Thoughts in a supermarket checkout line: I don't like change. They had a suntan lotion endcap. When I was little SPF went from 3 to 12, IIRC. That was it. If you wanted more SPF than 12 you had to use tinfoil or latex house paint. They had SPFs up to 70 in the display and I think I've seen higher. What's the point? Marketing, I guess.
I love competence. It is so sexy to me. I had possible the greatest checker today. Now there are 2 variables to the checkout: The cashier (and the bagboy if you want to get technical) and the buyer. You can have the fastest cashier and if the buyer wants cigarettes and lottery tickets and can't figure out how to use their debit card, etc, you're going to have a bad time in the line behind them. Conversely, the buyer can be on the spot and if the checker can't figure out how to scan items or check out produce--or the bagboy is more interested in getting a date with another employee or when her next break is--the line is gonna move slow. Now I consider myself a pretty good buyer. I put stuff on the belt so its easy to grab and its barcode is oriented toward the scanner. I get my card in and ready to go while products are still being scanned. For something big like dog food, I'll put it on the side of the cart closest the checker, with the barcode pointed right at her so he can scan it with the little gun. Well today this lady was shit hot. She didn't ask me how my day was going or tell me her name at the start, she didn't tell me to have a nice day when she gave me my receipt, she just TCB. She was so fast that she'd scanned the dog food before I even realized it. I was set to move the cart down to the bagboy but I remembered the dog food. Then I had a subliminal image of her picking up the gun so I asked and yes, she'd already scanned the item. In fact I realized she was better than halfway through my stuff and I still hadn't even scanned my loyalty card. It was hard to because she was scanning things so fast there was barely a break. I did manage to get my credit card in before she was done, but only just. Didn't even have to tell her the card was already in or anything, she was done and slapping a receipt in my hand--and then out to the end of the aisle to help the hapless bagboy pack everything up. Amazing. I'm getting a little hard just thinking about it.