Objects or items

[dr_whom]

When you leave your groceries on the scanner for too long at a self-checkout station, it tells you, "Please remove all objects or items from the scanner."

I wonder why, along the line somewhere, someone decided it was necessary to clarify "objects or items". Are items not the same thing as objects?

Comments

[q10.livejournal.com]

in a metaphysics or semantics paper, i wouldn't be surprised to see the terms getting different technical uses.

[midnight-sidhe.livejournal.com]

Something that just occurred to me: maybe they're trying, in a really unsuccessful way, to imply that you should remove anything you're trying to buy, and also anything you happen to have with you (e.g. a purse, a toddler, your knee, that bag of stuff you bought at the last store you went to). If I think about it in this way, I get an immediate (and rather bewilderingly clear) intuition that "objects" refers to random paraphernalia and "items" to things you're intending to buy.

[kepod.livejournal.com]

This was my interpretation.

[kepod.livejournal.com]

Also, high five! Purple moon-sitting pictures! :D

[midnight-sidhe.livejournal.com]

Hee! High five!

[doctorskuld.livejournal.com]

This is my interpretation as well.