The other day, I went to my other least favorite grocery store (Walmart is still in the number one position).  Food Lion, my neighborhood food store - or so they say.  We’ve called it the Food Poodle forever because the lion looks more like a . . . .well, you get the point.

No one was in the store.  It was mid-morning, and I had a few things.  One lone cashier stood at the end of her lane, thumbing through Star Magazine and looking supremely bored.  “Are you open?” I asked, knowing full well she was.  She sighed loudly and said, “Yep, right here”, gesturing at the lane.

I pulled all of my items out of the cart and she began to ring me up.  After the 4th item, a woman came up behind me.  The cashier suddenly looked stunned and said, “Oh, you can’t check out here.  This is Express Lane only,” and she points above my head at the sign.

Note:  I hate people who go through the Express Lane when they have more than 12 items.  However, it was an honest mistake. I apologized profusely to the woman behind me who laughed and said, “Seriously, it’s no big deal - just go ahead and finish her order.” 

The cashier, however, had other items.  She said, “I can’t, not allowed.  She started to push my items back into my cart while voiding things quickly.  She realized the cash register wouldn’t let her void my lone yogurt, so she called over the intercom for help in the Express Lane which was now the Slow Lane.  The lady behind me sighed and said again, “Really, I don’t mind - it would probably be faster for you to just ring her up.”  Oh, the wiseness of that woman!

Literally 5 minutes go by with me standing there watching my ice cream melt while the cashier mutters under her breath about the “deaf manager” and the lady behind me grows increasingly impatient.  We strike up a conversation about the Y (it was obvious we had both come from working out there).  Finally the manager shows, looks at my 13 items, and says, “You should just ring her up. There’s no point in making everyone wait.”

Yep.