Supermarket Checkouts...

Things were going so well. In my lunch break I had rushed out to Argos to buy my neice a guitar stand for her birthday, and this had gone perfectly. As I left I decided to pop into Asda to get her a card and also to grab something for lunch.

Zoom! In was in like Flynn, grabbed a card, some hot Southern Chicken fillets, a couple of bread rolls and off to the checkouts.

I cruised along looking for the shortest queue and found one with a couple who only had about 3 items left to be scanned. Aha!

Wham! I unpacked my 3 items onto the conveyer belt and waited. And waited. The couple were still packing items and it was what seemed like an eternity before one of them actually paid for their shopping.

OK, a slight blip on my progress, but hey I was next. Meanwhile, someone else who had been playing the same game as me (ie looking for a short queue) moved in behind me. My fate was sealed.

Bleep, bleep, bleep. My shopping went through. Then the girl paused and smiled sheepishly.

"That is not right, is it?"

I looked at the green numbers glowing, mockingly, on the till.

£321.97

"No", I agreed.

So then we had to wait for a supervisor to come over and cancel the sale so we could start again.

Bleep, bleep, bleep.

£1.98

"Now that isn't right either", I said. The card alone was £1.97! Curse my honesty!

Back comes the supervisor, eventually, who seemed to be having a very long private chat on her mobile phone. Sale cancelled. Items entered into the system manually, ie very slowly. The woman behind me rolls her eyes, while I shrug helplessly.

Finally I am asked for the correct amount and I am able to leave, already late for work!

Am I the only person to suffer from this? Is it tempting fate to look for the shortest queue? I see others joining stupidly long lines and getting out way ahead of me! Do they know something that I do not? Is that why some checkouts have very short queue - because those who know better are avoiding them like a half cooked chicken at a barbeque?