DETROIT – Well, maybe it's just my luck, but I always seem to run into shoppers with counting problems at the supermarket.
Most stores have express checkout lanes, including Walmart, Kroger and Meijer.
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It never fails when I get in one of those lines I'm behind someone who has more than the posted limit of 12 items in their shopping cart. It usually happens when I'm in a hurry or even worse, hungry. Recently, I was in the express line behind a shopper with nearly 30 items and all I had was a gallon of milk in hand.
According to Frank Guglielmi, the senior director of communications at Meijer, customers are generally very respectful of the checkout  rules.Â
He says there are occasions when a customer will bring more than 12 items through the express checkout U-scan area, the checkout lanes at Meijer stores where customers can scan their own items for purchase.
"It usually will only happen when the U-scans are not busy," Guglielmi said.
Meijer has about 40 store locations in southeastern Michigan.
Guglielmi says Meijer doesn't enforce its express checkout limit, but workers do try to steer shoppers in the right direction.
"In some cases our folks might go over and help [a customer] to speed up the process and just kindly remind them the next time, please take one of the other lines for a larger order," he said.
I wanted to know more about those shoppers who routinely break the express checkout rule.
Are they the same people who double dip their tortilla chip in the salsa at the office party? Probably so.
I contacted Colleen Seifert, a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Michigan, for answers. She's an expert in how people think.
Seifert says some people might believe they deserve special treatment and that the rules don't apply to them. Others might reason a rule like 12 items or less for the speedy checkout is trivial.
"I think it's like a rolling stop kind of thing. As long as it doesn't hurt anybody else then you don't feel bad about it," Seifert said, comparing it to the common practice of drivers not coming to a complete stop at stop signs, which is against the law.
Seifert says there are some people who will not break any rules or social norms.
"People differ in how much they respond to social negative comments," she said. "Some people will never do something that someone else might comment on, like litter."
Clearly, the customer ahead of me on my recent shopping trip had no such qualms. She stood boldly in line and ignored the disapproving glares of others. She probably thought we were the rude ones.Â
I bet she and other shoppers would think twice before ringing up their items in the express checkout if there was a fee for going over the posted limit.