[tm]

Thank you for that, Arcadien!

[ThoroughbredFancy]

Great post, Arcadien. That is why I don't get nearly as impatient as I used to. Or if I start to I take a deep breath, and calm down. I got bigger fish to fry.

[JoZ]

But, clearly for most of us posting on COTH, financially 10 cents or 25 cents doesn't make a difference. What you're forgetting is that to some people, it does.

You keep saying that, but I'm not buying it. And I'm full of compassion for lower income/elderly folks and have absolutely given a nickel/dime/dollar to help out.

Seems to me the OP's situation was NOT that someone was coming up $0.10 short of being able to pay for an order. The person was being "cheated" of $0.10 of coupon value. And I don't care how poor someone is, a dime is a dime, and time DOES have value. There are so many options -- use the coupon another time... bring it to the customer service window... keep your eyes open because there's almost certainly a dime on the ground.

I guess I'm (over)reacting to LauraKY's repeated attempts to make us all feel ashamed for our abundance and our lack of tolerance. I don't think a dime has a lot of value BY ITSELF no matter how poor one is -- as someone else stated, if it is a repeated occurrence at a particular store it might change my mind. My mother was a rabid couponer in retirement and probably would have followed through on that dime till she was satisfied but again... RETIRED. More time than money. If I have more money than time right now, or I happen to feel like BOTH have value? Don't belittle me.

[LauraKY]

Beautiful story Arcadien. You just never know, do you?

[Mozart]

You know what makes me sad is a little old lady (me in the future) with little hands that are arthritic, trying to count out her pennies to pay cash for her small purchases ...I always wonder about her.

Thanks to the Canadian government you have no worries on this score. As of last Monday stores no longer accept pennies as they are no longer in production. Stores now round up or down to the nearest nickel.

[spacytracy]

That's why they have magazines up front. To read in line so you don't rip someone's head off. Lol. Then when it's your turn, you put your magazine back on the rack. Like the dentist.

[MsM]

I get annoyed when I perceive needless delay. The cashier chatting and not scanning at the same time. The customer not being prepared to pay. ETC.
Sometimes I am just amused in a dark way as I watch how a cashier can move in slow motion when all they have to do is scan. Or the cashier who can combine that with looking off into the distance so that eventually I turn around to try to see what he sees!
I think we all have more tolerance for those we understand are having difficulties. So while I may squirm inside, I cant really get annoyed at the elderly customer slowly pulling out a checkbook. However the 20 something loudly chatting on the cell phone is fair game!
I am also a fan of Stop & Shop scanners. So much faster to scan and put stuff right in the bag. Then I can use the express self-checkout no matter how many items. Murphy's Law is that if I am in a hurry, they will audit (actually doesnt happen often)

[LaurieB]

Wonderful story, Arcadien.

[saultgirl]

I have thought about trying to "buy" someone's number who is waiting to get bloodwork done... seems I'm always waiting forever for that. Would it be weird to offer someone $10 to trade their #2 for my #27? lol $15? $20?

[mht]

Thanks to the Canadian government you have no worries on this score. As of last Monday stores no longer accept pennies as they are no longer in production. Stores now round up or down to the nearest nickel.

Well, that's not entirely true. We can continue to accept the penny as long as they are in circulation, and our retail business is doing so. The choice is ours. EVen the local post office is not yet rounding, and they are a crown corporation. I thought for certain they would have started.

I can see where this rounding is going to create a great deal of headaches...I have employees who can't make change properly, even when the machine tells them what to give back. What the heck will happen when they have to figure out the 'rounded' change? ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hulk]

I will not go shopping with my mother anymore due to her impatience. She will actually shove peoples items down the belt towards the cashier, so she can shove her own on. I figure the cashier cant ring things up any faster than the scanner will scan them. And smashing poeples food items into a pile actually makes it harder for the cashier to handle them thus slowing them down.

I am a go with the flow kinda girl myself. I read the magazines til they get to me.

[JanM]

Another take on the situation is that some of the people you see at the grocery store take forever, and chat with everyone is because that is their only human interaction for them.

An older relative was a phone operator (yes, they used to have real people that took care of phone calls, and in the days before 911, you called O and talked to a person who called whatever you needed), and they were expressly warned about customers who would dial "O" constantly just to chat. I believe this type of thing happening these days, but some of the people hang out at grocery stores, and other places just to talk to people because they're lonely.

[cloudyandcallie]

Yes, we don't know why the person in front of us is slow, or grumpy, or whatever. Just as we don't know why the person in line behind us is angry and/or impatient. A lot of unhappy people get mad at small delays in checkout. And those trashy magazines are good to read while waiting in line. So it's best to just be patient and zone out if you are frustrated with slow people in line ahead of you. Unless you have an emergency, but then you'd not be buying for a party or something like that.

I prefer the stores where customers are treated as people, not as just one more person to get rid of quickly. If I wanted impersonal and unhappy staff, I'd go to wal-mart, where 4 or 5 members will stand around complaining while one cashier checks everyone out.. My grocery chain buys locally. None of the tired and old veggies like at Publix and Kroger, shipped in from California. Although I have to say that Publix employees are totally nice.

