10 Items or LESS!

Thing 2 and I took a trip to our local store to purchase a few things I couldn't find at the other store we went to yesterday. I had 5 items so I got into the 10 artikuly czy mniejszy (10 items or less) lane. There are 3 people ahead of me when a older couple in the line begin to put much more than 10 items on the belt. What the f***? I thought to myself in English ,wishing that I knew how to say that in Polish (need to ask the Polish teacher about that one). I'm not even a native and I can read the freakin' sign.

I haven't been in a hurry since I moved here so while it was annoying, I let it go. The people behind me however, did not. This lady went up to the couple and called them on it. This older man began to justify his prescence in the line by trying to infer that groupings of the same type of items (for example, several different beers, different fruits, etc,)all counted as one artykuly. It got ugly. A manager was called. The guy must have said something derogatory because the manager went off to get security. People in other lanes started chiming in their opinions. It was crazy. I paid for my 5 items and got out of there.

I'm sure that this happens in the States all the time (although I have yet to be a witness, probably because I usually have more than 10 items and wouldn't be in that line anyway). But, it was much more humorous to witness in Polish.