grocery-store interface question

[cellio]

Today, as I approached the checkout lines with a dozen bagels, my salad, and a few other things, I found myself wondering about the specification of "12 items or fewer". (Fewer! They actually said "fewer" instead of "less"!) I assume they do not mean 12 individual items no matter how packaged, else you could never go through with a case of pop or a bag of potato chips. So do they mean 12 scannable things, or 12 items at the smallest unit size sold? Would my dozen bagels be ok in a pre-packaged bag with a UPC symbol but not if the clerk had to type in "12 @ [price]"? Or is the fact that it generates a single line on the receipt what matters?

These thoughts brought to you by "total items: 20" on my receipt, a need to maintain my reputation as a pedant, a desire to test posting by email, and caffeine deficiency. :-)

Comments

[tangerinpenguin.livejournal.com]

a) In practice, they seem to mean "keep the number down, guys, though we won't look closely" and if they can get you to not show up with a full cart they're ahead of the game. Strictly, I've usually interpreted multiple instances of the same item (e.g. multiple fat-free yogurt containers, which is how it usually comes up for me) as multiple items, even though a properly trained cashier will key them in as "7 @ [price]" almost as quickly as one.

In other news, email posting succeeded, but (as you've likely noticed) produced two copies.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

I always think of it as "12 individual units." Thus, the following in my cart:

- bag of 12 bagels
- bulk pack of 24 rolls of toilet paper
- bag of baby carrots (quantity unknown)
- bag of M&Ms (quantity unknown)

...constitutes four items.