Last week when I was checking out at the Giant grocery store in Centre Park, a message appeared on the self check out screen that read something like “assistance is required to complete this transaction.”
My first thought was that I screwed up. I really like the handheld scanners and new wheelie baskets at this store and I thought I really had the hang of it by now. Of course there was another shopper in line behind me and from the look I got I couldn’t help but feel like they thought I’d screwed up too.
It turns out I didn’t screw up after all. I was being randomly audited.
After what seemed like an eternity waiting, a clerk came over, punched a few special numbers into the terminal and then proceeded to randomly hand scan items I had previously bagged.
When I first started using this DYI check out thing I wondered how they insure against people who slip something into their bags without scanning. Now I know.
The good news is that I passed; the bad news is that the shopper behind me ended up finding another line.
The other audit came today from the Census Bureau. When our form arrived in the mail back in March I dutifully filled it out right away and sent it back in. Last night I received a message asking me to call them today. I had been assigned a case number. The Census Bureau was auditing my ten responses.
I think I passed again. With the Census Bureau it was sort of hard to tell. I’m not complaining though. In the scheme of things, these types of audits are a lot less stressful than certain other kinds of audits.
Four Thousand, Two Hundred and Ninety One
7 hours ago
