A Thinking Cap is Not a Fashion Statement

I hope that when I get too old to drive, I'll realize it and put down my keys, before I kill someone.

I was at the grocery store the other day and the checker asked the person ahead of me if she would like any help out. As far as I know, this question was asked for no obvious reason of physical disability, just good customer service. I was wondering if she was going to ask me and as luck would have it, she did. I said no, but it got me thinking how often is that question asked now? I remember when I was a child, going to the store with my mom, she was offered help out, but that was first time in like fifteen years I heard that question. Is it because customer service has gone down and employees just don't ask anymore, or is it because the staffing for that sort of thing just isn't done now?

My neighbors were talking in the entry way, I had to go spy on them just now. No matter how often I spy on them, they never do anything interesting. One of these days though, I'm gonna see some shit go down.

Back to the grocery store. If you shop at Fred Meyer you may have noticed they have these check out lanes now that say (Express Lane (about 12 items)). One time when checking out in one of these lanes, the checker while scanning my items, actually reminded me it was a lane for only twelve items. The next time a checker has the gumption to remind of this mathematical phenomenon I'm going to remind them of what the sign says, "It says about twelve items and apparently I decided to round up today." Maybe this wouldn't annoy me so much if there weren't five lanes of "about 12 items." I understand the use of express lanes, but we don't need seven of them in a store, and the checkers should be appreciative of the fact that I'm actually utilizing them to scan me out, as opposed to those self scan aisles. I'm trying to keep these people employed and some of them have to remind me of arbitrary rules.

In addition, Express Lanes in a grocery store, or any kind of store don't make sense. In retail the big push is profit and the more the customer buys, the happier the store is. Although it would be more aggravating, it would make much more sense in this capitalistic country to have a "50 items or more" lane. No one can leave the store, until they've bought fifty items. Now that's capitalism. I foresee this in our distant future.