Cutting the Express Lane: What Would You Do?

Jan. 8, 2009— -- OK, tell me if this has ever happened to you. You're at the supermarket to pick up a couple of things and you head to the express checkout line. Who is in front of you in line, but a shopper to whom the rules apparently do not apply. The sign reads: "Ten items or less." But this selfish shopper has a cart filled to the top with groceries, easily surpassing the limit.

So, what do you do?

Watch the story Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on ABC's "What Would You Do?"

That is the question shoppers at Stew Leonard's, a popular Yonkers, N.Y., supermarket had to answer when they were confronted with a haughty shopper who had pushed her way into the express line with a cart overflowing with groceries.

One shopper seemed to do a double take, looking first at the woman's cart, then the big sign that read: "10 ITEMS OR LESS" and then back at the cart. But she said nothing.

When the inconsiderate shopper complained to the man in front of her about the slowness of the line, he held his tongue, too.

But then a woman with short gray hair broke the ice. "Are you in express?"

"Oh, they don't mind," the shopper said.

"But if I'm in express, I do," said the woman, clearly annoyed.

The unpleasant exchange was interrupted by a burly young man with a shaved head carrying just a few items.

"Is this the express line?" he asked.

"Yes," said the angry woman, "except this lady says she's going to be really fast."

"Really?" the man said.

"Yeah," she said and then turned to the shopper: "You're really rude."

When the young woman finally made it through the checkout, we told her she had been part of a "What Would You Do?" experiment to see how people would respond to rude and discourteous shoppers in the express line. The arrogant woman with the overflowing shopping cart was really an actor, hired by ABC. The young man with the shaved head was an actor, too.