12 pcs. or less

This was the sign on and above the check out counter at Shopwise in Makati where I bought a sponge. I always use the express lane whenever I only have 12 pieces or less of groceries to pay for.

But how many stuff was in the basket of the lady ahead of me? It was certainly more than 12 pieces. I looked at the sign that was directly in front of her and began to wonder, does she understand what the sign meant? Does she even know how to count? I fought off the urge to tap her on the shoulder and point to the sign. I looked around the other express lanes and was dismayed to see a woman with a cart-load of groceries in line at the opposite express lane, not that this was the first time I saw such a scence in an express counter.

There is literacy and there is functional literacy. A literate individual can read and write, perhaps do some simple math while a functionally literate one can combine knowledge and skills and use them in any given context.

In the characters I've mentioned, I'd think that both women are literate because they can read the labels of the products they purchased, transact with the cashier and most probably could read the "12 pcs or less sign". However, they are not functionally literate because they have not used their critical thinking skills to conclude that with the number of their purchases, they are not supposed to fall in line behind these counters. In a social context, they do not care at all that the others behind them queued up at these counters precisely to pay for "12 pcs. or less" and get it over with fast. That's why they're called "Express Lanes".

While waiting for my turn, I suddenly got this idea on how to teach people like these a lesson. I thought it best for the point-of-sale (POS) being used in these counters to return an error message that the system can no longer process when the product count exceeds 12 and that the customer has to pay for the first twelve purchases first and then another transaction for the next 12, so on and so forth, until the last item has been scanned. This will terribly, terribly inconvenience the customer and will think twice before lining up with more than 12 pieces of groceries in the express lane again.

We take pride at having one of the highest literacy rates in the world, but for what? When we can't even follow the simplest of signs, let's not shake our heads in disbelief nor point fingers at and blame our officials for the state our country is in right now. We all have a share of the blame in part for being functionally illiterate.

Category: IL & IT