We did our grocery shopping at Fred Meyer in Hazel Dell last night and I picked the wrong check-out line. You know when you have a hunch you're picking the wrong line but you do it anyway? ALWAYS trust your gut.

There were only 2 checkers and it was the shorter line and quickly got even shorter as people bailed. Whoever was up when I got in the line had some sort of price check issue that took forever to be resolved and then the people in front of us had a price check issue to be resolved. They had 3 Halloween costumes and only 1 kid who, of course, melted down during all of this and started screaming. We had a cart-load which we'd already unloaded. If I'd known how long it would take I would have put everything back in the cart but there was always this hope that we were moments away from getting taken care of.

After about 10 minutes some people got in line behind us and I told them: "This is the slowest line on the planet. We've been here for days." They quickly abandoned us for another line. Another couple approached and when they saw the problem they felt bad we'd already unloaded our cart.

The price check finally came through after our fearless checker stood there wondering aloud if anyone was actually checking the price, and then this family with the 3 Halloween costumes had to have some sort of committee meeting about whether they wanted the costumes -- one was $13 and was like a peapod or something.

By this time I was irritated enough to look for management -- it's rare for me to be aggressive about poor service. The office was empty so I went to the U-Check because I knew the guy who was working that station and I asked about anyone supervising the checkout because the very nice lady at our register was completely out to lunch and we'd been waiting forever.

He gives me this look of horror and said, "Did you get in _____'s check out line? Oh no no no no no." Then he laughed. Then he apologized for laughing and recommended that I avoid her line in the future. He said many customers avoided her line. I did find this funny but why do they keep her on the register? Way back when I had that job at Target for 3 months they put the fear of God in you with their computer system that timed everything you did and printed out reports. Isn't there some basic standard of efficiency?

I wandered back where it was finally our turn -- well, first the people with the 3 Halloween costumes with no prices who had the family meeting about the peapod costume -- their check didn't go through. Fortunately, a manager type person took them aside to deal with this problem. Bob and I laughed all the way home.