Reading, Writing and USCAN

If you are like me you are completely conflicted about self scan isles in stores. I mean on one hand I like not having to wait for some pimply faced teenager or someone so old that they remember the great depression to check out my items. I also do think it speeds things up most of the time if you're in a hurry. I mean the machine usually does not try to engage you in a lively conversation. Of course sometimes neither do the cashiers. I especially like the no limit ones with full length conveyor belts at Meijer. What I don't like is that it's taking over the jobs of multiple cashiers. Jobs that may not pay that much, but in today's economy a cashiers job would have to be better than no job. I also have to stop and wonder if technology keeps growing and machines keep taking over the human jobs, who in the hell is going to be able to afford the products these places sell if they have no jobs to make money to buy them with! I'm not a technology girl. I mean I like them and am fascinated by technology, but I also see the error in it's ways. I believe it's one of the number one culprits behind the weight issues of Americans today. Before secretaries (almost an extinct job now) had to get up and go get files and look things up. They didn't just sit idle at a desk all day. That is just one example. What brought this topic today to the foreground for me though was an experience I had almost a week ago.

I was on my way to work and I needed a couple of medical items. Don't know where your mind went, I'm talking about band aids and Tylenol. So I ran into Walmarts on the way in to my work place. I was thinking it should be quick enough. The pharmacy area is right up front and they have some self check out lanes. They also have a couple of those lanes that are marked Speedy Check out. For those that don't know that means you shouldn't have three cart loads of groceries. There is always a limit in these lines whether they are self check or have a cashier. Ultimately my experience, although somewhat humorous to me, was not golden. I went to the speedy check lane that clearly has it posted over head, yet they felt the need to tape it on the end of the isle as well, that there are only twenty items allowed in this lane. So what or whom was in front of me? I've lived in trailer parks so I think I can say this... The woman in front of me was what I would classify as "Ghetto White Trailer Trash". Yep, no doubts about it. No sense of caring about what anyone behind her may or may not have to do. The woman herself had way too much makeup on, but jeans and a t-shirt. Her hair was pulled back in a blond pony tail. She had two young girls with her roughly six and nine I would say. So this woman was in the twenty-item or less isle. Her cart held sixty-three items. How do I know. I stood there transfixed counting the items as she scanned them; however, she didn't start that until after each of her girls each scanned their own three items and payed for them. they of course had no clue, as neither did their mother how to work the scanner. I stood their pretty much barking out directions. The woman would look at me and then followed the directions I gave her. Not once seeing that I had only two items did she offer for me to go first. Of course I guess seeing as how she was obviously ignorant why would I expect common courtesy or manors. Now you have to be thinking why didn't I just change lanes. Well most of them were pretty full for one thing, but on the other hand I was sort of amused and transfixed that this woman couldn't have respected everyone else in that store any less if she had tried and really was quiet clueless on how the scan itself worked. I caught myself wondering if she didn't think she was making a giant ass and idiot out of herself. Not that everyone who gets confused by these machines is an idiot. They can stump anyone some times, but when the machine is flashing the exact instructions I am telling you. I'm wondering if we shouldn't get back to that reading part of school. Now in all honesty though she looked like she probably knew how to read. She was probably just one of those people who thinks the rules don't apply to her. A princess probably. I kept thinking what a poor example for her children she was. I think we need to get back to basic in school and make sure our children understand courtesy and manors and that they don't always win. Yes you've heard me preach that before. Now if you were in this situation what would you have done? Have your own stories? Do Tell.