12 Annoying Things Floridians Do at Publix That Need to Stop

Most Florida Publix shoppers are respectful, reasonable people doing their best in a busy store.

And then there’s the other kind.

These are the annoying behaviors that Publix regulars have been silently enduring and are now ready to address.

1. Abandoning a Cart in the Middle of the Aisle

A Publix aisle isn’t a parking lot. It’s a shared space with a flow direction and an implied social contract about keeping that flow moving.

Leaving a cart sideways in the middle of an aisle while wandering several feet away to examine avocados creates a blockage that other shoppers have to navigate around, stop for, or squeeze past while maintaining a polite face that doesn’t reflect their actual feelings.

The cart goes to the side of the aisle. Always to the side.

Publix regulars who’ve spent time navigating around abandoned carts in the condiments aisle have developed a patience that they didn’t choose and don’t particularly want to have.

2. Taking Eighteen Items Through the Express Lane

The express lane exists because sometimes people have a few items and would like to check out without standing behind a cart full of groceries.

The number on the sign isn’t a suggestion.

It’s a limit.

Ten items means ten items, not fifteen items if you count generously, not twenty items if you decide that the twelve yogurts count as one because they’re the same flavor.

Florida shoppers standing in the express lane behind someone who brought a full week of groceries to the ten-items-or-fewer register experience a frustration that the sign was designed to prevent.

The sign is there. The number is on it.

It isn’t complicated.

3. Letting Kids Run Loose in the Store

Publix is a grocery store, not a playground.

Children who run through aisles, grab things off shelves, and treat the store as an obstacle course create hazards for other shoppers who didn’t bring a helmet.

Parents who shop at Publix while their children independently explore the entire store are creating a situation that other shoppers have to navigate around with their carts, their patience, and their fragile glass jars of pasta sauce.

It’s not the kids’ fault.

We’re blaming the parents who let their unsupervised kids run through a store full of other people and their groceries.

4. Blocking the Deli Counter Without Ordering

The Publix deli counter gets heavy traffic at certain times of the day.

As any regular deli-goer knows, Publix’s deli works best when the people waiting to order are positioned in a way that communicates they’re waiting to order.

Standing directly in front of the counter while reading the menu board for an extended period, making no eye contact with the staff, and creating ambiguity about whether you’re in line or just visiting creates a situation that the people behind you are quietly desperate to resolve.

Florida deli regulars who know their order before they reach the counter watch this with the restrained urgency of people who have thirty minutes for lunch.

5. Having a Full Phone Conversation at the Register

The person on a phone call while the cashier scans their items at checkout is conducting two transactions simultaneously…

…and doing both of them poorly.

The cashier, who is a person with a name and a job and a reasonable expectation of basic acknowledgment, receives zero eye contact and gets to process a full cart for someone who never once registered their existence.

Other shoppers in line observe this. The cashier observes it.

Everyone forms the same quiet opinion about the person on the phone.

Our advice? Hang up and call the person back after you check out.

6. Opening Packages Before Buying Them

Publix has a generous return policy for a reason, and that reason isn’t to enable customers to sample products in the store before deciding whether to purchase them.

Opening packaging to smell, taste, or examine something before buying it leaves a compromised product on the shelf for the next customer.

It also creates a loss for the store, which shoppers who don’t do this are collectively absorbing via higher prices.

If you have a question about an item that can only be answered by opening it, talk to a staff member.

They’ll help you get the information you need.

7. Standing at the Self-Checkout to Socialize

Self-checkout machines at Publix serve a function during times of high traffic.

But that function gets undone when the person who has finished checking out stays at the machine to organize their bags, review their receipt, and have a conversation with the person next to them.

The self-checkout machine is available, and other people need to use it.

Finish your transaction and move away to finish whatever it is you need to do.

Publix’s self-checkout during a lunch rush isn’t the place to decompress. That’s what the parking lot is for.

8. Not Using the Divider

The little plastic divider on the conveyor belt at checkout exists so that each customer’s items remain separated.

Floridians who load the belt without putting a divider down behind their items create ambiguity for the cashier and potential errors on the receipt for both parties.

The dividers are right there at the start of the belt.

They’re small and require next to no effort.

Using one is a minor courtesy that keeps the whole checkout process better for everyone involved.

9. Price Matching Items That Aren’t Comparable

Publix accommodates some price matching.

But only when the items you’re comparing are the same item at a lower price elsewhere.

Attempting to price match a different size, a different brand, or a product sharing a general category creates an unnecessary mess.

You and the people behind you will spend more time at checkout. It requires management involvement and produces an outcome that’s unlikely to go the way the person requesting it hopes.

Cashiers who handle this situation regularly do so with extraordinary professionalism.

Florida shoppers behind the person requesting it don’t have the same professional obligation, and sometimes it (understandably) shows.

10. Blocking the Bakery Case

The Publix bakery case has a following in Florida that can produce an I-4 kind of traffic.

Standing in front of the entire case while deliberating, taking a full inventory of every available option, and consulting with a family of five about their opinion creates a situation where no other customer can access any part of the case until they finish.

Publix’s bakery case is long enough for multiple people to look at different sections simultaneously if a group is curious.

For the love of Publix’s cookies, be curious.

11. Leaving a Cart in the Parking Lot

Publix parking lots have cart return areas spaced throughout.

Using them requires walking a short distance that most customers are capable of.

Leaving a cart in a parking space, next to a car, or in a spot that’s neither a space nor a cart return creates an obstacle that can roll, can scratch, and can occupy a space that another car needed.

Publix regulars who’ve parked next to an abandoned cart and watched it roll into their door in a mild wind event have a visceral and specific relationship with this issue.

Return the cart. The cart return is right there.

12. Arguing About an Expired Coupon

A coupon that expired two weeks ago is a coupon that doesn’t work anymore.

That’s the system.

Expiration dates are on coupons for a reason, and the store isn’t obligated to honor them after that day.

Checkout lines that get held up by a prolonged negotiation about an expired coupon involve one person who wants an exception and everyone behind them who wants to get home.