This brother was a couple people ahead of me in the line at the High Street Walgreens drugstore. If you haven’t been to the High Street Walgreens, then you may not know that it is has the slowest, longest lines of any Walgreens in the East Bay. Make not mistake, though–the cashiers are not the problem. The issue in the store is that at least one out of every four customers has some sort of special request that, apparently, can only be made at the checkout counter. Some people want to renegotiate the terms of a store coupon while others want to return an item without a receipt. Still others are deciding, even as their groceries are being rung up, whether or not they actually want to buy the items in their cart. Today was a particularly slow day in the checkout line, and the man in this drawing was conpletely out of patience. After a couple minutes he began expressing his frustration out loud, under his breath. I clearly heard him say “this is ridiculous,” at least a couple of times. A two of the other people in line nodded their heads in silent agreement. I maintained a poker face throughout, but I certainly understood his irritation, because I was irritated too.

Ajuan Mance