The Space-Time Continuum...

Has anyone else ever noticed?  I can be Ms. Efficient, have a list, all my coupons sorted and ready to go, and have all my stuff in the cart and I get to the checkout line and...time either slows down, or it stops completely. 

There's never enough cashiers online, so you have no choice but to wait in line.  Even if you do the self-checkout, you're still stuck in a time warp.  And no matter what line you choose, the people in front of you make the line move even slower. I usually get behind the woman with the food stamps trying to buy something not allowed by food stamps who also has three screaming kids with her.  Sometimes I'll get behind someone who is buying enough food to last four months.  It doesn't matter.  Once I get in line, time slows or stops. 

I try to pass the time reading or playing with my phone.  There've been times when I've read an entire chapter, looked up and...the line hasn't moved at all!  This doesn't happen at any other store I've visited, just Walmart.  I understand that people who wait in line tend to buy some of those impulse items that are perched next to the registers. I myself have occasionally succumbed to such marketing ploys.  But I had no idea that Walmart was so powerful as to be able to bend the space-time continuum in such a way.