Don Canney

Standing in a checkout line on a recent trip to my local grocery store got my old brain churning and thinking about life long before bar codes, scanners, and charge cards.

I recall the days when we would shop at a much smaller store, as there were no mega-stores, warehouse stores or super stores at the time, and wait times at the checkout were even longer, for several reasons. For those of you today who cringe when pulling into a store parking lot, see very few open parking spaces, and think this shopping trip might turn into an all-day adventure, read on.

Today, after we scour the store and load up our carts with the necessary food items, it’s just a matter of getting in line, unloading the cart, ensuring our reusable bags are at the front of the conveyer belt, then standing in front of the charge card reader to wait for payment instructions. After a few dozen beeps, blips, or zips, as the cashier scans each barcoded item and the register automatically flashes each purchase on the screen, the bagger (if you are fortunate enough to have a bagger in today’s world) fills up your bags then loads up your cart and off you go!

Back in the day, we might have gone to one of jolly old Nashua’s “major” stores, like Twentieth Century Markets, The A&P or Finest Market, on Main Street, Grand Union Champagne’s on East Hollis Street or Jean’s Foodland on Broad Street, where manual registers and paper bags ruled! But they paled in size to today’s Wal-Marts, Market Baskets, or warehouse stores.

During my recent experience, I unloaded my cart, and then watched the purchased items zip by me at breakneck speed, remembering that time before bar codes and scanners when the cashier would need to pick up each item, search for the price tag, load each price into the register, punching a series of numerical keys, then needing to press another key to ensure the right department was credited for each item, then hit a return tab, and start over again for each item. And we would always be mindful of multiple purchases like ten for a dollar items, grouping them together to make it easier for the cashier to account for them.

Remember, there were no bar codes, and price tags back then were either small stickers applied on each item using a gadget that was known at the time as a price gun or stamped with an ink loaded spring activated tool that would have the price aligned so that it would print when the handle of that unit was pressed downward. It was low tech to say the least!

After waiting in line while the cashier was punching in a series of numbers for each shopper in front of you, then it was time for payment. There were very few charge cards at the time and hardly anyone used them for weekly food shopping. It was mostly cash or check or a few stores might allow their customers an open line of credit. But that was rare.

Some folks in line were ready with cash in hand, some were not. Some had a check partially written out and ready to simply add the dollar amount, most did not. And many of those check writing shoppers took a fair amount of time to fill that check out, perhaps with the assumption that penmanship counts. And some shoppers were fortunate enough to just say, “put it on my bill please.”

My parents always paid with cash. And when paying by cash, the cashier back then was required to do the unthinkable today! Math! Yikes! There were no digital registers to calculate change due. Sadly, in today’s world, that would be a tough task for many of those who work the registers.

So, whenever you are stuck in a check-out line, seemingly moving at glacier speed, think back to the days before bar codes, scanners, and charge cards, when each item was manually entered into a register and cashiers had to figure out how much change to give you.

Time will fly!

Don Canney is a freelance writer and professional voice artist. He was born and raised in downtown Nashua with great interest in Nashua history circa 1950-1970. He now resides in Litchfield.