Retail Etiquette re: Checkout lines at big-box stores... is it or isn't it a sighting

[Saydrah]

So, I would like to see what everyone's opinion is here.

Say you are at Walmart on a Sunday afternoon buying literally about 200 items (several weeks of groceries for a family). There are no express scans or self-checkouts open-- only the regular cashiers with regular lines.

Are you, at the head of the line, obliged to permit the next person in line to go ahead if they only have one or two items, or is it fully within standard retail etiquette to make a person with two items wait while you buy multiple cartloads of items? Should the person with two items ask the cashier to request an express lane be opened, or possibly fill out a suggestion form and suggest express lanes be utilized during prime shopping hours?

I wasn't offended that the guy ahead of me yesterday didn't wave me ahead (he was corralling two wild kids and had his hands full) but it was frustrating to wait while a couple hundred items were scanned and not have the option of an express lane or self-check. I also almost never shop at Walmart, so I'm not concerned about it happening again. It was something of an urgent need, so I went to the closest place which happens to be Walmart, but I intend not to shop there routinely. Again, I wasn't ticked off and I don't really think the guy was being an SC or a sucky shopper by not letting me go in front, but it got me thinking about this situation.

So there are three people here-- 1) Cashier 2) Big Spender 3) Two Items Shopper. Is there something any of the three can/should do to make the transactions go more smoothly and quicker?

[Becks]

I can see both sides of this, but I think I'll lean this way today:

Say you're the one with a billion items. The person behind you has a few. You let them go before you. Then ANOTHER person comes up behind you with a few items. And so on. Do you want to take the risk that by you being nice you end up letting everyone in the store check out ahead of you?

OR

You let the first person behind you with a few items go ahead of you, then you go, but the next person behind you with a few items has a fit because you let the other person check out ahead of you, but you won't let them.








Does any of this make sense?

[Saydrah]

Of course, which is why I've bothered thinking about it after the fact-- even though I'm out of retail these puzzles interest me in the same way things like traffic management and highway design abstractly interest me. What's the best practice for each person here? Obviously the guy with a million items wants to check out and leave before his munchkins wreak havoc with the candy display, the cashier wants the least chance of either customer going all SC, and the person with 2 items is probably in a hurry and would like not to wait 15 minutes to buy 2 things.

The best solution I can come up with so far is for the cashier to page a backup cashier to the express lanes if many people in the regular lanes seem to have few items, but that has its own problems also-- namely maybe nobody is authorized to log into any of the express lanes right then and there, or maybe customers will start expecting to be able to demand an express lane materialize any old time they want one, regardless of staffing concerns and management preferences.

Also, does it change anything if there is nobody in line behind 2-items person? This wasn't the situation-- but had it been off-peak shopping hours and these were the only two in line, is there a difference?

Hmm a good puzzle always makes putting off my actual work more fun :P

(kidding, mostly, but I AM procrastinating a largeish project)

[Kheldarson]

Personally, if there's only one person behind me with a few items and I have a bunch, I let them go ahead. But that's me. I've had the same done for me on a few occassions too. I think it's mostly a personal decision by the persons involved.

[Becks]

I'm like Kheldarson, but I felt like being wordy today.

[clod75]

One would *think* the front end would see the lines and open at the very least ONE express... but oh well.

I think it is a personal choice as well(to let or not to let).

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I think I'd classify this as a non-sighting.

Somebody letting you move in front of them in line is a nice thing to do, but not something that should be expected, IMO.

[Balgram]

It depends on the situation. If I have a lot of items and there is only one person behind me with a few, I would let them go. Usually when I just have a pack of gum people let me check out in front of them, too.

I have no obligation to do this, though. It's a huge courtesy and it's very polite and kind, but it's not required, nor would I suck if I did not let someone cut in front of me. Checking out is the definition of a first come, first serve system.

If I was tired, in a hurry, or desperately wanted to get out of the store I'm not required to give up my spot in line, and I would not do so.

It's a shame there were no other lines open, that's a lousy situation for everyone.

MORAL OF THE STORY: There is no social obligation to let someone with fewer items check out in front of you. People letting you step in are the exception, certainly not the rule.

[Kogarashi]

Indeed, regardless of line-length, there's no social obligation to let the 2-Items person in front of you, if you're the Big Spender.

However, it is polite to offer (though it's not necessarily impolite not to). I did that once, when 2-Items was the only person behind me. She declined, probably because I had Baby with me. If there were several 2-Items people behind me, I probably wouldn't offer for fear of offending anyone I didn't let in front of me, and I'm not about to let the whole store check out before me when Baby and I have already been in there for 1.5+ hours and have perishables in our cart.

In the position of the 2-Items person, I'm patient enough to wait in line if no one offers to let me ahead, and I'm effusively thankful when someone does let me cut. It's a favor, not a right.

From the cashier side of things, and Walmart-specific, cashiers aren't allowed to page for backup at the registers. At the last store I worked at, the cashiers weren't even supposed to make pages themselves; they were to call up the fitting room/operator and have them make the page, to reduce the number of pages going over the PA system. CSMs have to call for backup, and that only works when there are register-trained employees in the store who aren't busy with something else.

