Standing in line at the supermarket tonight, we were waiting to load groceries onto the conveyor belt at the checkout and the line was taking forever to move forward.  All the other checkouts were full, but ours was particularly slow.  We watched with annoyance as others joined the checkout line beside us after we had joined our line and progressed more quickly through their checkout line.  We debated jumping into another queue but figured that the hold-up was going to clear in a second and we’d be moving again.

The delay was being caused by a woman with two kids who was paying her bill with as many coins as she could muster, it seemed.  As an extra bonus - as it turned out - she had evidently waited until all her groceries were scanned and only then decided she wanted to buy some cigarettes as well.

The store is set up so those who want to buy cigarettes can do so from the main service counter which she had to pass on her way out.  However, oblivious to the glares from everyone else in line, this SPOTD decided to combine it into her purchase and demanded the checkout operator call another staff member to go to the service counter, get the packet of cigarettes, bring it back to the checkout for her and then she could finalise the bill.

Sure love, no problem.  We’ve got all the time in the world.  Clearly we have no better place to be than standing in line waiting for your belated demands to be met. Given that, as a smoker, she’s destined to lead a short life - it did seem strange to us that she would want to spend a considerable portion of it in a checkout queue.

Categories: SPOTD
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