[Joseph]

Could any grocery checkout person tell me why someone coming through the seven-item lane with 22 items in the cart is entitled to courtesy? I was behind a woman yesterday who abused the lane, and the cashier had the audacity to ask the abuser if she had any coupons.

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Name : Joseph, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 44, City : Millville, State : OH Country : United States, Occupation : Firefighter/paramedic, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 

[SR28493]

I suppose the easy explanation would be that the woman who took 21 items to an express line was outrageously rude and inconsiderate. I think maybe she just didn't pay attention to the fact it was an express line. By the time I end up at a grocery store check-out line, I'm usually exhausted and very, very hungry. I've ended up in the wrong line twice because I simply wasn't paying attention. Both times, the cashier or another customer told me - with humor - that I was in the wrong line. And both times I blushed and made a beeline to the correct one. Easy. Wouldn't it be so much easier to speak up than to quietly stew about this?

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Name : SR28493, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 21, City : Austin, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : Student, 

[Christopher D.]

There are three reasons I did not enforce the checkout policies when I was a cashier at Kroger. One, I was not paid enough to police the behavior of customers. Two, enforcing the policy usually would result in customer complaints. Get too many of those, you're fired. Three, but most important, I simply wanted to keep the peace even if a customer had to wait a few extra minutes. It is no fun when someone begins to throw a tantrum.

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Name : Christopher D., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 23, City : Arlington, State : TX Country : United States, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Al]

This bad behavior is certainly an abuse of the system, as well as of other rule-obeying customers. Unfortunately, in today's hyper-competitive shopping world, the majority of store managers put up with rotten customer attitudes rather than risk losing business. The old credo that "the customer is always right" has never been more misused, abused and misinterpreted than in the '90s.

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Name : Al, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 49, City : Ottawa (Ontario), State : NA Country : Canada, Occupation : audio engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[ex-cashier]

There could be lots of reasons why a cashier would help a customer with more items than whatever the stated limit is. First, people make mistakes. When it's busy and everyone just wants to get out of the store and on with their day, everyone looks for the shortest line. Sometimes you just don't notice you are in the wrong line. Easy enough if your mind is on other things. Second, remember that the customer is always right. If I were to insist someone move to another line and they complain to management that I was rude, I risk getting chewed out by a manager. If I go ahead and take the customer, and another customer complains, the result for me is the same. It's a no win situation sometimes. Third,most of the time I was too busy to stop and count the items in everyone's cart, anyway. As long as the 'offender' doesn't have a heaping cart-full it doesn't take that much longer to ring up a couple more items unless you have a really bad cashier to begin with. But this is what most people never consider: when I was a cashier for a well-known dept. store, I was told that if my express lane was slow I should not only allow customers with a lot of items but I should actually try to get people waiting in other lines to come to me. (A lot of big stores do this.) Why should I just stand around, when I could be helping someone? Of course, it was inevitable there would be times when half way through ringing up a customer with a large order, a line would form behind him or her. And usually at the head of the line would be someone with no manners or any concept of courtesy. To me, a person who would chew me out for doing my job, or who had the audacity to make remarks in an attempt to embarrass another person in public is the one who deserved little courtesy.

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Name : ex-cashier, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Lutheran, Age : 32, City : Louisville, State : KY Country : United States, Occupation : self-employed, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Chris32180]

Unfortunately, I once very recently ended up in the 10 item or less line. I have about 70 items. When I realized whare I was, I asked the cashier(who I see regurally) why she did not say anything to me. She told me that store policy dicteted they say nothing and just carry on. I felt really bad for the people behind me. I am sure that there are many people that know the store policy and ignore the 10 item rule. But occassionally, even the most mannered people like me mess up. I started saying something now when I see someone with too many items. I sure wish someone would have said something to me thazt day!

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Name : Chris32180, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 49, City : Daytona Beach, State : FL Country : United States, Occupation : Project Manager, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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