Free Tomatoes

Waiting in line is one of the most life-wasting activities [or, non-activities] I can think of- especially when it's for groceries. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I have experienced it from both sides. Having been a cashier at two major grocery store chains, I can appreciate how hard/dull/repetitive/thankless of a job it is, so I give much sympathy for those doing it. That being said, knowing approximately what pace, and with what amount of skill I was able to do it, I often find myself frustrated when I commit to a line with a, let's call them, less-than-competent cashier. Today was one of those days- at Wal-Mart. I don't mind the store itself, more its lines: always over long, and the store front-end is always under-staffed. But that's not why I'm writing.

I'm writing because it's always best to make the best of a bad situation. As a cashier, you get to know the little, often humorous routines people do as they wait in line and as they proceed through checkout. One of my favourites is the 'how much will this order cost me' game. It's really only adventurous when someone, possibly yourself, is buying a buttload of groceries. I'm talking in the hundreds of dollars. Today at Wal-Mart I got behind just such a customer. It was a gamble: do I get in line behind a bunch of people with baskets and third-full carts, or just one person with a MASSIVELY full cart. I chose the latter, and the experience was entertaining. It was a husband and wife, and within minutes of entering their line, I struck up a conversation, and proceeded to introduce them to my game. The husband was particularly amused, and very touchy - he was always patting me on the stomach constantly as a gesture of showing me he was impressed with my game, and guessing- but all in all we had a fun experience making waiting in line less excruciating. I bet him early on that his order would total $560. I was off - mostly because their [the husband and wife's] items were stacked over a foot high off the belt, hiding the identity and number of items from view. Near the end, after pulling to scan the last of three pizzas, the cashier revealed a stack of shrinkwrapped steaks - each $10 - I knew I'd be off: the total bill was $640. Not bad, I say. The husband joked that he needed to take me shopping with him from then on.

In the end, it was a great experience.. Live life, talk to your checkout-line-mates.

After all that, which was maybe 15-18 minutes standing in line, our cashier overcharged me for my tomatoes. She keyed in the code for HotHouse tomatoes instead of Field tomatoes [pfft, amateur!], and so I was overcharged. I didn't notice it until I was outside, so, after begrudgingly deciding to go back inside, waiting in the Customer Service line for 7 minutes, the supervisor just wrote off the tomatoes, and gave them to me for free. success! May I not go back there for at least a month.