Trials, Tribulation and Self-Checkout

Withholding judgment makes everything go smoother.

Costco self-checkout scanner

Each of the checkout lines stretched back ten or more people deep. With a sigh and shrug, I took my four items through the Costco Self-Checkout.

Of all the things that take me out of my Ikigai self-checkouts are near the top of the list.

In my cart was a pumpkin pie which I had been craving since the end of Thanksgiving last year. Wanting it to arrive home intact, I signaled to have the attendant scan it for me with a barcode scanner rather than risk my tipping it on the scanner at the counter.

It took what seemed like forever for the checkout person to come over. I stood quietly practicing my breathing, rolling with as much patience as I could muster with the delay.

By the time she got to me, the checkout had timed out.

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“Sir, you have to scan your card first,” she said sharply.

“I did, but it had timed out while I waited,” I responded calmly, explaining what had happened.

“We are very busy and understaffed, and I’m doing the best I can,” she said as she scanned my items.

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I suppressed my first thought, a negative reaction to excuses for slow customer service. Patience David…breathe.

Then I wondered why she was so defensive. Why had she felt she needed to justify anything because of my comment?

Feeling agitated as I got into the car, I decided to sit with my emotions for a few minutes.

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Quieting my mind for those few moments helped me realize I wasn’t frustrated with the checkout person for explaining the delay. I was feeling judged.

“Sir, you have to scan your card FIRST,” like I was too dumb to know to scan it first. I justified myself in response to feeling judged, and then she justified herself in response to…you guessed it, feeling judged.

I was the one who created the negative experience for myself by embracing the judgment of someone who probably wasn’t judging me anyway.

If I had let go of any feeling of judgment in the first place, the frustrating sequence would never have happened to either of us.

So what if she thinks I didn’t put the card in first? I’ve never seen this woman before; odds are, I will never again. She was so busy (they’re understaffed, you know) I doubt she gave my intelligence a second thought one way or the other.

🌀 A whole world of positive possibilities emerges when we withhold judgment on ourselves or others.

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