My sister-in-law's take on grocery store lines still gets under my skin

We were at the Kroger on Maple Street last Tuesday, stuck in a long checkout line. She turned to me and said, 'The express lane is a total scam, you should always pick the line with the most people because it moves faster.' I just stared at her. I've worked retail, and that's not how it works at all. The express lane has a hard limit of 15 items, so each transaction is quick. A regular line might have three carts, but one person could have a cart so full the cashier needs a price check. I tried to explain the math, but she just shrugged and said, 'My gut feeling is never wrong.' We stood there for ten more minutes while the express lane zipped right along. Has anyone else had to argue basic logic with a family member over something this silly?

3 comments

3 Comments

kevin2182mo ago

Used to think the same way until I watched a line with two full carts get stuck behind a coupon argument for ten minutes. Now I look for the line with the least stuff, not the fewest people. A basket with five items will almost always beat a cart packed to the brim.

ben4862mo ago

Consider the cashier's speed, not just the number of people.

hill.troy1mo ago

Cashier speed is honestly the biggest wildcard in any line decision. A slow cashier can turn a short line into a ten minute ordeal, while a fast one blows through a dozen carts like it's nothing. But here's the kicker, you can't always tell which cashier is fast just by looking at them. Sometimes the older lady moving slowly turns out to be a machine who has everything memorized, and the young kid zipping around is actually missing barcodes and causing delays. So my strategy is to watch for the cashier who's already ahead of schedule, the one who's scanning while the person is still loading stuff on the belt. That's the real indicator right there, not the number of people or the amount of stuff in carts.