Back of the Line

 It's one of those moments where I don't know if there was a 'right' answer to the situation.

It was the end of my shift.

Technically I could have just clocked out. But I noticed that there was quite the line forming and since my fellow manager was only just walking back into the store from their lunch break, and my other associate on the floor was busy helping customers at the fish wall...

It was up to me to back up cashier.

Which I did in the hopes that I could get the line down and under control so I could go home.

As I was walking up to the register to backup I noticed a family hovering between register one and two. 

They'd been around the store for a while, gathering products for a fish tank and talking about types of fish they wanted and if they should wait to get fish until after they finished shopping at Walmart or if they should get the fish now and then go shopping at Walmart. 

-I was rooting for them to go shopping first. Fish don't do well when left in a car. Especially with how cold it's been. 

In any case. They'd been looking at stuff between the registers when I came up to shorten the line.

And as I called the next customer over, I did note which customers were next.

The family...didn't look to be in a line. 

Though they did move towards the original line by register one...they were quickly redirected by the customers already waiting there.

They ended up hovering along the treats. Creating a 'branch' in the line where they were also 'in line' but...were not in the main line. 

And as I finished checking out the customer I had called over, the family moved to go be the next in line.

Again. From what I'd seen, they hadn't actively been in a line before I came over to back up.

It looked like they were looking at product and such, not waiting to check out.

So I told them, "I'm sorry, but there are other customers before you."

As I've gotten the stink eye and angry customer sent my way before when someone had cut the line and us at the registers hadn't noticed. 

I was trying to prevent that from happening by ensuring that the family would get in the line and wait their actual turn and try not to jump up. 

I never actually saw them check out though.

I saw them disappear around the corner to get in the main line. 

But after that point I kinda kept my head down, hoping that they would end up at the other register when they did come to check out.

As I really didn't want the mother or any of the other family members getting mad at me for not letting them cut in line. I didn't want to get yelled at. 

I never saw them go through though.

And the line must have gotten longer than I thought. Because people kept coming and coming and coming. 

I ended up calling up the other manager to be our third cashier to just get the line moving faster. 

Like it was 15 minutes I was standing at the register, helping customer after customer after customer. 

So it was quite the rush considering we had 3 people at the registers at that point.

But at one point I looked up and noticed that there was a cart left off to the side with a tank in it.

The tank that I'd seen the family with earlier.

Though I was certain that there had been other products in the cart with the tank....it was just the tank that was left....

So I don't know if they ended up deciding to only get the tank and then abandoned it.

Or if they abandoned the tank but went through a different register to buy everything out.

I'm leaning towards the former really. They decided not to wait in line and left.

Who knows if they planned to come back or not..... :S :S :S

If they did...hopefully they weren't mad....I did give my closing manager a heads up about the situation just in case they did return and complained. 

However...

There was the thing where they were planning to go to Walmart. 

As I was planning to go to Walmart too after work. As I needed to get groceries.

Which meant there was a possibility I would run into the family again there.

I definitely didn't want that to happen. Like...you don't want to have a family yelling at you in the store about something that happened in a different store. 

So I made sure to cover my work uniform with my jacket, and pulled my hair down from it's ponytail just to try and distance myself from the look I'd had at work. 

Thankfully....I didn't see the family at Walmart.

And if they saw me...they probably didn't recognize me.

But yah.....kinda a stressful end to the day. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi