5 items or fewer
I went to the Carrefour in Maltepe today, enjoying the feeling of being in a large supermarket with wide aisles and big selections. I don’t know why I’ve never gone there before, it’s an easy ride on the minibus from my house. But being three days before payday, my budget is tight so I bought just 8 things (fruit, veg, sandwich materials for workday lunches + some “garden spirit” scented tealight candles on sale for 3TL). I went to the checkout and was pleased to find one reasonably short. I got in the row, waited, put my things on the conveyor, and waited a bit more. Then a woman came behind me and had also started putting her items on the conveyor when the cashier told her that this particular checkout was 5 items or less. The cashier was very strict about this and made the woman leave. I just watched. I hadn’t realized I was in a restricted lane (the sign was very high up) and was wondering when the cashier was going to notice that I too was over limit. In the meantime another woman came behind me and was discussing with the cashier whether 10 items would be okay since 5 of them were the same (5 packets of the same brand of mallo-cookies, yuck). When it came my turn to check out, the cashier finally realized that I also had more than 5 items and she was about to get strict with me too, I could tell. By this time there were two people behind me and it would have been a real pain in the patootie to retrieve my basket, refill it, back out, and get in another lane where everyone had carts piled high. I had an inspiration: I started talking in English. “I’m really sorry, I just didn’t realize!”. That was all it took, and she made an exception for my extra three items and let me go through. As I took my change, I said (in my best English) “Thank you VERY much!” and smiled. Nevermind that I understood every conversation around me and once I saw the sign knew exactly what it said and could have spoken to the cashier in Turkish. Sometimes you’ve just gotta use your opportunities.
FWIW I think the “X items or fewer” concept is great, but I think the X should be closer to 10 or 12. There’s a big difference between someone with a basket-ful and someone with a cart-ful. If I have 8 items, is it better for me to be in the limited-item lane or fuming in the lane with people who have 50 items? Here’s a nice solution I saw online, at another Carrefour (a French supermarket that has gone global) in Shanghai. If you have a basket, you can pass through. If you need a cart, find another lane. I suppose someone could cheat with two baskets, but who wants to carry two baskets?
BTW the sign in the Maltepe Carrefour was about the same color and height as that one in Shanghai, but sideways to the checkout lanes rather than readable straight on. I would have had to come to the checkout lanes from near the entrance in order to read it.
Ok, that’s enough about supermarket checkout lanes. 