As the cashier in the situation, I would've just done my darndest to ring up Big Spender as quickly as possible (which is how I try to ring up every customer anyway), so that 2-Items doesn't have to wait as long. Hopefully.

Of course, with one exception every Walmart I've been to has at least one express checkout open, unless it's off-peak. The exception was the last store I worked in, where they had a bank of four self-checkouts that were open from 9am (2 hours after opening) to 9:30 pm (half an hour before closing), plus one of the only two express lanes was permanently blocked by the inside cart corral (poor layout, if you ask me) and the other was often blocked by displays and only really cleared out from the beginning of November to around the end of January.

Which is to say that it's strange the store you went to didn't have express lanes or self-checkouts open. My theory is they either underscheduled themselves (happens sometimes), or had a number of cashiers call in that day. Odd.

I would say that if it happens again, find a CSM or manager and mention the situation to them, but you've mentioned you don't plan on shopping there all that often so this may be a moot point.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I've been on both ends of this, the Two Item Shopper and the Beleaguered Cashier.

As the Two Item Shopper, if I see Big Spenders in line, I try to go to a line without one, if one is available. If there isn't one available, and I am in a hurry, then I usually try to take my business elsewhere.

As the Beleaguered Cashier, however, I don't have any means of paging ANYONE from my register. Instead, I'm supposed to call a supervisor or MOD over to ask them to page someone, and I'm supposed to do this by flipping the switch on my register's light so it flashes.

The problem? No one pays any real attention to the flashing light. Sometimes they'll spot it right away, sometimes they won't notice it at all. Walking away from my register to go to the phone to page someone just means that ringing up Big Spender's order takes LONGER, thus infuriating the other people in line.

Being that I'm one of the faster cashiers at my store, I usually just buckle down and work as fast as possible to get Big Spender done and out of my line, and hope that the FLS or MOD notice my predicament and page a cashier back to the front line.

[One-Fang]

Say you are at Walmart on a Sunday afternoon buying literally about 200 items (several weeks of groceries for a family). There are no express scans or self-checkouts open-- only the regular cashiers with regular lines.

I don't see the need for a problem.

If that was the only line open, the problem presents itself. But if not, who stands behind MegaPurchaser when there are other checkouts open? Sure the lines might be longer, but if those individuals are not purchasing anywhere near as many items, collectively, as MegaPurchaser, then they're still a better bet.

[JLRodgers]

I hate it when things like that happen... I have this horrible luck that I could be behind someone with two carts or a single loaded down one -- but if I switch to a lane with someone that only has one item -- the loaded down person will manage to get done first. If I stay there, the other lines fly out and cashiers are sent to break lol. Just bad luck there.

I don't really care if a person doesn't offer for me to go first but it's nice if they offer (granted, I try a mind trick of "let the man behind you in first" to try and get in). It's just the catch that someone will get stuck behind them.

But I do get annoyed when the person sees me heading to the only opened line, ram their cart into me, and get there "first" when they're loaded down and I've got one or two things. I've been fortunate enough that when that happened the cashier manager lady sent me to the service desk or pulled someone from the floor to ring me out (literally just me, a "closed" sign wasn't removed, no light on, etc).

[Gerrinson]

I've been every party in this equation on numerous equations. Usually, the polite thing to do is for the person with a ton of stuff to let the person with only a couple items go ahead of them. But, the register is 1st come, 1st serve and as a cashier I'd never have forced anyone to let a smaller order go ahead.

That being said, the only real suck is when there is one open register and a Big Spender rushes up and uses their shopping cart to cut off and get ahead of a person with only a couple items. I've even had one woman try to run her cart OVER my foot to get ahead of me. Fortunately, I was wearing steel toe boots so I wasn't injured by it. Also, grocery cart wheels are not made for running over stuff, even boots, so she failed to get ahead of me. The death glare she gave me matched my own. After all, that single bottle of salad dressing I was buying took FOREVER to scan.

But, yeah, in the OP, no real suck on his part. Especially if he was trying to get his kids out of the store ASAP. I can totally understand not letting anyone cut.

[wagegoth]

Balgram and I seem to have similar attitudes.

Another situation I've run into, at Costco and Target, is I'll have been waiting in line for a bit (15 minutes or more) with my cartload. The supervisor notices the lines and opens a couple more registers. I stay where I'm at but people behind me and in other lines move to the new registers, thinning things out. Then, someone with just a couple of items will get in line behind me and then look at me hopefully. Sorry, I've been waiting for a while, my kids are antsy, there are express checks open (at Target) and I just want to get out of here.

When I have quite a few items, I often let people with just a couple of items go ahead of me, especially at Costco, since there are no express lanes. But the scenario above has happened a few times, and that's the way it played out.

[otakuneko]

I've even had one woman try to run her cart OVER my foot to get ahead of me.

Cripes. If someone did that to me I would've been tempted, and possibly even given into it, to lift my foot up as it was being run over.

Ow, that hurt, now apologize as you clean up your mess.