I am a supermarket queue jinx. A checkout Jonah.
Its true! It happens almost everytime I shop. It doesn't matter what queue I choose, it will always be the one where the till flips out and won't work properly again without a visit from the shift supervisor (who is always incredibly busy just then). Or the person in front hasn't got enough cash so they want to pay for some with a card and the rest with cash and the checkout operator hasn't got enough brains cells in action to figure out how to do that.
This is not in my head. I know everybody says the other queue always seems to move faster but this goes beyond that... Its not funny.
Today for example I joined a queue which had two people in front of me. As soon as I turned up the checkout operator rang for the supervisor (not sure why). She then stood with her hands on her hips and waited, rang again and waited, rang a third time and waited. Her till wasn't behaving and apparently needed the supervisors magic key to correct it. Meanwhile two people had queued behind me, got sick of waiting, gone to another queue, been served and got on with their lives. I had already unpacked my 15 items (3 to many for the express lane) onto the conveour belt so moving queues was not such an easy option for me (although I did consider it). When the first dilema was finally sorted the guy in front of me got served and I got hopeful. About then I spotted someone I knew from work being served a couple of lanes down, who I had seen them walk into the store while I was queuing in the same spot.
Then came my turn. My frozen foods were starting to make little pools of water on the conveour belt by now. The till behaved itself while the stressed looking checkout operator swiped my purchases through. Then I did a stupid thing. I presented a $5 manufacturers coupon (I bought some off soup a while back and they had compensated me with this coupon). Of course the operator had no idea how to process this thing, but not wanting to spend another 10 minutes waiting for her supervisor to show she gave it a go. She stuffed it up. Another 3 rings for the supervisor, another long wait, (meanwhile several more punters join the queue only to leave for greener pastures). Finally she arrives again with the magic key. She deftly inserts her key and twists it just so, scratches her head, jabs a couple of buttons, with obvious skill and precision, and we are away again.
As I finally pick up my bags to go I hear the poor girl behind the counter mutter under her breath "get me outta here...". I don't think she meant anyone to hear it, but I did. I told her to hang in there and have nice day tommorrow instead. I think she almost smiled... or it might have been a grimace.
So if you ever see me in the supermarket, steer clear and definatly don't queue behind me... they see me coming every time!
6:16:24 PM 
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