Supermarket Checkouts

Now I’m not one to complain but …

It’s supermarket checkouts that seem to be a complete mystery to some people. Now please don’t make offence ladies, but it is mainly women. It probably isn’t that men aren’t just as bad but they do less shopping in supermarkets. So what’s it all about? Well, its the whole checkout process. Firstly, there is the conveyor belt. Why do people just pile up the shopping whilst they are waiting, stuffing items anywhere they will balance precariously just to get them out of the trolley and onto the belt. Why not wait? The checkout staff can’t scan it that much faster than you can take it out of the trolley and put it on the belt – and you’ve already had a head start! Then comes the process at the other end. Now we’ve got the whole packing nightmare. Why, oh why, do they then decide, having stuffed everything on the belt wherever they can, do these people now decide to sort the shopping whilst they pack? What would have been wrong with sorting it whilst it was being put on the belt? You know, in the time that you spent huffing and catching the items that have finally fallen off their balanced position. If the shopping was sorted when it went onto the belt whilst the person in front was being served, all this time wasted now could have been saved.

And now we come to the final showdown. The shopping has finally been sorted and bagged, the bags have been heaved back into the trolley with the eggs balanced precariously on top to stop them being crushed, (although they will almost certainly fall off before you get to the car!), and the shop assistant is sitting patiently studying their finger nails with intensity whilst they wait for you to produce your loyalty card. And then, that’s it! You’ve suddenly realised that you’ve got to pay for all this shopping! What a shock! How did that happen? So now you’ve got to locate your purse somewhere in a bag and, once you’ve found it, search for that loyalty card, (which let’s face it, is largely going to serve to enable the supermarket to profile your shopping habits and target you with ‘offers’ on things you would not normally buy but are such good bargains!). Then, and this is such a shock it almost takes you completely by surprise! There is the small matter of payment. This means finding a credit card and then remembering the PIN number. Oh dear, that’s another process to go through. All the while, the queue behind you is growing, babies are screaming, children are throwing tantrums and you are blissfully unaware of the immense suffering you are placing your fellow shoppers under just because you are completely disorganised!

Please, please, please, just get organised! Sort the shopping as you load the belt, don’t try to pile everything on when there isn’t room, have your loyalty card ready before the shop assistant asks for it and, (and I know I’m asking a lot here!), have the chuffing payment card ready!!!!  Come on people, it’s RudyMenTerry!