Full Snark

So I guess I woke up in snark mode this morning.  Given the lack of sleep (thank you puppy for the strange face sniffs at 3 something this morning) and the fact that I'm always even more "off" when my David is out of town I shouldn't be terribly surprised.

So what set me off?  What gave my snark button a super good push?  I was at a grocery store getting some lunch today.  The store was busy, and they had several lanes open to accommodate the masses, including two express (12 items or less) lanes.  I had like 3 items so of course I head to one of the two express lanes.  The other lanes had some lines with very full carts, and my 30 minutes for lunch were quickly ticking away.  As I stand in line (and several people get in line behind me) I find I am not moving very quickly.  There were 4 people in front of me.  The woman at the check out was talking to the checker rather than writing the check to pay and get out of the way.  The person next in line was coughing and acting impatient, in hopes that the chatter would hurry and get along little doggie.  The hint gets taken, the check gets written and the next person is up.  This person had 12 items, and wanted to know the price for EACH item before it was scanned in.  Then, a pair of shoes caused a brain freeze and "should I, shouldn't I" was tossed back and forth.  The other express lane is also pretty packed, but they are actually moving.  I contemplate line jumping, but there were only two people in front of me now.  The shoes were put off to the side and the transaction was finally finished.  I am impatient, and anxious to get out.  I notice that the people in front of me have placed their items on the conveyer belt.  It looked like a lot of stuff, so I count the items.  Lets just say they both have more (quite more) than 12 items.  That really ticks me off.  The person checking out adds 3 gift certificates to their transaction, and kept changing their mind on the amounts.  As I'm standing there, getting really pissy about the number of items people have a cashier comes through our line to tell us we can go to the "self" check out.  Now, I say "self" because really you can't just go over there and use them any time, you still have to have help from a cashier.  So I don't really see how that is "self" check out.  It's more like supervised check out.  I don't pay what I pay for groceries to help pay for employees wages to do the work myself.  I nicely tell her I actually hate using those, that I'm in the 12 (said loudly) items or less line because I expect people to have 12 (again said loudly) items or less so things actually move along.  She walks away.  Now, the woman in front of me with her 22 items is being checked out and she is fighting about coupons and prices.  In my head I'm telling her to piss off and take it to a non-express lane and let the rest of us get back to work, in real life I'm willing my eyes to pierce the back of her head with laser beams.  She gets all huffy and says "never mind, just take those items off and I'll come back later."  When it was my turn the checker apologized for the wait.  All I said to him was "I remember the day when people were actually told they had too many items and were asked to move."  Yeah.  I felt old, but I did work at a grocery store and I did have to tell people that they had too may items for a lane (if that was true).  And we were nice about it.

So I am just fed up with people being inconsiderate.  I am not trying to give the impression that I think I'm more important than anyone else.  I am not counting each can of soda, or bottle or banana as a separate item.  I just don't understand why people are so selfish and can't read a simple sign and be courteous.  If the store is slow, and there are no lines I don't care where you go.  If the cashier is doing nothing and waves you over because you are waiting I don't care, that is different.  When the store is BUSY and the express lane has a line, look and see if it's your fault.  If you are being the express lane douche bag.  There.  I said it.  Strangely, I do feel better.
/end rant

~Emily