Saturday, August 20, 2022

The Checkout Line At Costco Is The Population Size For Observing Impatience

I'm the worse person to choose a store checkout line. Costco is a good example. A casher needs a cash drop. A cashier requests a price check. The customer forgets to renew his or her membership account. The customer's payment card doesn't work; in particular, one customer paid by writing a check. There is a cashier change with his or her new register till. A manager is needed for assistance. A cashier is a new Costco employee. For instance, one cashier removed some items from a customer's shopping cart to place on the checkout conveyor belt. The cashier used the register scanner. I place all my items bar code facing up on my shopping cart for the cashier to scan my items with the wireless scanner. The same cashier removed half of my perfectly placed items on the checkout conveyor belt. He used the register scanner.

Any Costco customer experience at least one of the above. I experience all of the above. What are the chances? The best Costco checkout bad luck happened yesterday. The afternoon crowd was light. There were three checkouts opened. I initially choose the middle checkout with one customer waiting. The checkout on the left with two customers waiting with fewer items combined than the middle checkout. I switched to the left checkout. A far left checkout opened ten seconds later. There was a problem. The cashier couldn't scan one item. The cashier scanned multiple times. The cashier adjusted the scanner tag. The cashier typed the item number. Unsuccessful. The cashier requested a manager. The cashier scanned the rest of the items. No manager arrived. The cashier requested a manager for the second time. A manager arrived. Problem solved. The transactions including myself went smoothly thereafter. All customers who lined up behind me and customers who arrived at the nearby checkouts later than me completed their transactions before I finished paying. A second far left checkout opened when I pushed my cart to the exit.

There are two points in today's blog. The first point is I'm bad luck choosing a checkout line. If I'm with other people, then someone else choose for me. I remember a tip from a college friend. He said pick a checkout line and stay there. It's not worth stressing out choosing which checkout line is faster. The second point is too many people rush. There are too many impatient people. All of the customers who lined up behind me moved to another checkout. I recognize they paid for their items faster than me. They couldn’t wait. Today's Information Age life is impatient.

Update On A Past Blog

Yesterday's Costco checkout experienced reminded me of talking to a manager at a supermarket. I wrote the experience in Stop And Smell The Roses And Read Your Receipt on Feb 3, 2022. I returned an item with a missing discount. I was incorrect in the missing discount. I did receive the discount. I also mentioned the Information Age is fast paced.

I wrote blogs on slowing down, taking a break, relax, and be patient. I choose two blogs. The first is Too Much Hurrying And Too Much To Do written on Apr 19, 2020. I wrote, "Everyone is in a hurry. Everything is in a hurry. The world is too fast. The years go by faster and faster even though there are 24 hours per day. The new generation believes today is the normal pace. The old generation believes today is faster than their younger years." The second blog is Yes Slow Down written on Oct 9, 2015. I wrote, "Slow down. We get more done slowing down. Fewer errors. More relaxed."

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