Comment by jrootabega

Our store had a couple registers on either end of an L-shaped counter. We didn't always open both. Our main register near the drinks was open and had a line. He approached me as I was doing some task near the other, closed register, which was also near where we stored the espresso machines for sale. So he didn't want to cut in line so much as to have me/us start a parallel flow for his purchase.

It's not a crazy idea; we appeared to have some spare capacity for it (although we really didn't). And he may have spoken to someone else about it earlier. It also wouldn't have been unreasonable to expect that once he got to the front of the line he would have been directed to the other register to wait anyway. He may have been trying to minimize the disruption he caused to the line. He may have also thought the line was too long and we should have already opened up the second register. We were very efficient with a single-register flow, but customers always tried to start up a second line before it was really necessary.

I'm not confident I did the right thing by him; just that there may be situations where losing a $300 sale may be the most profitable choice.