On Memorial Day, I was home alone and not really in the mood for cooking so I took a quick trip to the store. I'm a loyal Kroger shopper, so that's where I went. Got something microwavable and a donut. and wandered over to the first cash out lane. Well, it was obviously open-- the lane light was lit, and a bagger was standing by the bags. Except that the cashier was standing against the magazine rack at the end of the lane, reading a magazine. I stood perhaps four feet from her and she didn't notice me AT ALL. I looked back and forth from the bagger to the cashier for a bit and he just looked back, so after a little while, I asked if the lane was open or not. The cashier jerked back to Earth and apologized and ran back to her space and rang me up. I thought "Eh one time thing, alright."
Today, I went shopping for both my mother and I. When I do that, I split the order so her and my groceries don't get mixed up and I get asked weird questions about what I buy (She still has trouble believing I actually cook for myself now and again :P). I went to the first cash out lane (yes, same as the one above) and watched as the cashier (Not the same as above) who's standing with her back to me rambles on about random things to the bagger, who's staring at me. Finally he motions to me and the cashier turns around and apologizes, and starts ringing me up. I hand over my Kroger card and tell her I have two separate orders here so she keeps it. She finishes ringing me up, I pay and wait for her to start ringing in my second order. And now there's two people behind me waiting to get their stuff rang up too. She turns and starts talking to the bagger again. Usually I try to be patient but um, no. So I interrupted her and said, "Uh, my second order?" then she's like, "OH yeah..." and rang that up too.
It's nice to know what Kroger's paying their workers to do.