Tips To Speed Up Your Shopping

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – It has happened to all of us. Your weekly supermarket shopping trip goes extremely smooth until you hit the checkout lanes. Standing in long checkout lines is not fun, but there are ways to figure out which lanes will move faster.

Shani Curry St. Vill, a personal finance expert and CEO of Purse Empowerment, says she rarely stresses at the supermarket because she incorporates a few of the following strategies when she heads to the store.

Get behind a shopper with full cart.

St. Vill says you actually may save time getting behind someone with a full cart.

"If we are dealing with someone with a full cart, the cashier tends to feel a little bit of strain just by looking at all those groceries so she is going to be focused to move you through," St. Vill said.

Go left for faster service.

"One of my favorites is veering left. Habitually most people are right handed so they are going to head straight to the right so you by going left you will find less people in line to begin with," explained St. Vill.

This next one might sound sexist, but look for the female cashiers.

"Lead with the ladies," said St. Vill. "When I say lead with the ladies I mean you are going to go ahead and look for those female cashiers. Typically what research is finding is that women are just a little bit faster. Their pace is just a little bit greater.

Shop on Wednesdays and shop during dinner time.

The day of the week and time can make a big difference.

"Research shows that if you go on a Wednesday, you are going to fare a little bit better than if you go Sunday through Tuesday. People are shopping a whole lot on Sundays, and they are still getting their act together on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday, some of that traffic is just coming down, so going on a Wednesday can help you out," she explained. "Also, going when everyone else is eating you know if everyone else is chowing down then it's a good time for you to get through that line. While they are eating you are moving through the line."

And once you get closer to the cashier there are ways you can speed up service.

"The good thing is you can shop with a friend. Shopping with a friend means that you both can get in that 10 items or less line. Both of you need your debit cards so that you can both get 20 items; 10 for you, 10 for me. You both are in the line at the same time and you are checking out at an even pace, saving yourself some time," said St. Vill.

Finally, line up your barcodes.

"Instead of just sitting there scrolling through your Facebook or Instagram, you can line up your groceries. You can turn all the barcodes towards the scanner so that the cashier is not flipping over all of your gravy or your rice. Instead, she can see the barcode. It gives her an opportunity to just move a little bit faster," she explained.

Remember, a lot of the waiting game is mental and to some degree, it's all in your head.

According to researchers, on average, people overestimate how long they actually wait in line by 36 percent.