foods, booze, and magazines. These same people will gleefully hold up a line and make a scene.


I was in winn dixie, and the lady ahead of us was trying to use coupons, for shit she wasn't buying. Apparently some other cashier had done it for her. The manager showed up.

manager:Who did this for you?
Lady: I don't know some young guy
manager: Short brown hair?
lady: I don't remember
manager: that's illegal what his doing, he's stealing from the register and giving it to you
lady: So, I can't do that this time then?
manager:.....

(all in spanish, and she was paying with food stamp/welfare/american flag card full of fre money for people wearing too much jewelry)
 
MetatronM said:
This is seriously every single day of my life since moving to Florida 2 years ago.

If I'm already speeding by 15-20 MPH in the fast lane, and you want me to get out of the way so you can go FASTER, you're shit out of luck. Either learn to drive like a somewhat sane and reasonable person or go terrorize some other lane. I'm already fulfilling my obligation of going fast in the fast lane.

i can understand not wanting to move over to the right lane if doing so would cause you to get trapped by slower cars, but if there's no one in the right lane and you are blocking a faster car in the left lane, you need to MOVE. people who force me to pass them on the right piss me off to no end.
 
I used to be a cashier for Costco, and people would complain that we DIDN'T have an express lane. Granted, every now and then people would come in and only buy 3-5 things, but overall there weren't enough of those people to warrant an entire lane. Plus, anyone who's been to Costco knows that even with tons a shit a person can be checked out in only a few minutes.
 
BirdBomb said:
if i went back to that kroger now, even with 7-8 years of experience, they would purposely only schedule me part time hours and pay me maybe $7 an hour.

As a cashier, does 7-8 yrs of experience really make you that much more valuable of an employee than one that has 7-8 months under his or her belt?
 
TheMan said:
i can understand not wanting to move over to the right lane if doing so would cause you to get trapped by slower cars, but if there's no one in the right lane and you are blocking a faster car in the left lane, you need to MOVE. people who force me to pass them on the right piss me off to no end.

why cant the dude who is already speeding at a ridiculous level not just whip around the guy who is speeding less?
 
zesty said:
As a cashier, does 7-8 yrs of experience really make you that much more valuable of an employee than one that has 7-8 months under his or her belt?

yes, to the employer anyway. every grocery store pays a rate based on experience. my only point in mentioning the experience was to point out the pay rate should be much higher than normal.
 
BobLoblaw said:
Bingo! It all starts and ends at the cashier. If he/she lets someone with 20 items in line, blame them. I think a lot of them are chickenshit and scared that the customer will say something to a manager (which is weird because the customer was wrong in the first place). I worked in a grocery store for 6 years PT and boy can I tell some stories.

nah I think most dont give a shit.. if i was working as a cashier.. why would i give a ****?
 
stormer said:
nah I think most dont give a shit.. if i was working as a cashier.. why would i give a ****?

Because, the sign says 10 items or less. If you let someone in line with 20 items, what do you say to the 4 people with 2-3 items that have to wait in line behind that dumbass? "Sorry?" Now imagine that person with the 20 items needs a price check for something that doesn't have a price and THEN decides to write a check?
 
stormer said:
nah I think most dont give a shit.. if i was working as a cashier.. why would i give a ****?


at least where I worked, its because the '10 item or less' checkout conveyor belt was about 3 feet long, whereas a regular checkout lane had one about 7 feet long. What am I supposed to do with their bags of potato chips and acne medicine and whatnot when the conveyor belt is jammed full and their cart is still half full as well? I tried sitting a persons bags on the ground once and she called me an asshole.
 
The stores should just have a trap door where the current customer is standing at the cash. As the computer adds up the items being bought, if the number goes over the limit, said customer is dropped into The Pit. Annoying customers could also be dropped into The Pit for various other acts of stupidity. It would be kind of like the trap door in Mr. Burns' office. :)
 
Odysseus said:
see, i simply refuse to shop somewhere that does not have self-checkout.



lowe's shuts down their self checkout in the late evening. you want to shop there, you go through that one checkout line they have open. harris teeter puts away all their hand-carts in the late evening. you want to shop there, you either get a full shopping cart or buy only what you can carry.


