A reader brought up a good point:
Yes, there’s something my checker does that impresses me, but it’s negative not positive. Maybe you’ve already written about this before, but if not, please do. Please help me understand why every time a new lane is opened up they take the person at the back of the line, who has been waiting in line all of 15 seconds, instead of the person next in line who’s been waiting for 10 minutes??? Why is this standard practice at every store everywhere? Sorry, got a little riled up there.
My best guess would be that clerks do it out of convenience.
My experience with this evolved from the time I first started working at the grocery store.
I would grab the person who was at the back of the line because they were usually the first person I saw when opening a new lane. How is this so? When opening a new lane, I would grab the customer who is “hanging” out of the checkstand. I also figured at the time, since the customers ahead of them would have their items on the conveyor belt, they wouldn’t want to go to the lane that just opened up.
As the years go by, I would let the customers decide amongst themselves by saying, “I can take the next person in line.” I’ve seen customers swear and yell at each other to determine who gets to go to the other lane first.
No one likes standing in line longer than they should. Grocery clerks should take the responsibility to grab the next person waiting. Its best to grab the next available customer to avoid any problems that may arise and in the grocery store that will likely happen.
What does your grocery clerk do that annoys you?





