Check Me Out!

Why do stores have so many checkout counters but only two or three of them open at a time?  I was at Wal-Mart this afternoon to finish up my Christmas shopping, and I still had to wait in line because only about half of the more than twenty checkout aisles had a cashier working at them.  You'd think that, it being so close to Christmas and lots of people rushing to finish their last-minute shopping, they'd have more cashiers manning the counters. 

I see this at pretty much every store I go to, and some places are worse than others.  For instance, when I go to Bi-Lo to do my grocery shopping, there's usually only two or three checkout counters open (is it because I usually do my shopping in the evening?), at least one of which is the express lane, which I usually can't use because I have more than 15 items in my cart.  The other lane usually has a backlog of more customers who also had too many groceries to use the express lane, so I end up waiting in line for quite a while - which is partly why I ride my bike instead of taking the bus anymore. Granted, I could just go to one of those self-checkout machines, but those things are annoying as hell to use.  They don't give me enough space to bag my items, and when I try to put one of the bags in my cart, it starts yelling at me to put the items back, prompting me to cry out in exasperation, "STOP YELLING AT ME!"  (Protip: Find the "Mute" button before you start checking out.) 

But back to my original topic - why do stores even bother installing that many checkout counters if they're just gonna leave half of them empty?  Not only does it create backlogs at the registers, but it also means extra work for the customer because they have to try to spot an open register within the labyrinth of empty aisles they've created and traverse halfway across the store to actually find one (never mind trying to determine which aisle you can get through quickest, because they're usually spread so far apart).  Do they just not have enough people to work all the registers?  If that's the case, I don't know why places like Bi-Lo don't want to give me a job, unless they can't afford to, in which case, why did they even install all those extra aisles in the first place?  It's yet another enigma the world may never really understand...

Hope those of y'all out there in Reader Land get all your last-minute Christmas shopping done in plenty of time for the holidays without any hassles.  Stay frosty, y'all (though at this time of year, not literally!) 

B-)