Danny Wegman makes list of Remarkable Rochesterians; Solutions for express-lane woes

Last week’s column advocated for a “chat checkout” lane in grocery stores, a leisurely spot where people could share their hopes and fears with the cashier.

Moving from the slow to the fast, a reader whom we’ll call Mike, as he wishes not to be identified, passed along his concern about another lane, the express lane.

Mike is bothered by shoppers who violate the “15 items” or fewer express-lane rules. He’s not alone. We’ve all skidded to a halt as we enter the express lane only to be held up by someone with 30 or so items.

Clearly in violation of the laws of the lane, the shopper doesn’t apologize, doesn’t explain, just watches the scanner scan.

It’s annoying.

Mike has a solution to this problem.  “Every item scanned up to the displayed maximum rings up as marked,” he writes. “But the NEXT item, which puts you over the limit posted, automatically DOUBLES your bill. The next item DOUBLES it again, and so on.”

The uppercase words are Mike’s, and as my wife, Cindy, said, he sounded a little crabby. I let him know.

“Crabby,” Mike wrote back. “Damned right. Why do only certain people have to follow rules? Should I be inconvenienced with a single item just because someone didn’t want to wait in a regular line with a full cart?”

He has a point, but there’s a complication: The wave over.

Your cart is overflowing. All the regular lanes are backed up. The store’s front-end manager waves you over to the express lane. You follow orders, but as your 80 million items are being scanned, a shopper with three items arrives behind you.

The shopper looks at you with disdain, shakes her head, mumbles “express-lane cheat” under her breath, rams you with her cart.

You try to explain you were only doing what you were told to do. Meanwhile, the line of shoppers that you’re holding up gets longer and longer. They start counting out your items, 31, 32, 33. “Express-lane cheat,” they chant. “Express-lane cheat.”

Mike has a solution to this problem, as well. He simply ignores the wave order, refuses to take his full cart to the express lane.

Of course, if there were a chat-checkout lane, he could go there and share his thoughts about the wave over and about express lane cheats. There’s a lot of them, he’d say. You can count on that.

More: Can we talk Wegmans? It's time for a 'chat checkout' lane

More: Wegmans shoppers alerted to possible extra credit card charge. What you should know

Far-flung Bills

I wrote recently about how my wife, Cindy, would encounter other Bills fans as she walked on Peaks Island, Maine. If she was wearing a Bills shirt, inevitably someone would say “Go Bills” to her.

Jill Francis of Fairport reports that she was on Isabela Island in the Galapagos, off the coast of Ecuador, sporting a Bills shirt and hat.

“I passed another group,” she reports. “One of the people in that group was wearing a Bills shirt. We both said, ‘Go Bills’ as we passed each other.”

That’s a remote bit of Bills bonding, as the Galapagos are in the Pacific, 4,000 miles from Rochester. Any other far away and surprising “Go Bills” encounters? Let me know.

Remarkable Rochesterians

As long as we’ve been speaking of grocery stores, let’s add the name of this industry leader to our list of Remarkable Rochesterians.

Danny Wegman (1947 – ): Currently the chairman of the Rochester-based Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., he has previously served as CEO and president, roles earlier occupied by his father, Robert Wegman. A native of Rochester and graduate of McQuaid Jesuit High School, he wrote his senior thesis at Harvard University on “The Future of Retailing.” By this time, he had already worked in the family’s stores, and, after graduation, he became a store manager. Over the years, as he took on more responsibilities, he helped direct the Wegmans’ expansion beyond Rochester until there are now more than 100 stores across eight states. Among community activities, he has served as the chairman of the board of the University of Rochester and as co-chair of the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council.

From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Danny Wegman makes list of Remarkable Rochesterians