At an undisclosed large retail chain store....
Bob stocks up on a certain unmentionable item....
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... and cleverly positions himself at the end of a line with a "dude" for a checkout clerk, after having cleverly concealed said item in his cart so no one would see it.
People fill in behind Bob and he gets one person away from being checked out.
Bob puts his items on the conveyor belt, once again cleverly concealing said item amongst other goods so no one sees it. Bob feels the eyes of people behind him looking over his groceries... but he's safe because he's hidden that item and picked a dude for a checkout clerk. It's safe, right? The only person who will see that is the checkout guy... And it's guy, so it's not a big deal. A few more minutes and Bob will out of there, and everything's in plastic bags so no one can see it. If the checkout guy would hurry up already....
Bob waits and waits while the person in front of him is checked out. The check out dude takes forever punching buttons on the cash register.
That's because the checkout guy is signing out. The "dude" switches places with an "non-ugly" checkout girl. Bob suddenly becomes aware that all his items are on the conveyor belt and that the candy shelves and people behind him have trapped him. There is no escape.
It's only a matter of time before the item is scanned....
You'd think once or twice that happens, fine. It's coincidence. But this is probably the fifth time. Five times! They don't change clerks that often to begin with. How does this happen five f*@#$ times?!
There's no space on those candy shelves to subtley move it off the conveyor belt or cart. You can't say, "What? No, that's not mine. I don't use that. I have no idea how that got buried down beneath the rest of my groceries... No, you don't have to ask the person who was in front of me who hasn't left the store yet. Oh, I'll still buy it. I forgot. Yes. I'm buying that for someone else, who is not me. Because I'm that nice. Maybe it is for that person in front of me. That's it. I'm buying it for that person and I'm meeting them in the parking lot to give it to them. Because they didn't want to buy it themselves." *Bob contemplates looking away and flinging item across the store next time.* Except they've got cameras all over...
Topic: meanwhile (in/on/at)...