MARTIN SLOANE | Supermarket Shopper What do choosy cashiers choose?

Dear Martin: My husband and I were waiting in a checkout line. A cashier walked over to the shopper in front of us and said, "I'll check you out at the next lane." We had a much bigger order and the cashier should have asked us to make the move. E-mail from Barbara, Houston
Dear Barbara: When a cashier opens a checkout lane, the cashier has two choices. The poor choice is to just open the lane and let shoppers in surrounding lanes make a mad dash. The dash usually results in several unhappy shoppers who did not move quickly enough. The better choice -- good customer service -- is for the cashier to select shoppers, who have been waiting the longest, to move to the lane about to be opened. The cashier in your supermarket did the right thing; the amount of your purchase has nothing to do with it.
Dear Martin: I recently purchased clothes for my grandchildren at Sears. I received a coupon for a free movie ticket to see "The Cat in the Hat." The coupon stated the ticket would be received in three to six weeks. My grandchildren would like to see the movie as soon as possible, not in six weeks. Why does it take so long to receive these offers? Margie Johnson, Cerritos, Calif.
When I contacted Margie, she said the tickets arrived three weeks after she sent for them; a good performance and she was pleased. Typical grocery product mail-in offers tell consumers the waiting period should be four to eight weeks. It frequently turns out to be much longer. Over the years, my advice has been to wait four weeks beyond the stated processing period before registering a complaint.
Now I would say to forget my past advice. When the processing period has gone by and you have not received what you sent for, call the company's toll-free number or send an e-mail complaint. In this age of rapid processing assisted by technology, there is no reason for long waiting periods. I consider four weeks the maximum for good customer service.
Dear Martin: I have been using the self-scanning opportunity at my local Jewel Food Store. I like the idea and I seem to be getting the hang of it. However, I have added minutes to the time in the store, which is not to be ignored. Some of this extra time is taken by my having to bag my purchases. Static cling on the plastic bags makes it hard to open the bags and I have to thread them through hooks to keep them open. This is a minor annoyance, which I suppose could be eliminated if I brought in my own freestanding tote bags. I enjoy having control of the checkout, but I will have to evaluate if the checkout is really quicker than the old system. Loretta McCann Bjorvik, Chicago, Ill.
Dear Loretta: Thanks for the note. The No. 1 consideration for most supermarket shoppers is a speedy checkout and getting out of the store as quickly as possible. When you are ready to check out and approach the cash registers, you look at the length of the lines, and based on your experience, make a decision. When you compare cashier lanes with self-checkout lanes, the extra time it takes to do the scanning and bag your groceries is a consideration. This is usually why self-scan works best for shoppers who only have a few items.
Some supermarkets still can't figure out how to solve the problem of counterfeit free-product coupons. As a result, they continue to refuse perfectly legitimate cents-off coupons downloaded from manufacturer Internet sites. I have a solution. Supermarkets should post signs like this: "If you have a manufacturer free-product coupon to redeem, you must write your name and drivers license number on the back of the coupon before it is your turn to check out. And, please have your license ready to show the cashier. Thank you!"
This will minimally slow the checkout and have maximum impact to discourage anyone who is considering using a free product coupon obtained from a questionable source. Supermarkets can quickly implement this safeguard, and manufacturers should start adding fill-in spaces for name and license number on their free product coupons (with instructions similar to the signs posted by the supermarkets).
My thanks to the editors of Supermarket News for publishing my proposal in the magazine's Dec. 1 issue. I hope it is read by the supermarkets which are still refusing the Internet coupons.
This week's Smart Shopper award goes to Carm Wood of Mechanicsville, N.Y.: "I have been playing The Great Grocery Game for many years and my recent visit to Price Chopper was a good example and very profitable. Along with the many specials and double coupons up to $1, and a rain check for a Scott napkins 500-count (buy one, get one free) that cost 19 cents after the double coupon, I paid $22.03 for $56.42 worth of groceries, and 86 cents of what I paid was sales tax! And every item was something I needed!"
Carm will receive a copy of my book, "The Guide to Coupons & amp; Refunds," and her Shopping Adventure will be posted on my column support Web site: www.martinsloane.com.
XSend questions and comments to Martin Sloane in care of The Vindicator. The volume of mail precludes individual replies to every letter, but Martin Sloane will respond to letters of general interest in the column.
United Feature Syndicate