Blame thieves for the self checkout being shutdown late at night, people love to go through those and not ring up everything or use diffrent barcodes for a high priced item.
 
themadcowtipper said:
Blame thieves for the self checkout being shutdown late at night, people love to go through those and not ring up everything or use diffrent barcodes for a high priced item.

I almost never use those self-checkout lines but to show how lame I am, I never thought about stealing that way...

Now I'll have to resist the temptation. :lol
 
BobLoblaw said:
Because, the sign says 10 items or less. If you let someone in line with 20 items, what do you say to the 4 people with 2-3 items that have to wait in line behind that dumbass? "Sorry?" Now imagine that person with the 20 items needs a price check for something that doesn't have a price and THEN decides to write a check?

Still doesn't explain why I, as a cashier, actually cares? If you're working for 4 hours or whatever, it's four hours, I don't care who comes to my till. Cheques however are a pain in the ass, especially as I always forget what you have to right on the back of them x)
 
BirdBomb said:
why cant the dude who is already speeding at a ridiculous level not just whip around the guy who is speeding less?

Because passing on the right is unsafe and causes accidents? The left lane is for passing and, to the extent that it constitutes "passing", driving faster than other traffic. If you are just too lazy to turn off your cruise control and switch lanes to let the faster traffic by, then you shouldn't be driving in the first place.

Of course there are always exceptions based on how much traffic there is, whether it's unsafe to get over or if the person behind you is just being an asshole and forcing you to do an unsafe manuever. But, IN GENERAL AS A GENERALITY, if you are in the leftmost lane you should NOT be getting passed on the right - it means you need to switch to a slow lane, regardless of how "fast enough" you believe you're traveling.

There have been countless occasions when I've been driving and I've been in the fast lane going 80 and seeing people creep up in my rearview while people in the other lanes are going 65. You know what I do? I get over, slow down, let them pass (even if it means going 65 for a half a mile) and then get back into the fast lane to pass the 65 crew. You know why? Because that's how you're supposed to drive. Your laziness is no excuse to not change lanes - you don't have a 'right' to never turn off your cruise control and not brake just because you think you're going fast enough.
 
themadcowtipper said:
Blame thieves for the self checkout being shutdown late at night, people love to go through those and not ring up everything or use diffrent barcodes for a high priced item.

but it's just so comical. lowe's shuts down self checkout, so i can clearly not choose the goblet in front of you. but the harris teeter leaves self checkout open but takes away hand-carts, so i can clearly not choose the goblet in front of me.
 
Just before Christmas, I happened to be waiting at a 10-item checkout and watched as a woman decided to put an entire trolley's worth of groceries through the adjacent check-out. "Look at the nerve of her!" exclaimed the woman in front of me.

But it got worse. The stupid bitch decided to "play by the rules" and split her shopping up into 8 individual transactions and got her kids to pay for each one. I've never seen anything so utterly selfish and stupid in all my life. Putting 70-odd items through, making the cashier ring up 8 times and getting her slow, dithering children to pay each time. Madness.
 
Ikuu said:
Still doesn't explain why I, as a cashier, actually cares? If you're working for 4 hours or whatever, it's four hours, I don't care who comes to my till. Cheques however are a pain in the ass, especially as I always forget what you have to right on the back of them x)

You are right of course other than the sense of doing a job properly...

I was a cashier to work my way through college although I worked at a drugstore and not a grocery store so the 10 item thing didn't exist. If I worked in a grocery store though, unless the person was elderly I would certainly boot people out of my line for having a shit-load of items if i could just because fair is fair.
 
Well, it's a low paying job, and to be honest the hassle of telling someone they're in the wrong line and potentially having them shout at you, seen this happen to other people, really isn't worth it.
 
