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

An apparent simple question:

What is the name of the separators made of wood or plastic with the magic words 'Next Customer Please' on it to be placed on the conveyor belt at the supermarked cash register after you placed your purchase on it to prevent the cashier to mix it up with the next customer's purchase?

Does anyone understand what I mean? Are these 'subdividers' only common in Germany or are they also known elsewhere? The funny thing is, there is no German word for these little shopping-helpers either. Any guesses?

They are common wherever there are supermarkets and as far as I know they have no name - although I did ask someone to pass me a "next customer please" when in a queue and they knew exactly what I meant, so I suppose thet is what they are called.

This is quite a common question in Germany. I am sure the people who equip supermarkets have some word they write on their orders, delivery notes and invoices - you just have to ask the right people.

I can only think of some silly abbreviation like Purchased Items Separating Stick ... it's getting late to think up anything witty.

Well, we got those things here in Denmark too. And in some shops when the cash register is closing they put up a (insert name here) where it just says "closed" on it instead. But ask a guy in charge of supplies, he can probably tell you something.

I don't know what they are called but I have accidentally bought several of them.

Me I refuse to use them, as when I shop I have a bike crash helmet on one side and a pannier on the other, and yet people behind me simple REFUSE to onload their shopping until a *insert name here* is place between mine and their shopping. I view most check out people with enough intellegence to realise that a big white Shoei crash helmet or about a foot of space sperates two shoppers shopping.

The looks I get by refusing to use these things astounds me.

C Hawke

Well, that one foot of air wouldn´t be very precise. If they allowed it some would start to claim that they need two feet because they´re so important. And others would use less than one foot making it hard for the guy behind the cash register to find out when it is enough to be seperating. He is in a hurry after all, don´t notice any things. And could we not use the metric system instead, it makes a bit more sense. I personally find it a bit stupid to use them when you just need a single thing or so. Some guy has a mountain of groceries in front of you, then there´s a thingy, your one pack of whatever, and then another pile of groceries seperated by the thingy. Looks silly.

There's a sort of game of chicken you can play - by putting your groceries on without a stick, and see how close you can push them to the groceries in front before that person panics and puts the stick in for you.

Supermarkets are great places for subtle psychological experiments...

And have you noticed that the next-customer-please-sticks actually ahve a special home in which to live whilst waiting for the pleased next customer to pick them up. I suppose this must be the next-customer-please-stick-chute or docking bay or some such. And somebody somewhere must make these things. "Whats your job, daddy?" "I am proud to be a next-customer-please-stick-maker my son"

And your psychometric measurements of customers reactions could be measured by the sigh(s) that they exude.

1) The "Does no-body in this world know the correct way to use these things?" sigh.
2) The "Why is it always me that has to do it?" sigh.
3) The "I've been waiting here for 3/13/30 minutes and THEN I've still got to do this" sigh
4) The "Its so sad how people play these games by refusing to place the stick correctly/by substituting a crash helmet for the stick" sigh.

If you didn't use the stick the conveyor belt might not stop, meaning that the check out operator would spend hours waiting for nothing to arrive because the store had closed four hours previously.

The thingumies in the shop I use have a little slot in the middle for you to slide your store/credit card into. Never seen anyone use it though...

I ***always*** use it, after once having my credit card disappear down the conveyor belt - they had to take the WHOLE checkout apart to retrieve it!

You put your credit card on the conveyor belt? It didn't occur to you that it might be a bad idea at the time? And they have a slot on the kine for this? So is there a whole culture that puts the card on the conveyor belt, waiting for it to be sucked into the machine, or stolen by a quick thug?

Who decided that they're called 'kine'? I thought that meant cows

Maybe you can find the answer in the supermarket guide entries that abound on h2hg2.

Thanks for your confidence in my IQ, guys!

Incognitas, I tried searching after the Next Customer thingies within h2g2 and also in some internet search engines I didn't find anything, therefore the posting in 'Ask h2g2'.

Why don't checkout staff take the stuff off the conveyor in a sensible way? They always leave one thing blocking the magic eye while they unload about 6 feet of conveyor. Then they move the blocking item. In the meantime, you're waiting to unload your stuff but you can't.

This in turn means that when your shopping gets run through the zapper, you're still unloading your trolley, with the result that your bread is down the other end getting totally squashed by an avalanche of cat food tins.

I've found there's broadly two types of cashier - the ones who bleep things through at a helpful pace and in appropriate weight/size order and the ones who fling things through willy-nilly, leaving you flustered while they huff around waiting for you to finish

Do you not sort your items scrupulously according to size/weight/in-bag compatability?
...and then watch the cashier reach over items to check them through according to her own unique and incomprehensible criteria?