I do most of my grocery shopping at a store I dislike (Food Lion) because it is less than a mile from my house and I drive right by it on my way home from the 45 minute drive home from work. Practicality trumps preference.

This store will not open an additional register until lines are backing up into the aisles and people still shopping can't get through the traffic to turn down the next aisle. When that is the case, if I have 18-20 items instead of the 15 specified by the express line, ya'll are just gonna have to wait for those 3-5 additional items to be rung up, because I am not about to get behind 6 people with brimming carts at the only other register that is open. 5 over the express lane number is my limit, and then only when the situation is described as above. As far as I am concerned, you can blame the store and not me. I am not responsible for their lousy customer service, and not about to stand in line for an extra 10 minutes to save the person behind me from standing in line an extra 1 minute.

The store I prefer but which is 4 miles from home and 6 miles out of the way if I go after work has excellent customer service, and opens additional registers as soon as anything remotely resembling a line begins to form at the non-express registers. They will also open an additional express register if more than 4 people are in line at the express register. At that store, I never, ever, get in the express lane if the number of items in my cart exceeds the 12 item limit they specify.

We did not used to be in such a hurry as a society, at least in rural areas such as where I grew up. It is a comment on how our society has changed that we are all in such a hurry, me included. I grew up in a rural community that had a grocery, a pharmacy, a dry cleaners, a doctor's office and a tavern (beer garden) at the main crossroads, which eventually featured the only traffic light within a 15 mile radius until I was in high school. For my stay-at-home Mom during the 50's to mid-60's, home-bound through the week like all the other Moms because families had only 1 car (remember when milk, bread, and eggs got delivered to the front porch early mornings 3-4 days per week and if Mom ran out sugar mid-week, a kid was sent next door, measuring cup in hand, to ask to borrow, and the same kid would be sent back asap, full cup of sugar in hand, to pay it back?), the Saturday trip to the grocery and pharmacy were relished outings to be savored, and a time to meet and greet friends in the community that did not live next door, and get an hour away from the kids.

There were square dances on Saturday nights, the only social doin's other than church and PTA meetings. In preparation for Saturday night and Sunday morning, moms shampooed and put their hair up in rollers on Saturday morning and left them that way all day to air dry. The only hair dryers were the big commercial hoods in beauty shops, which were visited for haircuts and perms every 2-3 months. Saturday mid-morning to mid-afternoon, the grocery was packed with women bedecked with pink or brush rollers covered with a net cap, care worn and carefully budgeting their scant grocery dollars, but also enjoying the opportunity to get out and touch base with friends and acquaintances in the community.