Surviving the grocery-store checkout lane

A trip to the grocery store can be an exciting journey into another culture, and Helsinki is no exception. Sure, there are practices that exist here that we don't follow in the states. For example, we are not accustomed to weighing our own produce and sticking a price label on it. And even though we are warned of this practice before we arrive, we occasionally forget or are fooled. The embarrassment is usually brief, depending on how quickly and silently a store clerk will run back to a scale to do what you should have done.

The dividing bar ritual at the checkout lane was something about which I was not warned, however. I suppose it is an international practice to place a dividing bar (a long, plastic bar shaped so that it will not roll) within easy reach of customers who need to separate their groceries on the checkout conveyor belt. But the ritual here differs from the way it is kept in the states. The person handling the dividing bar makes a social statement. Here is how it works:

Helsinki: After a customer in front of you places his or her groceries on the conveyor belt, that customer puts the dividing bar down after the groceries to keep your stuff separate. The Finn is saying: "I am helping you so that you don't have to bother. It is my turn and thus my responsibility. We live together in harmony." If you fail to put the dividing bar down after your groceries are placed, any customer behind you looks a little miffed at your lack of social responsibility. Or maybe because that customer now has to put down two bars!

America:  After a customer in front of you places his or her groceries on the conveyor belt, you put the dividing bar down in front of your groceries to keep your stuff separate. You are saying: "Don't worry; I won't let my stuff get mixed into yours. By watching out for my stuff I am also watching out for yours." At that point the two total stranger Americans may start a conversation and become best buddies for a few fleeting moments -- but that is another point altogether. If you fail to put the dividing bar down in front of your groceries, the customer in front looks at you as if you were ready to trespass on his or her lawn. And that's why we use fences and dividing bars. But that blunder doesn't necessarily stifle the beginning of a random conversation, of course.

So now I perform my checkout lane social responsibility in Helsinki with a grace that relieves customers behind me. At least until the time the clerk has to run back to a scale to do what I should have done.