Where do you place your items when you're checking out?

Go into a store, (grocery store works best) and look for a checkout line where there isn't a conveyor belt and watch the customers go through. 99% of the customers will take their items out of the cart and place them as far away on the other side of the counter as possible. Even spacing the items closely together to do this. The cashier then has to reach a ton. It is actually very interesting especially considering almost everybody does the exact same thing time and time again. The customers will even watch the cashier reach and nothing will spark in their brain. I can not figure out why though. Rarely the customer will be like "oh sorry" and then scoot the items closer. Most of the time they just watch. Why do you think they do this?

Answer:
It is so that they can keep track of what items have been scanned and what items have not so as to not be cheated by accident.
Intelligent cashiers will want to bag things in such a way as to keep items from breaking and to fit them nicely in each bag, so to have the room to work is nice.
It doesnt ever seem like a reach though.

Maybe your grocery store is weird.

This isnt true for where I live.
We have converyor belts at our supermarkets
we always start by placing our stuff right up at the closest end of the belt to the cashier to allow more room to fit all the items on more quickly.
And if i am in a small store and they dont have this belt I would never make the cashier reach - thats just non sensible and mean

i think its that in todays sociaty the focus is on us and not on helping others. we are just born with this inside of us, however in our defense i know countless times when i have spaced out at a checkout line its just that theres so much to do so much stress...

thoughtless.
stupid...
irresponsible...
5 min mentality (if it doesn't register in 5 mins it's gone forever).

take your pick or take them all...I'm sure they all fit... ;D

They do this because they dont want to get their items mixed up with the other customers items. And also since there isn't a conveyor belt, they probably don't think to scoot their items up after the person in front of them has gone.

people are influenced by what others do, even if they dont notice that they are..

if everyones doing, you are likely to do it to without even second guessing it.

also, people are more concerned about making things easier for themselves than others.

by placing the items farther from the clerk, they are placing them closer to themselves, meaning they dont have to reach "as far" to place the groceries.

i've honestly never seen that particular situation, but having worked in retail for 9 years i've seen similar stuff and i seriously can't explain it. i think that maybe people really just are unaware of their surroundings and are kind of just going through the motions they see other people doing. i saw this episode of dr. phil once where this crazy ***** would get hyperpissed at the grocery store if the person in front of her in line at the checkout didn't put the black bar down on the conveyor belt to separate their items from hers so you know what she would do? she would take items from the impulse area like batteries or gum and put it with their items. so effed up. a lot of people just don't know how to be good customers.

i separate them..i just throw them up there..

I worked in retail and am positively anal about how I put things on the conveyor line.
I'm talking all canned goods stacked by UPC code All the heavy jars and cans together, refrigerator goods together. Just watching my husband put stuff on the conveyor belt causes me a great deal of irritation.
I think people just don't realize how inconsiderate and time consuming it is when they overly space things and throw everything up on the line in a tangle of mixed goods.
Though, I really get annoyed when the person in front of me in line doesn't even to have their wallet out by the time the cashier is done ringing out their tons of items. Then, what do you know, they're paying with a check that they painstakingly fill out and balance while you're standing there. Like they couldn't have been doing that the last ten minutes the cashier has spent sorting their groceries out into some kind of baggable order. Man, I have my debit card poised over the card reader waiting for the very second the cashier hits 'total'.

cuz their taking your money from you and that sucks so you torture them

i mean not me personally :|

prolly other...people ...do that? :|

I don't think people do this to be mean. I may be one of the idiots that have done this from time to time and don't even know it. I am sorry if I have. I usually have a lot of things on my mind at once, and I am trying to get everything done on my schedule for the day. Additionally, I have watched the cashier make mistakes, for which I have always done my best to alert the cashier of it.

You must like your job.
Educate yourself ,then look for another job.

I used to be a cashier... but we had the belt... However, during the hurricane... there was no electricity.. and I can see exactly what you're saying. They used to place the items extremely far away from me.. but I used to get mad and tell them to scoot the items closer "because I wasn't an Octopus". some people gave me a bad face, some apologized and moved the items closer, and some just didn't do anything. I think this happens just because they're used to the conveyor belt already. I dont think they do it to be... bad people.

good point...I went and observed.they do it here too.I usually put all my stuff in a high pile right up where they can reach it and I also insist on packing my own grocery tote bag.

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Where do you place your items when you're checking out?

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