"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
But you still get the customer who has to wonder where they've put
their purse - this tends to slow things.

There seems to be a certain type of person (*) who doesn't anticipate that
they will need to pay for their shopping, and only *starts* to look for
their purse/wallet when they are presented with the bill.

I get my card out of my wallet while I am waiting (and waiting) in the
queue, and put it loose in my shirt pocket (the hardest for anyone to pick),
ready for when I'm asked to pay. I pay immediately so the checkout operator
can get on with processing the next person's shopping while I finish off
loading mine into the trolley or basket - having put a Next Customer Please
divider sign from the belt to keep my shopping separate from theirs.

Come to think of it, checkouts used to have a hinged divider on the "output"
side which the cashier moved one way or the other to allow for one person to
finish packing while the next is just starting. You don't see those any
more. Indeed Lidl and Aldi have virtually no "output" tray so you have to
pack things as fast as the cashier rings them up.


(*) I'm strenuously trying to avoid any hint of their gender.