So I'm at the supermarket checkout last night, on an automatic line. I'm down to my last item - bananas, which are annoying because you can't just scan the item's bar code, you have to manually input a PLU code, then put it on the spot, etc.

My wife calls my cell phone at EXACTLY that time, with something complicated that I no longer recall.

Anyway, now my routine is completely shot. I go right to bagging the items after the bananas are taken care of, fill up the grocery cart, and start to leave.
I get almost out the door when I am musing about how much I paid for this stuff (like I always do), when I realized that I had NO IDEA how much I paid!

I'm stumped for a moment - until it occurs to me that I forgot the part where I pay the machine!

I get back to the aisle just in time for a woman to be stumped why the machine won't start - and for an equally confused grocery clerk to come over.
I tried to explain the thing about the call and my wife and all - but clearly they were thinking, 'But why would that make you forget to pay?'

So, anyone ever make it out of the store like this before realizing it?

(I also hate when the buzzer goes off as I leave a store - for a second I wonder if I absent-mindedly grabbed something, but then I check the pockets and I never have - yet anyway, lol.)

So I'm not traumatized or anything, but I'm a little frazzled leaving the supermarket and driving away. I get home a few minutes later, and tell myself I can carry everything in one shot - including a 12-pack of beer in bottles.

Ok, forgot to double-bag - and before I even get to the elevator, 3 cheap plastic bags already are in shreds, with soda bottles and milk and yes, bananas and such everywhere.
Then the cardboard of the beer box is starting to weaken, but can I make it to the elevator..... no, that, too, crashes to the ground. If you're wondering how many bottles break when this happens, the answer is - two.
And that is enough to make a mess on the lobby carpet, and even spiriting the box outside doesn't happen quickly enough to avoid a telltale trail of droplets.

So I grab the 2 or 3 bags not in tatters and leave the rest, race upstairs to get 2 garbage bags (one for the remaining groceries, the other for the beer box) and a towel (for the beer puddle).

Just another misadventure, I suppose. I was pleased that no one walked into the lobby at the worst possible times, at least.

Reminds me of the time a got gas at a station that wouldn't accept my credit card until AFTER I'd finished pumping the gas. Since the gas station I (then) used most frequently offered me the choice of getting a receipt (which I declined) I was used to driving off after filling up. A mile away, I remembered and went back to pay.

You guys are lucky you didn't get stopped for shop lifting, although the gas thing isn't technically that.

The gas-n-go happened so often here in BC, they passed a law that you have to prepay, either by credit or debit card, or actual cash in the storefront.

I am terrified of being stopped because of those shoplifting buzzers, particularly as I'm so careful to make sure I've paid. I have it as my policy, never yet invoked, that if I ever get stopped at a store when I've paid, I will demand a full refund and the item, or refund without the item, and if they don't give me the item for free, I will never ever shop there again.

"So, anyone ever make it out of the store like this before realizing it?"

so this is another one of more endearing traits! actually its happened to me a too many times. I either forget to pay or I forget the items I just bought . more often than not, it is I forget to bring the items back with me. usually I'll realize my follies and run back into the store to get my stuff before I get to my car; couple times made it home and had to call the store to hold it for me. OOPS!

I remember once I had walked out of a mall store with a santa's hat in my hand and never paid for it. I quickly ran back and put it back before I was busted. I was embaressed
very badly. usually I'll walk around a store with something in my hand and forget that it was there or why I wanted it.
if I don't write a shopping list I WILL forget something or buy stuff we don't need at all. my dear wife REFUSES to allow me to do the weekly shopping because I never get the stuff we need. if its not on the list than it isn't in the carriage and she hates detailing every single item we need.

so that is a little hint for all of you married men out there. this is a good way to get out of shopping .

BK_G, drive offs from gas stations is a crime out here, very similar to shop lifting. most all gas stations REQUIRE either credit/debit/ speed pass to pre-pump gas or pay inside the store before filling. especially after that huge gas spike a couple years ago where it hit $4.00 + per gallon when they had a run of drive offs

"I forget to bring the items back with me"

Been there, done that...

Sounds like you all need to just stick with the grocery lines where someone will ring you up!