Back in 2006, I reflected here about a trip to WalMart and its lack of efficiency. This week, I had cause to think about my trip to WalMart to pick up some groceries.

Now granted, it wasn't out of the way, especially since I needed some significantly-less-expensive Sams Club gas next door. I had 5 items -- about a pound of bananas, a package of American cheese, Lemonade, a dozen eggs, and some labels as an experiment to run through the printer for box labels. Not a lot of stuff.

I hit the 20 items or less express lane to find a traffic jam at the line. Realize this is 8:30am when there aren't many registers open, but there's *never* a line either. What gives? Short story version -- lady in front was buying 20 items using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters -- in that order. $21 of groceries, a penny at a time, from a ziploc bag. When my turn came after waiting for 5 minutes, I complimented the cashier for her patience to *count* that much change.

That said, it made me think -- how often is it *not* worth it to go to WalMart to buy groceries even if it's a great price? Probably more often than I realize. Even if I only charged $20/hour for my time (and my time is worth more than that), it only takes 3 wasted minutes to cost $1. Given the groceries I was getting, I probably lost money.

Of course, this has additional extensions -- is it worth the time it takes to make a left turn to get to the gas station that has gas 1 cent cheaper than the one I could turn into on the right and not have to wait for a light cycle? 1 cent, 20 gallons, 20 cents. Um, probably not.

This is not a new and original thought I'm sure.

The point is this whole experience led me realize that I probably spend too much time thinking about over-optimizing a process. To the point that thinking about the over-optimizing itself is probably costing me time and money. Oh no! It's a vicious cycle!

I give up. Make like Nike. Just Do It. Within reason.