2008 Woodie Awards
Life in the Express Lane
Rebelations
Jeremiah Magan
Issue date: 10/24/07 Section: Opinion
During a recent expedition to my local Target, I found myself standing in the express "10 items or less" line, witness to an argument between a cashier and customer.
The spirited conversation carried on for roughly five minutes and culminated with the customer becoming visibly upset, overturning a rack of tabloids and storming out of the store, leaving her items behind.
The argument started because the customer had 11 items with her in the express lane.
The cashier attempted to convince the customer that she needed to move to another line or put one of the items back. The customer tried to explain that she was in a hurry, did not see the sign that said "10 items or less" and that it didn't really matter if she had one extra item with her.
The cashier explained that the express lane was created to hasten the process of purchasing items for all customers and that she could not bend the rules just for her. You have to admire that kind of dedication; it is rare that you find an average employee of a major corporation who believes in following the rules as much as this one did.
But as that thought crossed into my mind, it was accompanied by a question; "Why does the cashier care so much?" She was more than likely being paid minimum wage to deal with middle-aged mothers with screaming children in tow asking for every impulse item on the shelf. Why would she even bother counting how many items the woman had with her unless it was a cart load of toilet paper and boxes of wine?
I thought back to my philosophy 101 class and classified the employee as a "rule utilitarian;" someone who follows the rules and does not break them because there would be no purpose in having them if she did.
If this same cashier believed that killing is wrong and were faced with her own death, she would rather die than kill her attacker in self-defense.
Once that course of thought had left my mind, it was quickly filled with the thought that the cashier was in fact slowing down everyone in that line by even debating with the customer about the number of items she had with her. That in itself made the express lane just another checkout line and defeated the entire purpose of the debate she was engaged in.
I soon realized that I had spent too much time thinking about the reasoning behind their actions and stepped over the fallen magazine rack to slap down my $2 and change on the counter and walked out the door thinking "I guess she didn't need those tampons that bad after all."
The spirited conversation carried on for roughly five minutes and culminated with the customer becoming visibly upset, overturning a rack of tabloids and storming out of the store, leaving her items behind.
The argument started because the customer had 11 items with her in the express lane.
The cashier attempted to convince the customer that she needed to move to another line or put one of the items back. The customer tried to explain that she was in a hurry, did not see the sign that said "10 items or less" and that it didn't really matter if she had one extra item with her.
The cashier explained that the express lane was created to hasten the process of purchasing items for all customers and that she could not bend the rules just for her. You have to admire that kind of dedication; it is rare that you find an average employee of a major corporation who believes in following the rules as much as this one did.
But as that thought crossed into my mind, it was accompanied by a question; "Why does the cashier care so much?" She was more than likely being paid minimum wage to deal with middle-aged mothers with screaming children in tow asking for every impulse item on the shelf. Why would she even bother counting how many items the woman had with her unless it was a cart load of toilet paper and boxes of wine?
I thought back to my philosophy 101 class and classified the employee as a "rule utilitarian;" someone who follows the rules and does not break them because there would be no purpose in having them if she did.
If this same cashier believed that killing is wrong and were faced with her own death, she would rather die than kill her attacker in self-defense.
Once that course of thought had left my mind, it was quickly filled with the thought that the cashier was in fact slowing down everyone in that line by even debating with the customer about the number of items she had with her. That in itself made the express lane just another checkout line and defeated the entire purpose of the debate she was engaged in.
I soon realized that I had spent too much time thinking about the reasoning behind their actions and stepped over the fallen magazine rack to slap down my $2 and change on the counter and walked out the door thinking "I guess she didn't need those tampons that bad after all."
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