On March 15th, my brother and I were at the supermarket. We’d barely stepped into the store, when a voice announced over the PA system that everyone should have cash ready. The credit card readers apparently weren’t working at the self-checkout. We thought nothing of this, grabbed our groceries, and headed for the checkout.
It was pure chaos. We started in the self-checkout line, which reached halfway down an aisle. Only one of the four self-checkouts was working and, as we stood there, that one was closed down too. Everyone in our line was shifted to the next one regular checkout. As we exited the aisle, we saw that every single checkout was packed with people. We were squeezed in like sardines. Nobody wanted to give up their spot.
My brother and I glanced at each other, but we figured that it wouldn’t take too long to reach the cashier. We waited and waited and waited. The line wasn’t moving. We started grumbling that the person talking to the cashier probably didn’t have her cash out or that she was arguing with the cashier, trying to insist that the broken card reader should take her card.
We heard another announcement about having your cash ready and still we didn’t move. Eventually, the woman at the front of the line walked off to return her groceries, since she couldn’t buy them. We stepped forward, hopeful that the line would get moving. But, nothing happened. The cashier started to explain something to the next person in line, but made no move to start scanning items. The mother and child right in front of us shook their heads and left.
We were finally close enough to hear what was going on. Out of the six or seven cash registers open, only two were working. Our poor cashier was telling people that in order to buy their items, we either had to wait for her register to start working again, which would probably take a while, or go to the back of one of the working lines.
My brother and I decided to leave. We had been standing in line for about half-an-hour and we were tired. My brother described the lines as “like Disneyland, but without the ride that comes at the end. Definitely not worth it.”
We returned our items and headed home. We called our mom and told her the situation. None of us went back to the market for about two days. We never learned what happened with the cash registers. All I know is that they’re working again, two weeks later and I’m very grateful for that.