How many qualify for an item?

[osprey]

When you see a sign in a supermarket for example stating 10 items or less (or fewer) just how many things qualify as an item? Do 6 individual tins of the same dog food count as 6 separate items or one item of the same product?

[andy-hughes]

Because the thinking behind the '10 items or less' checkout is to speed through people who only want a few items, it must logically follow that the meaning is ten items in the basket- whether duplicates of one product, or not. So foillowing that logic, 6 tins of dog food are 6 items.

Inevitably, some people simply refuse to abide by this simple concept, and, being British, the people queuing behind talk about the offender in voices loud enough to be hear, but they do not address the culprit directly.

[jno]

I guess it means 'one scan' - so the checkout person would scan each of 6 cans separately, but would scan a bag of apples (if prepacked) as a single item with one price.

[SteveD]

...but don't check-out tills allow the operator to scan one item and then "x 6" for example?

[GK Fanatic]

Its 6 items....6 items........OK???

[jno]

as far as I can see, SteveD, some supermarkets do and some don't; I don't know why the difference.

[joko]

i bought a newspaper today and queued in the express queue behind a man with a stacked basket.
after an interminable time i turned round and saw that all the ordinary checkouts were completely empty!! and he would have had to pass all of them to get the 10 items till!
i moved across but just caught the amount of his bill - �44!! and he had no spirits or cigs!
he of course then packed his stuff as though he was doing tai chi....aaaaahhh!
i could have strangled him! ( had i not been in a rush i probably wouldn't have cared much)

[GirlClown]

Yes, it IS frustrating....and to the check-out operator, too! I used to work at Tesco and occasionally had to operate the '10 Items or less' till - and I'd get just as wound up about having to process large quantities of goods as the other customers. But the policy of Tesco - and of other supermarkets - is that they cannot afford to lose even one customer, so turning away someone with a large number of items on the '10 Items or less' till is not allowed, in case they get shirty about it!
Just once....just once, I'd have liked to have said: "Sorry, madam, but you have more than 10 items. Please use one of the other check-outs"!
Mind you, perhaps more irritating was an elderly man further back in the queue, on one occasion, who literally counted out every item that went past my scanner and then said, in a loud voice: "That's 15 items! She's no right to use this check-out!" He was right....but I wish he'd said it to the woman herself...

[joko]

noooooooooo, girl clown!!!

you have just told every one who is reading this, who may not have even tried it for fear of being turned away, that they will get away with it!! Arrrggghhh!!