Not Having Enough to Pay for Groceries: A Story

On my way to see a friend in Secaucus, I stopped at the Dollar Tree store on Broad St near the Elizabeth train station to get my fave snacks.

I quickly grabbed a few Haribo gummies and rushed to the checkout. I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t miss my train. I was on Lane 2, which was moving slowly, and noticed Lane 3 was moving much faster. I switched checkout lanes right about the moment it started slowing down too. I looked over and noticed Lane 2 was moving faster: I decided to switch registers again.

We’ve all felt this universal law: one lane seems to move faster and slows down the moment we’re on that lane.

Now on lane 2 again, the checkout came to a halt. I looked at my phone to ensure I wouldn’t miss my train. Then, I looked at the customers ahead of me and wondered what was causing the delay.

A family was at the register: their debit card was declined multiple times. My ears perked up. I heard the conversation that there was money in the account, and the customer wasn’t sure why the debit card wasn’t going through.

The cashier saw the line of angsty customers and said to the woman, “I can void the transaction and will ring it back up after you call the bank.”