The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom for November 05, 2015

I’ve run into that spending limit on the self-checkouts before, but it’s 20 items or less where I shop.

In places like Whole Foods that would mean about 5 items. (sarcasm)

The cashiers don’t get paid enough to care if you’re over the limit

Pet peeve: Should be “Twelve items or FEWER”.

it should read Express lane don’t be stupid

OK, I don’t get it. Hours have been cut as far as the union will allow, but people are overworked? How does that figure? Did they previously work 16-hour days or something?

They work them part time to get around union regulations for full time workers. JC Penny’s and Sears were famous for their 5 hour shifts – no break, no vacation or paid holidays, time does not accrue for pension, etc. another 2 platform tier for workers.

Of course that’s a stupid way to limit items. You wouldn’t know the total cost until the cashier finished ringing them up. (I know some people calculate the total on their own, but most don’t.) Still, it makes not one bit of difference since the customers who are either stupid or simply don’t care will use the express lane regardless of how many items they have, and the cashiers will never tell them to go to another lane. My solution if I could would be to mandate that the violators must purchase a $1 charity donation card for every 5 items they are over.