h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Since I know the guy that does the ordering for the grocery store next door, I asked him what those thingys are called. He pulled up the invoice from one of the wine vendors who provided their current crop, and the invoice listed them as "purchase spacers." Here, they are given to grocery stores gratis, and always have either cigarette adverts or spirits logos on them.

Now that we had found one name, we looked at one of the cigarette company invoices, and found that they had listed them as "order chocks", sort of like the things you put under plane wheels to keep them from rolling. I like this one better, because it sounds sort of like grocery punctuation.

It also sounds like you can call them what you damn well please when you are supplying them free of charge...

Just on a side note, gratis means free.

I think seperator bar gave the most sense.

Unfortunately, "separator bar" is also dull as dishwater. I went looking for romance....

Didn't I mention "free of charge" at the end of my post?

Separator bar could also be a drinking establishment for would-be divorcees

ROFL - but I'm goping to call them order Chocs from now on, do you think that if I say it loud enough, someone will provide me with cocoa based confectionary?
*Always hopeful*

This has been fun.

For everyone's benefit, I feel the urge to summarise the names so far submitted. And as for Grocery Punctuation - well, that ought to be framed and hung over the sign at ASDA, or at least awarded the Nobel Prize.

A "Next customer please" (Post 2)
Separating stick (Post 3)
"Thingy" (Post 7)
next-customer-please-sticks (post 9) with extra reference to the next-customer-please-sticks-chute
thingumies (Post 11)
'kine' (Post 14)
thingummy, whosiwhatsit, thingamabob, or whatchamacallit, (post 21)
"yokes" (Post 23)
"produce separator" and Next Customer Thingy (Post 38)
shopping separators (Post 47)
'Kassentrennstab',
which translates roughly 'Cash register separator bar' (Post 52)
"separator bar" (Post 55)
"next customer bar" (Post 59)
the shopping thingy (Post 60)
"purchase spacers." and "order chocks" (Post 61)
Xanatic votes for : seperator bar (but spelt right?) in Post 62
KWDave retaliates: "separator bar" is also dull as dishwater .. in Post 63


E & OE

All spelling mistakes due to cutting and pasting.

So what was the final defining name?

Now that I found it, I can tell something I heard recently. Those little things at the end of your shoe-laces, the plastic things. On TV they recently tried to find out what they were called. And found out the people who manfacture them call them "dupper", which basically translates into "thingies". So there´s no reason to think that these things have a meaningful name either.

When a new item is invented such as this bar that travels up and down at checkouts, what is the process that decides what it will be called? If it is anything like this it would take ages to come to a concensus. If things were named by committee as here god only knows what we would end up calling everyday items such as a sink, roof or football!

Those shoelace thingies are called aglets. Look in any dictionary.

Well, maybe the dictionary says that. But here in Denmark the company that made them called them thingies. And I think they know better than the dictionary to be honest.

Gomon's right, when you described them I was struggling for the word "taglet" and knew it was wrong.

They are "aglets", and it is a better word than "thingy" - "thingy" can mean anything that isnt a doubry or a whatsit. Definitely not specific enough.

-
hmmm? I've got a question:
When buying a 'separator' should you place 'separators' in front and after it to avoid gettin' it mixed up with other customers 'seperators' and the 'separators' they are buying ???

hmm 'only one way to find out...

Researcher 226581, welcome to H2G2!

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Liam.

thx m8 - I was looking for were i could change my name

btw some supermarkets dont like when you put all of the 'seperators' up on the conveyor belt.