this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2026
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I really dislike that most groceries don't have one big line that feeds into registers. It's just stupid to allow me to get stuck behind someone who's arguing about a coupon for 5 minutes while people who came after me flow through the other registers.
The grocery by me also never seems to have enough checkout staff to keep the lines short. There's a lot of people with full carts, and no express line. I end up waiting for 10 minutes to buy some bread and bananas .
More grocery stores around me are creating this: one line to a huge silo of like 15+ self checkouts and one employee that just like corrals you to whatever is open and helps out with issues
In grocery stores that have more trust for the community this can work really well however it may be a double edged sword: Wegmans has a very pleasant experience for example. The scanners are effective, they don’t bother weighing your bag to make sure you didn’t steal, they can even auto identify produce with shocking accuracy, and they still keep several manned lanes open. However, that last point is key as Wegmans has rolled out facial recognition technology to track shoppers. That is probably the main reason they feel comfortable lowering their guard in those ways and it’s far worse imo. What’s even more fucked up is that this is mainly widely known bc New York requires them to post signs informing people who enter the store of this, whereas other states where they operate like PA and NJ don’t have this regulation and they silently track customers
It’s frustrating beyond belief that once again we have to trade our dignity for a reasonable experience
Trader Joe's has one line that feeds into all the registers, and all the registers are open & manned by overly-friendly attentive workers.
TBH I think this is relatively common in NYC but not elsewhere in the USA (just like making appointments at the DMV, like catch up, everywhere else).
Where? I saw that at a TJs in NYC once, but never any of the other 20+ TJs locations I've visited.
Where? At that TJ's in NYC.
I'm curious what region you're from. I've never heard of grocery stores being called groceries. I've only ever heard the products from grocery stores called groceries.
NYC, but I can't promise I'm representative of how people talk, heh.
I went on a brief tangent trying to find what people call it by region but didn't find a cool map of anything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grocery_store does say that it's sometimes used as I did, though.
Thanks. This is actually super interesting to me
Checkers (in South Africa) has two big lines, each serving about 10 registers. I imagine having two is slightly more efficient than having one, because the next person doesn't have to walk as far
That's just a holdover from apartheid.
That was an attempt at a joke but I'm not sure if it was actually funny or not. Surely this disclaimer will fix it (anything to avoid the '/s')
The Costco near me used to have one single line for all lanes of self checkout machines, it was great. Then some months ago they switched it to a line per lane and I hate it so much. I think it's just stupid "perceptions" — people probably just "feel like" it takes longer when it's one long line, so they're happy to wait longer in a shorter line because visually "their turn is coming soon."
100% about perception, but doesn't mean it's not valid. One long line that's constantly moving is better than a small line that's stuck for a while. Also, as you mentioned, it prevents issues when one of the checkouts is stuck for whatever reason. The line would still move, just a bit slower.
For self checkouts I have always seen it as 1 line to a group of them. Some larger shops have multiple clusters of self checkouts with their own individual lines though.
I think I've read that it is about perception, which is up there with children thinking the tall, narrow, glass has more water after pouring the short wide glass into it.
Very “1/4 pound burger is larger than a 1/3 pound burger because 4>3” coded.
I could literally walk down to the end of the street and buy my bananas from the gentleman who's been operating the same produce stall for the last decade, then a loaf of bread from the bakery next door, and be home within 10 minutes. I don't want to make assumptions, but if bread and bananas requires you to travel to a packed general store, wherever you live, it's a city planning hellscape.
Hey that's all of Norway more or less. There's bakeries you could buy bread in for the low low price of 10 grocery breads, but you won't find anything else edible in a stall or small shop unless you're in one of the biggest cities.
I'm a believer in a future where there's only grocery stores in norway, everything else will be bought online and shipped.
I don't understand why you would want this - can you explain? Genuinely curious what the benefits would be.
I don't want this, but the benefits are obviously that you'd have to pay less employees. People don't really shop locally here, they go in stores to try sizes and then order it online for cheaper, that's the why.
That’s the US and supermarket dominance for ya.
US zoning laws are a fucking farce. They were developed to facilitate racial segregation in the 1910s and never really went away.
I’d say it’s the automobile that ruined it all.
Racism comes in more with white flight and suburban sprawl. Then it all collapses.
The automobile was just one additional way to do the racism.
You live in the suburbs and drive to the shopping malls because the blacks can’t afford the cars to get there.
Literally a society designed on apartheid.
then when the malls close and a new trendy mixed-use development spawns from the rubble, the blacks can't afford to live there, either.
