HOW LONG CAN IT TAKE?

“Okay! Okay! I’m moving! Quit shoving!” shouted Jane at the teenager behind her as all the shoppers turned and stared at her. An elderly man nodded his head disapprovingly. The teenager behind her turned off his iPod and asked “What?”

“Never mind.” she said and moved on in the line. The cashier looked at her with bored eyes through thick glasses. She managed a sheepish smile. That’s when she felt that nudge on her back.

She turned to see a young man smiling at her in an appealing way. “Excuse me,” he said timidly, “yes?” she enquired.

“Actually it’s just that, I wanted to ask you a favour. As you can see, I’ve just one item and all the counters are crowded even the five items or less one and as I didn’t see any sense in standing in these never-ending lines,” he chuckled at his own joke, “I thought I’d ask you if you would be kind enough as to let me finish with my purchase?” he paused enquiringly, “After all, how long can it take?”. He added. She nodded at him to continue as he handed his box of cereal to the cashier.

She raised an enquiring eyebrow and he gave her one his flashy smiles. She gave him a good stare and proceeded to scan the item, and then suddenly she noticed that it was not registering on her computer.  She passed the scanner over the bar-code again and again to no avail. “Is there a problem?” the man asked. “No, no, no problem.” She replied. “Mark!” she called out to an attendant who was passing by. She whispered something into his ear and he ran off at top speed with the box of cereal in his hand.

“Great! Now what?” thought Jane. Mark returned after a few minutes with the box of cereal still in his hand. He said something to the cashier and she turned to the man who by now was getting very impatient. “Sir,” she told him. “I think we have a little problem over here which will require the manager to sort it out.” She finished as Mark ran off to find the manager. He returned after a good ten minutes with a big burly man who had ‘MANAGER’ in big, bold letters pinned on to his coat. The cashier took him aside and took a couple of minutes to explain the situation to him. Jane looked at her watch, frustrated. She had spent 15 minutes in the line by now, “How much longer?” she thought.