Do I want to stand
behind five people in the regular line, or can I remember how the self
check-out stuff works?
I stood in between the two checkout lines at Home Depot
clutching my new Delta bathroom towel bar trying to decide. A man with a full cart pushed it up to the
regular checkout line. Now there were
six. The decision just got easier.
I walked over to the self check-out line and stood behind
a young mom with two little girls. The
mom was pushing a cart loaded with a large bag of fertilizer and a 100-foot roll
of garden hose. A little girl about 18
months old sat in the cart seat watching her four-year-old sister down on the
floor dancing next to them. Their mom
studied the touchscreen and pushed “Begin.”
I meant to watch the mom, but the dancing four-year-old
was much more entertaining. As she spun
around, her little sister in the cart began giggling. Suddenly a rack of gum and candy caught the
dancing girl’s eye, and she stopped spinning.
She walked over to the rack, squatted down, and began studying all the
goodies laid out just for someone three feet tall.
Back at the cart her mom struggled to lift the bag of
fertilizer over to the scanner. She
dropped the bag down with a “thunk” and turned it around in front of the
scanner trying to align the magic lines with the light.
“Bleep.”
Successful scan!
Her four-year-old daughter had decided on the candy she
liked and picked up a roll of gum. As
her mom struggled to lift the bag of fertilizer over to the side of the scanner,
the little girl reached in with her roll of gum.
“Bleep.”
Totally oblivious of the extra merchandise she had just
purchased, the mom turned back to her cart, hoisted the roll of hose out, and
held it in front of the scanner. Back in
the cart, her 18 month-old reached her hand out for some of her sister’s gum. Big sis was not at all interested in sharing
and pulled her gum in close.
“Uhhhhhnnn,” little sis wailed, reaching down for the
gum.
Big sis ran over and picked up another roll of gum.
“Bleep.”
Mom’s garden hose successfully scanned. She struggled to lift the roll of hose over
with the fertilizer just as big sis held the second roll of gum in to the
scanner.
“Bleep.” A second
successful sneaky purchase.
Should I say
anything to the mom? Will she notice the extra candy? How long does it take to get the bored 18
year-old female employee with the rose tattoo on her shoulder over to cancel the candy
purchases? I really want to get out of
here.
I didn’t need to worry.
The mom hit “Pay” and saw four items where there should only have been
two.
“Cassie!”
Cassie was busy opening her gum.
“What?” Even at
four years old, Cassie has already mastered that innocent, questioning look I’ve
seen a million times.
I started laughing.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“I’ve never seen that happen before.”
“She’s never done that before.”
I guess Cassie’s mom was in just as much of a hurry as me. She reached over, took the two rolls of gum
from Cassie, and put them in her purse.
She called Cassie to follow her and pushed her cart out of the store.
I moved over to the screen and pushed “Begin.” A dad with a little boy was standing behind
me. I’m pretty sure the little boy had
been watching Cassie. I pulled my cart closer
and positioned myself and the cart to totally block access to the scanner.
I may be a little shaky on using the self-checkout
scanner, but I think the little kids have it all figured out. Do you think that's why Home Depot has a rack of candy down on the ground right next to the scanners?
That is truly a funny event. I wish I could have been there.
ReplyDelete