Ikuu said:
Still doesn't explain why I, as a cashier, actually cares? If you're working for 4 hours or whatever, it's four hours, I don't care who comes to my till. Cheques however are a pain in the ass, especially as I always forget what you have to right on the back of them x)

Because you're not following instructions. Rather than kicking some asshole out of line that shouldn't be there, you're allowing customers to do whatever they want. Basically, you're letting them tell you what you will and won't do. You're also calling all the people that play by the rules suckers (which is beside the point). Also, your logic is flawed. Would you rather spend 4 hours checking out everyone in an express lane or only checking out people with fewer items?
 
SnakeswithLasers said:
Because passing on the right is unsafe and causes accidents? ... There have been countless occasions when I've been driving and I've been in the fast lane going 80 ... Because that's how you're supposed to drive.
Do you live in Germany? Because there is nowhere in the US where 80 mph is legal. And sanctimonious posts criticizing other people's driving habits when you are driving far too fast is delicious irony.
 
I make it a point to kindly ask the customers coming into my line if they have 15 items or less (at vons its 15 not 10) and if they leave then good for them. If they have obviously too many items i Just tell them "this is an express lane". Sometimes the stupid people in Floral put their balloons up there right in front of the sign that says EXPRESS so i can understand.
 
Stoney Mason said:
I almost never use those self-checkout lines but to show how lame I am, I never thought about stealing that way...

Now I'll have to resist the temptation. :lol


I think of stealing all the time, but that is my job, I 'm Asset Protection. I have seen way worse things.
 
I can deal with the people who are over the limit in the express checkouts, but it's the people who insist on using goddamn credit cards that give me the shits. Wish they'd make them cash only.

Most of the time I'll just go to a regular checkout.
 
adamsappel said:
Do you live in Germany? Because there is nowhere in the US where 80 mph is legal. And sanctimonious posts criticizing other people's driving habits when you are driving far too fast is delicious irony.

Driving fast =! Driving bad
 
stonedwal said:
I can deal with the people who are over the limit in the express checkouts, but it's the people who insist on using goddamn credit cards that give me the shits. Wish they'd make them cash only.

Most of the time I'll just go to a regular checkout.

credit cards are easier son, swipe and go.

I don't carry cash dollars on me - so :p
 
adamsappel said:
Do you live in Germany? Because there is nowhere in the US where 80 mph is legal. And sanctimonious posts criticizing other people's driving habits when you are driving far too fast is delicious irony.

The US has areas where the limit is 70 and the flow of traffic goes 80.

Because passing on the right is unsafe and causes accidents? The left lane is for passing and, to the extent that it constitutes "passing", driving faster than other traffic. If you are just too lazy to turn off your cruise control and switch lanes to let the faster traffic by, then you shouldn't be driving in the first place.

...

This post is pure concentrated truth.
 
adamsappel said:
Do you live in Germany? Because there is nowhere in the US where 80 mph is legal. And sanctimonious posts criticizing other people's driving habits when you are driving far too fast is delicious irony.

:lol Says you. I don't happen to think 80 is "far too fast" - it happens to be a legal speed limit in parts of Texas (which isn't part of Germany yet...) and there are a good number of other states with 75 limits, and a lot with 70.

There isn't anything ironic about my statements either - I'm not talking about 'letter of the law' legality, I'm talking about practicality, common sense and courtesy to others sharing the road - namely: Slow drivers -> to the right.
 
I'm not going to read the whole thread, but I just wanted to add that I never use the Express Lane - it always takes longer than the regular ones.

As a matter of fact, an all night grocery store near my househas taken to placing a retarded woman behind the register at the express.
 
Sapiens said:
I'm not going to read the whole thread, but I just wanted to add that I never use the Express Lane - it always takes longer than the regular ones.

As a matter of fact, an all night grocery store near my househas taken to placing a retarded woman behind the register at the express.

:lol That's awesome. The express lines at my Ralph's are usually pretty fast. They'll normally have 2 express and 5-7 normal lines open - our checkers are good and all the lines move reasonably fast, but they aren't afraid to kick blatant 'express' offenders to the curb.
 
While we are talking about things that generally annoy us, I hate it when your at a place to eat and you go to fill up your cup at the fountain and their are either people talking in front of it or you get the person that's so indecisive that not only do they take forever to pick what drink they want, but while they are thinking are standing right in front of the machine and in the center.

