Check Her Out

One of life's enduring mysteries crossed my mind today as I did my part to stimulate the economy by buying socks and shoe laces (they make great stocking stuffers) over the lunch hour:

If women are so good at shopping, why are they so bad at checking out?

Seriously ladies, most of you like to shop and have years and years of shopping experience under your belt. So why is it that when you reach the transactional point of the shopping experience, many of you act as if it's a brand new process?

I stewed in quiet desperation while in line today as every woman in front of me had some issue or another while checking out. There was a problem with a return. There was a problem finding the coupon. Finally, there was a situation where a woman was trying to use a 15% coupon along with another coupon that entitled her to an additional discount if she spent more than $50.

I knew that trouble was brewing when she commented to the clerk that she wasn't sure if had $50 worth of goods because it was "too hard" to keep track. She had four maybe five items. I know that Barbie thinks that "math is hard", but c'mon we're trying to have a society here.

Damned if her total wasn't forty-seven dollars and some odd cents. Which meant more confusion, more indecision, and more silent exasperation on my part (just do something!) until the cashier figured out a way that she could get rung up twice and still get the desired discounts.

If you have a choice this holiday season between a checkout line with six men and one with three women, take the longer queue. It's guaranteed to go faster.