Row After Row of Closed Cash Registers

Have you ever shopped in a chain discount store and left frustrated with the check-out experience? I’m certain most Americans fall into this category. The stores seem designed to facilitate a speedy checkout. Row upon row of modern computer controlled cash registers stand ready to rush one speedily through the process of paying for merchandise.

Rarely is the actual experience pleasant. Most large discounters man those many check-out counters with only 2-3 employees. Therefore one waits in line for what seems an excruciating amount of time. Adding to the insult are the scores of empty cash registers, all reading “Closed”.

Even though the stores try to liven up one’s wait by surrounding the captive shopper with impulse purchase displays, boredom rapidly sets in. How long can one amuse oneself by staring at the National Enquirer cover article featuring a three-headed pig that lives on a dairy farm in Nebraska?

Just when it appears that the wait holds promise of ending, the most dreaded thing of all happens. Your cashier flips a switch and the light above his register starts to flash. The shopper ahead of you in the line has chosen an item that has no price tag. Everyone waits. After an unbelievable length of time the cashier decides to page the department head in charge of the offending item. The clerk appears and immediately disappears with the untagged item into the vast canyons of merchandise. Will the store close before the check-out line starts to move again?

A supervisor notices the stalled line and begins the process of opening another register. Individuals at the end of the offending line have the quickest line of sight to the new register and move their buggies quickly into place. The added cashier is useless to the person stuck at position #2 in the line awaiting price-check.

Finally the transaction is concluded and our frustrated shopper reaches position #1. The payment process seems anticlimactic after the torture of the wait. As our shopper wheels her cart towards the automatic door she glances back at those who must still endure the wait. Bon Voyage fellow shoppers. May secure price tags and empty shopping carts pave your way to a speedy check-out end.

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