The wrong line

Why is it that no matter where I shop, I always get in the wrong checkout line? Just a couple of weeks ago I went to Sam's, which is notorious for long, slow lines. I of course was in a hurry, trying to cram all of my errands into the few hours I had without children. When I walked in, the lines were short so I figured I had plenty of time. I had my list and zipped quickly through the aisles. As I rounded the corner heading for the checkout, I found that the lines had tripled in length (no surprise really).

I got in what appeared to be the shortest line, just three people in front of me with carts only slightly full. The first guy gets checked out quickly. The cashier starts checking out the second person, picks up a huge container of popcorn oil and drops it on the floor. Needless to say that it was a gigantic mess (I may never eat popcorn again after looking at that gross stuff). Of course the cashier has to call maintenance to come and mop up the spill. Maintenance was apparently on break and didn't respond right away. The cashier continued to check out the customer at which point the Customer Service Manager "Betty Brains" walks over and says "You know there is some mess all over the floor right here? We need to get this cleaned up". Duh. I suppose she won't make it as a brain surgeon. Thankfully rather than making us get out of line, the cashier piled a huge amount of paper towels over the top of the mess and made us all walk around it. What should have been a quick trip into Sam's turned into a 45 minute ordeal.

This doesn't just happen to me at Sam's though. I will get into the ten items or less aisle and look ahead and some ding dong with 45 items is in the front of the line. Or I will get into a line and someone will have an issue with the price that rang up and when they call for a price check no one answers (because once again the are all on break). My favorite (or not so) is when they open a new lane and say they will take the next in line. I walk over, hand them my stuff only to have them realize that there is no cash till in the register and they have to move to another lane or they can't get the register to "sign them on".

I use to change lanes when the one I was in was moving slow. I don't do that anymore because ultimately the lane I change to stops moving for one of the reasons above. It really is a no win situation. So if you see me in line at the store, head the other way because I can guarantee that I will be in the slow line.