BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / John at the Supermarket

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** February 16, 2012 11:56 pm

Has anyone ever experienced these incredibly annoying machines? That scene is so true to life it makes me laugh - it's happened to me so often...they say things like "unexpected item in bagging area" and "please put the item back in the bag" and "please wait, the assistant is coming." AAARGH!

**Posted by kazza474** February 17, 2012 4:33 am

Oh yes, one wouldn't take my money yesterday. Sign went up 'seek assistance' red light flashed.
While I was waiting for said 'assistance' the note went in, so I stood there saying:
"Don't pretend there is no money, there are cameras up there. (put on best 'Sherlock addressing CIA agents' voice) Don't try to fool me, you know who I am; it won't work."

The assistant just stood and stared at me.

Last edited by kazza474 (February 17, 2012 12:57 pm)

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** February 19, 2012 12:44 pm

I was in the supermarket today and thought about this scene again...and I had a thought...when John gets back without the shopping, Sherlock tells him to borrow his card...so John must know Sherlock's pin number!

**Posted by kazza474** February 19, 2012 12:54 pm

Don't you guys have credit cards that just swipe through without using a pin number? Or Paypass (that's what it's called here anyway) which just needs you to wave the card in front of the machine?

**Posted by tobeornot221b** February 19, 2012 1:21 pm

Those chip-and-pin-machines are quite uncommon here in supermarkets. The only ones I know of are in IKEA and SATURN (kind of HMV). You mostly pay by cash here at the supermarkets. Or you use your cash card rather than your credit card by typing your pin number or - depending on the shop - need your signature. Anything but paying by cash is quite cumber...some (is that the right word?) and it takes you much longer. So everytime I queue at the cashier I'd keep my fingers crossed that people ahead of me won't use any plastic cards...

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** February 19, 2012 1:26 pm

Well, here in England everything used to be done by signature, but in the last 4 or 5 years it's been phased out and now everything is Chip and Pin, if you're paying by card you have to know your pin number...

So we must assume Sherlock has sent John shopping in the past with his card, and told him his pin number!

**Posted by kazza474** February 19, 2012 1:30 pm

We've only just started that in the past year, but it saves us 'old folk' from having to remember numbers or which card has what number etc. lol
And my credit card just swipes through & it's done.

So no doubt with John & Sherlock, they'd had a conversation along the lines of 'this is my number'. That would make for boring TV viewing wouldn't it?

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** February 19, 2012 5:05 pm

Yeah, that's the kind of thing you get taught to leave out at Writing school.

**Posted by tobeornot221b** March 13, 2012 10:02 pm

Three hours ago, just before my flight home at the airport, I'd been experiencing the machine's: "Unexpected item in bagging area!". Of course it didn't keep its voice down, and I started giggling - which gave me strange looks from the shop assistent. But somehow it made my day!

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** March 14, 2012 12:03 am

I know ! Everytime I use those machines now I keep imagining I'm John...and then I imagine Sherlock fighting whilst I'm doing the shopping, lol. (I'm such a geek).

**Posted by tobeornot221b** April 22, 2012 7:39 am

There's one small thing I notice every time I'm watching this "I had a row…" scene.

When Sherlock says to John: "Take my card!", he smiles at him in a way that gives me the impression that instead of Sherlock finding it hard not to laugh about John there is actually Benedict giggling over Martin, who is so seriously complaining about the machine.

**Posted by Wholocked** April 23, 2012 12:55 am

Yeah it's a cute scene. But I think they're too professional to let anything out of character come into the final edit

**Posted by Anthea_MI6** April 23, 2012 9:10 am

I love this scene and it happened to me yesterday - I do the same @Sherlock imagining Sherlock fighting whilst me dealing with the goddamn self-checkouts.. *geek alert*

**Posted by Sherlock Holmes** April 23, 2012 9:36 am

Anthea_MI6 wrote:
I love this scene and it happened to me yesterday - I do the same @Sherlock imagining Sherlock fighting whilst me dealing with the goddamn self-checkouts.. *geek alert*

*geek alert* Tell me you can hear the music too! I can hear the music too!!!

**Posted by Anthea_MI6** April 23, 2012 9:43 am

I hear the music for alot of situations to be honest God I am so weird at times - however normality is over-rated.

**Posted by Davina** April 23, 2012 9:49 am

Ordinary people are sooooo BORING!!'

**Posted by JohnJohn** May 5, 2012 3:07 am

I think the checkouts are really cool. Say if I want to buy a newspaper and there is a big queue at the cigarette counter because its lottery night - I just go and swipe the paper through the machine and get rid of all those annoying little 5p pieces.

**Posted by JohnJohn** May 5, 2012 3:09 am

I hate those 5p pieces - you can't buy anything for that price and you always get them in your change!!

**Posted by Davina** May 5, 2012 7:11 am

True! True! It's weird to think that 5 pence is equivalent to the old shilling. You used to be able to get LOADS of things for a shilling in the good old days!

**Posted by KeepersPrice** June 11, 2012 4:01 pm

Yes, it would be boring to write the off-screen conversation about pin numbers out, but I think how the scene was written serves the purpose of making us realize how comfortable these two have become with each other by this episode. Rather domestically cozy and trusting it seems.....

But I imagine Sherlock has a number of different cards - this one specifically earmarked for his share of sundries and groceries. I doubt it's linked to the account that holds his massive trust fund. Probably doesn't trust John that much yet