I am rather pleased to announce that National Standinaqueue Day has just turned International with our first entry from the United States.
Jenn LaMontagne reports on her queue experience in her local Wal*mart:
Well, Standinaqueue Day was a roaring success for me. Being a new mom, I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t have any opportunities to queue, as I rarely have time to do anything other than go to work and go home again. Luckily for me, though, today I needed a stop at the Wal-Mart over lunch to pick up a couple of items for tonight’s dinner.
The Wal-Mart is always an interesting experience, just by its sheer size. This Wal-mart has no less than 25 check-out lanes, stretching so far that you can not see to the 1st lane while standing at the 25th. So, as you can imagine, at mid-day on a weekday, only 2 or 3 lanes are open.
Finding which of the 25 lanes are the 2 or 3 they have decided to open is a challenge itself. Also, being rather short, I can’t see over the top of the shelves of impulse buys (candy, magazines, whathaveyou) separating each of the checkout lanes to see if a particular lane is occupied, how many shoppers are in line, and how much stuff the shoppers have yet to unload and ring up. Always a dilemma. Do I stick with the lane close by with 3 people with 1/2 full carts, or do I walk another 75 feet in hopes that the lane mid-way down has fewer people? It’s a timewaster either way.
Now, as to the queue on this particular day. I had only a few items, so chose the “20 items or less” lane. Two people with one cart at the front of the line, followed by 1 lady with an armful of items. Swinging my cart into the lane, I turned to the side to read the tabloid headlines for the week.
Poor queuing etiquette, perhaps, but certainly not so flagrant as to warrant the disrespect that followed, as a woman with 2 or 3 items brazenly cut right in front of me! So now, instead of 2 in front, I had 3. And a fine example of American queue behavior on this, International Standinaqueue Day!
The line-cutter was quite a larger woman than I, and Wal-Mart can at times attract less than savory customers, so I kept my words to myself and resigned to having lost my place. Thinking this would be my only finding to report, I turned my attention back to the front.
My astonishment was not yet complete though, for I soon realized the 2 with 1 cart at the head of the line were themselves engaged in an egregious breech of the checkout lane rules. 20 items or less, reads the sign. These 2, having more than 20 items in their cart, had decided that one would unload and then pay for some, while the other would unload and pay for the rest, as though they were each a separate customer with the maximum # of items, rather than a single customer with far too many items.
Would rather they just checked out their 40 items all at once, as it would have required less time of the cashier, and a shorter wait for me.
So, in all, a successful Standinaqueue Day for me – even though I had a rather uneventful queuing experience, would have been a good day anyway, having a chance to get out of the house!
Enjoy!
PS – Sorry I have no pictures to send to illustrate! I will perhaps try to take a photo this weekend, so that you can appreciate the vast expanse the checkout lanes occupy.
November 10, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Oh my, Jenn LaMontagne! As a person who shops weekly at Wal*Mart, I completely sympathize with your queuing experience. Wal*Mart does attract many of this woman’s type, and I don’t blame you for deciding to overlook her vulgarity in the interest of self-preservation.
What is even worse than this, however, are the people who use the self-checkout and have purchased many different types of produce. Inevitably, they need help from the attendant to ring up each of the items correctly. I would love to see a blog entry concerning this growing problem.
November 10, 2006 at 4:13 pm
I love the way you have 20 items or less in the States. In the UK it’s only 10 items or less.
Jenn LaMontagne, your queue was far from uneventful. And I think I too would have refrained from even tutting if the queue jumper was larger than myself.
What kind of baby do you have?
November 10, 2006 at 5:51 pm
I think I must have mis-typed. I meant to say “even if I had had an uneventful experience”. I agree – this one was far from uneventful!
Mrs. Aguilar: I have found that the Wal-Mart attendants are frequently unable to ring up produce correctly themselves, much less the customers in self-service. And it’s not as though Wal-Mart carries a terribly exotic produce selection. Nevertheless, I am often queried “Is this a zucchini?” while said attendant busily flips through the produce chart. Ah well.
William: I have a gorgeous (of course!) baby girl. Thanks for asking!
November 11, 2006 at 3:30 pm
The Wal*Mart where I live has both “20 items or less” AND “10 items or less” checkouts, but they are rarely both open at the same time! I have a similar experience, that I wrote up before I read yours, in the next post. If WM had not driven out so many local stores, I could get fabric, furnace filters, and some other things elsewhere. At the rate we are losing businesses in this town, there won’t be any other grocery stores soon!
November 13, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Jenn LaMontagne: You’re very correct about Wal*Mart’s produce problems. What astounds me most is when I purposefully choose a fruit or vegetable with a produce number sticker on it, and the checker *still* must look up the code on her cheat sheet! Of course, this causes the entire queue to come to a screeching halt, and, usually, the checker enters the code for a different variety of apple or tomato than what I purchased (generally one that is more costly per pound).