I notice that over at the APS someone has once again pointed out the ubiquitous supermarket usage "8 items or less" as being incorrect.

Now while I agree that this should be "eight items or fewer" it occurred to me that it might be possible to read this as meaning "eight items, or less shopping".

With the less thus attached to the uncountable noun shopping rather than the countable items this looks OK to me. Granted the construction is a little clumsy but wouldn't this justify the use of "eight items or less" in these circumstances.

I'm not suggesting this is correct, just musing on the topic and putting it forward for other comments.

Purgamentum init, exit purgamentum

Read all about my travels around the world here.

In fact, following several complaints, the supermarkets in this part of the world have changed their signs to "nine items or fewer". You'll be unsurprised to learn that I was one of the complainants; you'll be equally unsurprised to learn that the local Safeway did not have the goodness to answer my complaint - even though they acted upon it.

Richard English

I have to say, I am surprised to hear that you have Safeways in the U.K. I wonder if our Safeways are owned by same company as yours are.

Anyway, this is a pet peeve (note that I posted about this in pet peeves) that is close to my heart. In that situation, Bob, I think they just used "less" wrong. And, everyone does, at least in the U.S. It isn't that hard (like the intricacies of those apostrophes!) If you can count it, it is fewer (as in "grains of sand"). If not, it is less (as in "beach"). Richard, had I thought of it, I would have complained too! What I complain about is when people come to those lines with 50 items, expecting to slide through. What jerks.

I know, I know - but my point is that if you chose to you could interpret the less as meaning less shopping which is OK.

I'm not saying that you should, only that you could.

As for your complaint about people taking more than the number of items, well...

On Christmas Eve I made the serious mistake of going to the local supermarket for a loaf of bread.
It was, as you might expect a nightmare. Crowded with people who seemed to have chosen that day to do their annual shopping, pushing around three trolleys per family piled high and overflowing.
I got my loaf and joined the other fifty or so people in the "10 items or less(sic)" queue. In front of me was a woman with her ten items in a basket on top of a baby buggy. When about twenty five minutes later she reached the till she put her ten items on, pushed down the baby buggy cover to reaveal not an infant but about another fifty assorted cans, boxes and bottles. I wanted to scream at her

"Ten means ten you selfish COW !"

Of course I didn't. It would just have slowed things down even more and I'm sure the fifty people who were now in the queue behind me wouldn't have been pleased.

Purgamentum init, exit purgamentum

Read all about my travels around the world here.

In the UK the organisation is Safeway (without the "s"). I don't know whether it's the same as the US company.

We also have Asda, Sainsbury, Tesco and several others which I, being a man, could not name. I seem to have read recently that Asda has been taken over by Wal Mart (who are not here in their own name)

Richard English

It is a strange phenomenon, which I have often observed, that people stock up for a three-month siege just before a three-day break.

I have never been able to understand it, even in the days when shops used to close for several days over the bank (public) holiday. Now most are open for at least 363 days a year there seems to be even less reason for the panic buying!

Of course, being a man, I just go to shops to buy things, not to go shopping - which is what women tend to do and which is a totally different thing! For example, no woman would ever dream of going into to a shop just to buy a loaf of bread...!

Richard English

The same happens here if there is a predicted snowstorm--even if the prediction is for 2 inches. Suddenly, everyone thinks he will be snowed in, and the grocery store is filled with those shoppers. BTW, Bob, I hate to admit it, but aren't those people who sneak in with more items in the "10 or fewer" line usually women? Another typically female response is to wait until every last package has been rung up....and then...slowly....out comes the purse; then, digging for the checkbook; then writing the check, slowly....you get the point! By this time my type A personality is about ready to grab her purse and write the damned check myself. Sometimes I think I should have been a man!

Kallah says, "Sometimes I think I should have been a man!"

Nooooooooooooooooooooo ... !!!

The checkout payment phenomenon cited here is one that I have frequently observed, standing as I usually am behind the offending person, holding in my hand the correct money for my purchase.

I believe this to be an extension to the S.I.D. syndrome. SIDS, as I call them, are those who choose to stop and adjust their bags or clothing, chat to a friend or check their change just when the reach the narrowest part of a thoroughfare - typically a doorway. Any protestation on the part of the people behind who are being delayed is met with such a hurt look, as if it were they who are at fault!

"Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices" Ralph Waldo Emerson

Richard English

This morning it was announced that the supermarket chain Morrisons had launched a takeover bid for Safeway. I suspect, therefore, that it is not the same Safeway(s) as that in the USA.

Richard English