The racism was always there. The automobile enables the racism to do more damage.
The supermarket can’t exist and ruin the small market without the automobile, no matter how racist society is.
And ultimately it's now trapped the people who supported it because they're now 80 and can't safely drive anywhere. Just decaying alive in their 3BR suburban cul-de-sac tombs while private equity waits like a vulture to reclaim the property.
Pretty much no one is stopping them though!
And there's a chance you'll be stuck behind someone at each one, so your reply has got less to do with what you're replying to and more to do with your desire to make a different point.
I could go to the local gas station/corner store and pay 2x to get it much quicker, but that's rarely worth it.
The supermarket is a 5 minute walk from my apartment, and for the past few years didn't have big lines. I don't know if they changed staffing, or it got more popular, or what.
There are some smaller grocers that don't typically have long lines nearby, but I don't think they have the big tubs of peanut butter I lust after, or a few other things I sometimes get. I should probably check out the smaller grocers anyway
Vanishingly few places in the US have this density of small provisions vendors. I've been lucky enough to live in several, but it's certainly become a privilege.
Oh come on, there's got to be a dollar general somewhere at the end of your driveway.
For those that don't know, Dollar General is an infestation of a chain store. They are almost ubiquitous in small rural towns. They can act as an old time general store selling everything from candy, to clothes, simple household goods, and milk and a few other more shelf stable groceries. And it's all of less quality than a temu steak. They are also ineradicably poor employers. With low pay, no benefits, and worse staffing.
they almost exclusively exist in poor places, where their competitors die off from lack of customers with money and high operating expenses.
I've learned a few things standing in grocery lines. Look for cashiers on the younger side, they just tend to work quicker and less small talk. Look for lines with no elderly, they are the ones who complain about the price tag showing 5 cents cheaper or an expired coupon, pay by check etc.. Look for no kids with parents, the parents get distracted and things just go wrong.
It's not a perfect system, but it's saved me many times.
There are some exceptions to the "no kids" rule, which I sometimes represent.
If my wife is out of town or has all-day plans with some of our friends, you will occiasinally see my son and me at the local grocery store with a small cart full of products of questionable nutritional value that seem best suited to an upcoming LAN party.
He might waste some of my time while shopping, but when it's time to check out we usually hit a self checkout and are out of there in seconds.
I just use the self checkout. All the supermarkets here have just one line for all the self checkouts.
This supermarket used to have self checkout, but they got rid of it for some reason.
They do have a line reserved for Uber eats, door dash, etc. Not a fan of that.
Also 3 people with small orders will normally take longer than 1 person with a big order. One of the biggest time sinks is people paying.
Minor correction, please take it in the kindly manner it is offered:
Time sink indicates something that takes time. Time is sunk in a time sink.
Time sync would indicate a synchronizing of time.
Your meaning is very clear from context though, so no worries. 🙂
Yeah, I know. Just made a mistake. Thank you for the correction. I fixed it.
Oh man this is one of my pet peeves. You're standing in line, then in front of the cashier. All to pay for your stuff. Then it's this whole production werin a look of surprise that, yes you do actually have to pay, followed by 5 minutes of digging through the bag for your card.
Most people pay with a card. You can usually tap your card as soon as the cashier scans something.
The next person in line communicates their annoyance through a series of sounds and interpretive dance. Complains to the cashier when it's their turn before performing their own 5 minute production. And they forgot they had reusable bags.
What's amusing is, even big stores are capable of this. Back when Black Friday was huge still, places like Walmart would set up this style of checkout queue.
The main queue is a really good idea
I get carded but still comply, never have to do this overseas. I got really pissed once because some bitch--Karen went out of her way, I need to check your ID with a manager. So I felt bad for all the people waiting behind me. I'm almost 40 and have gray hair on my beard. Honestly, I'll admit that it pleases me that she's out of a job since the store closed (it's becoming an Aldi).
The store I work at has started coaching the self checkout assistant to bring customers with a large cart of items that try to use self checkout to an empty lane and ring them out. We do this to try and keep the self checkout relatively quick moving with smaller baskets
The corporation that runs the store does not care how long you wait or what your experience while waiting is like. They're likely one of just a handful of grocery stores you can easily get to, they or another corpo just like them own those other stores too, and they know you'll keep coming back because you very nearly have to. So long as there is enough space in that cavernous warehouse for you to wait they don't care if it takes you hours and makes you miserable, they get paid either way, at most they'll hire more security to keep the place pacified. Grocery stores have become a food distribution cartel, often a food distribution monopoly.