Checkout Counters - check your total

The checkout counters of today are less likely to be a source of mistakes for the consumer than they were many years ago when prices were hand marked on the products and bar codes were nothing more than someone's bright idea yet to be developed.

Nevertheless, a smart shopper will keep an eye on the transactions at the cashier because mistakes can be made.

The two most common mistakes are improper coding in the inventory system, and shopper error.

The latter is much more common than the former.

Before I get to the checkout counters, I make a mental check of the prices of things that I'm buying, and I add them up. Whether it's groceries or hardware, I add it up so I at least have a ballpark estimate of what it's going to cost me.

If the total looks like it's out of the ballpark, then I put the brakes on the operation and find out what hit the ball out of the park. Sometimes it's the additional tax, and sometimes it's something on sale that didn't get recognized by the inventory control system because it was entered wrong in the first place.

Other mistakes can be made by shoppers when they pick up the wrong item or they read the price label for one item and incorrectly associate it with the item they selected to buy.

There are fewer things done manually now, so fewer mistakes are being made, but mistakes do happen. They happen because people are involved in data entry and making changes to inventory and pricing.

Another reason to monitor totals at the cash register is simply because there are still plenty of businesses that don't use a cash register and inventory system. They still do things by hand.

Done with Checkout Counters, back to Frugal Shopping