[klm2c]

As a matter of fact, I have paid for other people's groceries in order to get through the check out line faster. A few weeks ago I stopped by a grocery store near my work to pick up some snacks to keep at my desk. There was a guy in front of me checking out. The total after applying his food stamps came to more money than he had and the cashier was trying to remove non-qualifying items in various configurations to get his total down to the amount of money he had. After standing there about 10 minutes waiting for this to get resolved I finally told the cashier to add all the items back on and paid for his groceries as the total was only about $20.

[Mozart]

Well, that's not entirely true. We can continue to accept the penny as long as they are in circulation, and our retail business is doing so. The choice is ours. EVen the local post office is not yet rounding, and they are a crown corporation. I thought for certain they would have started.

I can see where this rounding is going to create a great deal of headaches...I have employees who can't make change properly, even when the machine tells them what to give back. What the heck will happen when they have to figure out the 'rounded' change? ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, I did not know that. I was at a small grocery store on Monday, paid cash and when I offered exact change they turned it down. I figured everyone would be the same.

Can't the tills be programmed to do the rounding up or down? Pretty soon it will get too expensive to produce nickels and those will be out of production too.

[ybiaw]

What makes me mad is the 20 items or less line... and the person in front of me has a huge buggy full of groceries and I have 5 things. The cashiers have a limited amount of space, so to check someone out when they aren't equipped to handle it takes longer than if said person went to the regular line.

I was that person a few weeks ago. Completely accidentally, and I felt SO BAD. Full cart of groceries in the 15 items or less line. Of course, it wasn't until the cashier started running my items that they informed me. And it was a regular sized lane, I just totally missed the sign. I apologized profusely to the cashier, to anyone who was behind me in line (luckily, there was no one behind me in line until I was almost completely done), and seriously felt bad about it for the rest of the day.

[Long Spot]

I was that person a few weeks ago.

Me too. A manager had come and pulled me out of the regular line to get in the express lane, as it was empty. I told her I couldn't possibly, since I had a cart full of items and she assured me it would be fine. Walked me down there and told the cashier to check me out.

And then. And then...three people with a few items a piece got in line behind me. I was mortified. It's a good thing my 16 month old is cute. He flirted with all of them the entire time I was hiding my head and beet red.

[vacation1]

You keep saying that, but I'm not buying it. And I'm full of compassion for lower income/elderly folks and have absolutely given a nickel/dime/dollar to help out. Seems to me the OP's situation was NOT that someone was coming up $0.10 short of being able to pay for an order. The person was being "cheated" of $0.10 of coupon value. And I don't care how poor someone is, a dime is a dime, and time DOES have value. There are so many options -- use the coupon another time... bring it to the customer service window... keep your eyes open because there's almost certainly a dime on the ground. I guess I'm (over)reacting to LauraKY's repeated attempts to make us all feel ashamed for our abundance and our lack of tolerance. I don't think a dime has a lot of value BY ITSELF no matter how poor one is -- as someone else stated, if it is a repeated occurrence at a particular store it might change my mind. My mother was a rabid couponer in retirement and probably would have followed through on that dime till she was satisfied but again... RETIRED. More time than money. If I have more money than time right now, or I happen to feel like BOTH have value? Don't belittle me.

I think you belittled yourself just fine. Find a dime on the ground? Nice. As someone whose mother regularly fumbles around with her purse, coupons, store card, etc., and as someone who was once stunned to have a grown-ass man in a nice suit THROW a quarter over her shoulder onto the counter at CVS to hurry her up, I have to say, nobody's time is that **** important. Really, it's not. Time has value only because we have a limited time on the planet. Decent behavior is what makes that time good.

[SnicklefritzG]

This reminds me of a story that a friend of mine told me. He was at McDonalds where 3 of 4 cash registers were open and the lines were very long. Someone walks up to the 4th register as the store manager walks over to take his order. This made a lot of people made, my friend in particular. He walks over to the manager and blows his top: "What do you @#$**-ing think you are doing? There are 3 #$@#$ lines here and you serve the first person who walks in off the street? What the @#$# is going on here??"


My friend is about 6'4" and 250 lbs and not someone you would mess with just on account of his size. In reality he is a giant teddy bear, but you wouldn't necessarily know at first glance.

[MunchingonHay]

I totally thought of you today.

Someone threw money at me. I needed 4 cents for my total and I was digging for some pennies when the guy behind me dug in his pocket and fished it out before I could.

I thanked him profusely of course, but all I could think of was you and tossing me 10 cents for a invalid coupon.

I went to the store the other day in a rush. I had company coming in 30 minutes and needed ice. Got it, got in line. It was busy as it was just an hour before the Superbowl.

Unfortunately, I got in line behind someone with a coupon that wasn't ringing up properly. It was ringing up as 30 cents off instead of 40 cents. For an item that cost 1.50.

I kid you not, I stood there for 10+ minutes while this got sorted out. First there needed to be a manager to come and say, "Go check it." Then once they figured it out, the manager had to come back to authorize the void. Then there was still a problem. OMG. I damn near threw a dime at the lady and said "Get on with it! My treat!" I try to be patient. I am usually NOT in a rush and will let people with less than me go ahead even if I'm in line first.

But for ten cents? I SO wanted to just pay for it and GO! Had I been directly behind her and not 2 behind, I would've offered. I realize that she was within her rights to get her deal but OMG. When things are piling up and it's over 10 cents? WTH?

This is why I do not coupon shop. I don't want to be the asshat holding up the line. Seriously.