The sign at the rapid checkout in my local supermarket reads "about twenty items or less". As I waited in the queue I started to wonder exactly how many that is. It isn't the use of "less" that I object to, though I know some who might. I'm just wondering about that "about".
To me "about twenty" might be eighteen, it might be twenty two. Others might disagree with the specifics but I think most would agree that it includes a few above and a few below twenty.
It doesn't combine well with "less" though as I'd take that to mean 1-20 but not 21 or 22.
How would others interpret this unusual phrasing?
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
I always pass that check-out line by since I never know if I'm over the limit. For example, say I have a quart of milk, a dozen eggs, a bag of potatoes and a large bunch of bananas. That's only four, by my count.
But suppose someone in line behind me counts differently. Milk is one, eggs makes thirteen, add ten potatoes and eight bananas, and I have thirty-one items in a line for a max of twelve. And they might have a gun.
I've seen that type of phrasing around here. Where formally the sign said "10 items or less," it now says "About 10 items." People often know they don't have many items, but they don't know exactly how many, so they have to stop and count them. And, as Proof said, they don't know whether that two heads of lettuce is one item or two (it's 1). And if a person gets in the "10 items or less" line with 11 items, you can bet the next person in line will count them and bristle at the impudence. So I don't think the sign is a mistake. It's just saying you can use the line if you're only buying a few items, giving you an idea of what a "few" items are, but if you're buying out the store, go to another line.
The idea is to speed up the traffic flow, but it doesn't always work. We've all been behind someone with only a few items in the so-called fast lane to find out it was really the slow lane. The cashier is slow or has to run a price check, the customer decides to buy a quart of milk at the last moment and someone has to run back and get it, pulls out a bunch of coupons, fumbles for change, takes forever to write a check, or can't quite figure out the credit/debit card machine. Meanwhile the customer in the next line with a full cart has the money ready and the cashier is really speedy and is out of there in no time.
A dozen eggs is one item, not twelve, unless they're all rung up separately.
Surely a far more logical system would be for the "fast" checkout to be restricted to those with only one basket of goods. Those who have loaded enough that they need a trolley or several baskets would have to use the normal checkouts.
No argument then about numbers of items since the restriction is of volume, not units.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
We've all been behind someone with only a few items in the so-called fast lane to find out it was really the slow lane. The cashier is slow or has to run a price check, the customer decides to buy a quart of milk at the last moment and someone has to run back and get it, pulls out a bunch of coupons, fumbles for change, takes forever to write a check, or can't quite figure out the credit/debit card machine. Meanwhile the customer in the next line with a full cart has the money ready and the cashier is really speedy and is out of there in no time.
Wonderfully articulated, Tinman! And I must be honest about my gender; in my experience it's usually women. At the last moment when the clerk finally reports the amount owed, some will act surprised that they have to pay! They dig and dig and finally pull their wallets out of their huge purses, and so on as Tinman describes.
