We've all been there. You've jumped into the grocery store for a few quick things, you head straight for the Express checkout line given you've only got about four things to buy, and then BAM, some jerk with more than 10 items is in the Express lane acting like he owns the place.
It's one of the most infuriating things you can deal with at a grocery store. The lane is CLEARLY marked as being for people with 1 to 10 items, and even if the person who's too much of a jerk to notice is being that much of a jerk, the cashier should be piping up and saying something about it! Now everyone's stuck waiting even longer than they should be!
Most surprisingly of all, apparently there are people who are incensed that they have to follow the rules on this one, and are constantly looking for ways around it. Case and point: a Miami reporter recently tried to take twice as many items as possible through the Express lane.
His explanation? That buy-1-get-1-free items should combine to count as 1 item.
Miami Herald reporter David Ovalle sparked a massive internet debate when he posted the following Tweet after Christmas:
Publix cashier hassled me because she said I was just over the 10-item limit in express lane. But I counted a couple Buy-One-Get-One-Free items as one, which wudda put me under.
— David Ovalle (@DavidOvalle305) December 27, 2017
Am I wrong?
"I'm not going to lie "” I've been that guy who's been counting other people's things in lines," he said. "But in this case, I'm like well, I'll skate by on a technicality."
Suffice it to say, people were less than happy with Ovalle's argument:
As a former cashier I can say your dead wrong. I used to tell people to go to a regular register.
— Caroline Ayala (@olivalta) December 27, 2017
Fuzzy math, Ovalle. Get thee to a regular lane.
— 🙌🼠Hannah Sampson 🙌🼠(@hannahbsampson) December 27, 2017
Ovalle ultimately took his case to a local judge, who ruled against him and said that BOGO items do not count as one unified item. "I have been ruled against. I won't appeal it. I am vowing to reform my shopping habits," Ovalle told As It Happens host Carol Off. That being said, some people are taking his side.
I'll take the case. As I see it, you bought one item, Publix gave you the other item (Buy One Get One FREE), so that one belongs to them. So as long as your items were less than 10, you can stay in the express lane ðŸ§
— David S. Weinstein (@DavidSWeinstein) January 4, 2018
"Since the dawn of Supermarkets, the issue of BOGOs and the 10-item express lane has proved vexatious to citizens and shoppers alike," reads the ruling, signed by two retired judges, but actually written by a defence lawyer who blogs under the pseudonym Horace Rumpole.