Also if your fountain drink choice is all the way on the right or left, why stand at the center? Stand off to whatever side the drink is so the person behind you can get ice or some other drink on the opposite side.
 
Well, I don't work of the tills all the time only when it's busy so the way I see things might be different than someone who works on them most of their time working, but serving at the express till is a pain in the ass as it always has the bigger line, people get put off when they see a belt that is filled with items even if it's actually faster than the express.

Edit: Credit cards are easier unless you get some old person who tries about three different cards and can't remember any of their numbers and enters them incorrectly three times, and the amount of people that just leave their card in the chip and pin thing and just walk away is pretty shocking.
 
Actually, I agree that someone driving much slower than the speed limit in the passing lane is dangerous, and I considered later that maybe you were in Wyoming or someplace with long stretches of flat road and little traffic, but here in suburban DC, most people driving 80 mph fall into the "****ing asshole" category and are a menace. So, if 80 mph is your speed limit and that's how everyone is driving, have at it.
 
Yea...that type of stuff is hella annoying. I don't know though. From my experience is either:

A) The cashier not saying anything
B) Cashier missing the person for whatever reason
C) Person being an asshat


More times than not its usually B and C. What gets me though, is people that will look dead at the well lit sign, saying express and saying, "I didn't see it". The only thing worst than that, is when a cashier needs to close, shuts off his/her light, and some person comes and throws their shit on the belt.

As for the managers telling the customer off, and siding with the cashier...

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

Yea the hell right. You think some manager is going to pull some clown out of the line, and then have them bitch at them? Customer is always right, no?
 
the self-checkouts usually say 12 items or less. I don't care, I'll put 30 through there. I'd rather get in and get out asap and not have to wait in line or for a cashier.

However, going through an express lane with that many items is an asshole thing to do.
 
adamsappel said:
Actually, I agree that someone driving much slower than the speed limit in the passing lane is dangerous, and I considered later that maybe you were in Wyoming or someplace with long stretches of flat road and little traffic, but here in suburban DC, most people driving 80 mph fall into the "****ing asshole" category and are a menace. So, if 80 mph is your speed limit and that's how everyone is driving, have at it.

I can't disagree that 80+ in DC traffic might make you more of a menace than some dude chilling in the left lane... =/
 
The Experiment said:
For the express lanes, if there isn't some guy trying to put up 15 items, instead, they give a laundry list of packs of cigs they want. "Uh, I'll have Marlboro 100s soft pack deluxe" or some shit like that. Who gives a **** what kind of death stick you smoke.
You wait until (if?) they bring in those prominent warning labels with graphic images of diseased lungs and arteries full of gunk. Then it becomes "Uh, I'll have Marlboro 100s soft pack deluxe...no, not that one. The one with that warning...oh no, not the cancer warning: my friend just got lung cancer, you see? What's the picture on the next one along? Eww, no. Haven't you got any others?"
 
Cauliflower of Love said:
:lol get the **** outta here, thrown out of the store for having 12 items in a 10 item lane?
Selective reading for the win. What observation immediately preceded my surprise that he was not thrown out?

you threatened the cashier with violence.
Try again.
 
Zeed said:
Your reading comprehension is ****ing amazing.


Try again.
He didn't actually say he threatened him, so maybe you should check your own comprehension. Sucka.
 
temp said:
He didn't actually say he threatened him, so maybe you should check your own comprehension. Sucka.
The dude eventually realized that he likely stood to get a black eye out of the deal
The "dude" in question realized that he was in danger of being attacked. He would not have come to this conclusion if there had not been any sign of such danger.

Merriam Webster said:
Main Entry: threat·en
Pronunciation: 'thre-t&n
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): threat·ened; threat·en·ing /'thret-ni[ng], 'thre-t&n-i[ng]/
transitive verb
1 : to utter threats against
2 a : to give signs or warning of
That's pretty goddamn black and white there. If I waltzed into a store, refused to play by its rules, and then threatened staff with violence when I didn't get my way, I would sure as hell expect to be thrown out.
 
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