Sunday, March 6, 2017

Express

"Express: 1-16 Items Only."  

The sign was clear.  As I waited impatiently for my turn to pay for my seven grocery items, I counted the items of the lady ahead of me who seemed to have been checking out forever.  Fourteen. 

I counted them twice, just to make sure.  I thought it must have been more -- she seemed to be taking forever.

The cashier, a University student, several times smiled at me and rolled his eyes when he knew the woman he was serving wasn't looking.  He too was frustrated with how long she was taking, and was trying to apologize to me.  

I try to bag things quickly and efficiently as soon as they are checked through, and have my cash ready with loose change lined up in one hand ready to dole out as needed, so I can finish the transaction and make room for the next person without unnecessary delay.  Not that I'm brusque or unpleasant; some of my more enjoyable conversations in a day are with cashiers.  But all within the bounds of efficient, well-planned and well-executed action.  Express is express.

This woman, though, simply watched the cashier check each item through, didn't start helping to bag them until they were all through, and only after the bagging was done did she reach into her purse to start looking for and collecting her money to hand over with unhurried ease.

I didn't say anything, but I am sure my non-verbal language was telling and critical.  I regret to confess as well that because her skin was another colour than mine, I found it all the easier to judge that this woman just didn't fit in, and that it was my misfortune to be behind her in line.

A few months ago a friend returned from a year in Japan and I remember admiring what he said about his experience of shopping in that country, and the respectful rituals that occur between clerk and customer.  

In department stores, he said, when a clerk is serving a customer, the customer has the clerk's total, unhurried attention.  Other customers know it, honour it, and respectfully wait their turn.

When the purchase is made, the item bought is taken in behind the counter where it is carefully and precisely wrapped.  Meanwhile, a little tray is offered to the customer, on which the money for the purchase is placed and taken behind the counter, after which any change owing is brought back on the same little tray and offered to the customer, along with the elegantly wrapped package.  Clerk and customer exchange a warm and respectful smile, and only then is the clerk free to turn his or her attention to the next customer, and the next customer free to engage the clerk.

It makes me think of the Japanese tea ceremony, and to wonder if that particular ritual still deeply shapes the Japanese spirit and approach to life.

I wonder, too, what very different rituals of our culture have so shaped (or mis-shaped) my soul, that I felt so harshly critical of someone for slowing me down in the express line for all of a minute or two.