Where have all the check out people gone?

I had to do my grocery shopping a little late last night. My husband was over at the neighbors house with the boys, on one of those big blow up water slides, enjoying the last of the hot weather, while I went off to do the grocery shopping. I headed up the street to Meijer, a frequent shopping excursion for us. It seems like, I should be setting up a camp at the grocery store these days.

I am usually a very fast shopper, and I tend to get in and get out of the place and home. It took me about 15 minutes to get the necessities and I headed to the checkout. This is where things always get a little hairy for me. This day in age, the whole idea of talking to an actual person has gone flying out the window and it seems the grocery stores are following suit.

Here I am, standing among about 35 check out lanes and only three of them are manned with and actual person. There are several weary souls including myself pacing up and down trying to decide which of these looks the best, in terms of wait time. Meanwhile, you look over and the self checkout lanes are packed with people, who were probably doing the same thing about 10 minutes before me. So I am standing in line behind two people, and one lady is behind me, and I see that there is a problem at the register. Some lady is saying something is ringing up wrong. By now about 25 minutes have passed, I am moving nowhere, and I am getting sick of the repeat commercials on the mini tv’s they have now at the registers. So I make the fateful decision to turn around and head off to the self checkout with my cart full.

I get there, and I step up to the screen and hit my start button and I start to ring out my 15 cans of green beans. When it all begins to backfire. I start to scan my green beans one by one, which you cannot just enter how many you have apparently, and the machine is stating that the weight of the item does not match whats on the belt. HUH?! So, the machine is already squawking at me and the guy needs to come over and correct it. Then after all that hassle, the machine is telling my stuff is backing up on the belt like 8 times. Finally I get my stuff bagged and I head out. Of course, I had to check to see where the lady was that was behind me in the previous checkout (to see if I beat her) and the person in front of me was still sitting there and the lady behind me was reading a magazine.

So I ask you….where have all the checkers gone? Sounds like a song LOL And why have all the wasted space for 35 check out isles…why not put in a massage parlor there while you wait? Someone needs to send them this sales pitch! HA!