Common Sense Has Totally Checked Out

(I am a customer in a large chain grocery store notorious for having many lanes for checkout but only opening barely a handful. I have maybe 10 items but have to use one of the regular lanes as no express ones are open. As I go to turn into the nearest lane a woman with a cart full to bursting knocks my cart out the way to get in the lane before me. I let it go as I don’t need to be anywhere. The woman begins unloading her cart onto the conveyor belt and the cashier looks ready to cry at how much stuff she has. About halfway through the process the woman checks the amount thus far.)

Woman: “So how much is it now?”

Cashier: “$193, ma’am.”

Woman: “Okay, stop ringing stuff up when it gets to $200.”

(She proceeds to unload roughly two dozen more items onto the belt despite this.)

Cashier: “Ma’am, it’s over $200 now.”

Woman: *looking between the cashier and the items on the belt* “You know what? Ring these up, too. It’s okay.”

(The cashier does so. Her basket is still fairly full at this point, mostly loose produce and small packages of things that she grabbed multiples of.)

Cashier: “Ma’am, if you could just put your basket over here, someone will return those items for you.”

Woman: “Oh, no, I can do it. I shouldn’t make you guys do all this work.”

Cashier: “Ma’am, it’s policy.”

Woman: “So what? I need to do it; I may find more items that I need that I missed the first time!”

(And she walked off with both her paid items and nonpaid items. The cashier, however, watched her like a hawk until she went further into the store, making sure she wasn’t trying to steal anything. The whole transaction took 20 minutes.)