Counting iz HARD.

[Kristev]

You know, I love that idea.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Yeah; if it makes sense, it's not allowed, remember?

The kiosk at the supermarket has an even lower number of items it can process; five. This is cuz of the lack of space. But some SCs still try to take a piled up trolley into the kiosk queue and then get all pissy after they're told no.

[emax4]

Something else to consider... Some stores make the cashiers scan every single item even if it's the same item and they have multiples of it.

Ex: I come in express line of 12 items or less with 15 cans of cat food, all tuna flavored. Some stores with their archaic systems have a cash register that would interpret that as 15 items. More modern registers would have a system set up so that as long as it's the exact same item with the same UPC code, the cashier can hit "Quantity: 15", scan one can of the cat food, and it registers as one item. The former would add extra charges on to my order but the latter may not.

Ex: Let's say I have 15 cans of cat food, but they're all 15 different varieties, and I'm in the same 12 items or less lane. For inventory purposes, it's necessary to scan every can individually, but this poses two issues:

1. As much as we would all enjoy it, it's not the customers job to know how the store's system is set up. So they could come through express and expect the cashier to scan all 15 different cans of cat food and not expect an ass tax to be tacked on.
   
2. The cashier, in an effort to please everyone and not have to deal with impatient customers, might hit the "Quantity: 15" buttons and scan one of the 15 different cans of cat food. This would screw up inventory a little bit, and much more if repeated constantly. The inventory people would get peeved, and it's a difference of them not knowing that the cashiers on express have difficult and impatient customers to deal with, and the same cashiers being careless with the store's inventory system.

I also had another idea, but it probably wouldn't work: Some stores have an electronic tethering system on their carts, so that if it goes beyond a certain line, the cart's wheels lock up. What if a cart was attempted to go through an express line, the wheels would lock up? However, if the customer is getting two big bags of dog food, that wouldn't be logical. That dog food isn't not going to fit in a hand basket.

[RealUnimportant]

To assume that 15 identical items count as one is the act of an SC, even though it may only be a minor offense.

I like the idea of using the cart retention devices to prevent access to certain lanes, but I agree with your caveat regarding weighty items. Many stores near me run their express lanes as "basket only" rather than a set number of items, and of course the trick then is for SCs to pile baskets up in their carts... And further complication comes from those stores that provide a cart that is only any good when you place a couple of baskets onto it!

[Dreamstalker]

Something else to consider... Some stores make the cashiers scan every single item even if it's the same item and they have multiples of it.

My store does that. The only cases where we are allowed to use the quantity button is for produce that is priced per piece. I have yet to try the quantity key and then scanning an item, but knowing our POS systems it would crash it and I'd get yelled at. That would also require the customer to group the like items together on the belt, which in my store rarely happens.

Some of our elderly customers also use the carts as a walker of sorts, so they would have a cart but only 4-5 items. I was pondering a weight sensor, but that brings up the question of the dogfood/kitty litter where two items could easily weigh 10lbs or more.

[Chromatix]

My parents would pick up an entire case of dog food at a time, and the established procedure was to and over one can to scan, and display the rest of the cans in the trolley so they could be counted.

This saved a lot of effort, but there was only one variety involved since it was dog food rather than cat food. Cats are a lot more picky.

Almost as much convenience would be achieved by packaging cases of dog food explicitly as multiples, like six-packs of beer. (Amusingly, a 12-pack of beer is known as a "dachshund" over here.) Each pack counts as a single item for express purposes, since it only has to be scanned once.

[CalyCoRose]

I saw this picture on another website and thought it was appropriate for this topic.

I almost choked on my orange jucie when I saw this picture. This sign is at the local grocery store in my hometown!