When I was in the grocery store the other day, I noticed the express checkout line had a sign that read “9 items or less”.
Interestingly enough, I have seen the same thing at different stores. This is a problem. “Less” is used when something cannot be quantified (i.e. less air, less water, less grass). When something can be quantified, like the number of grocery items in one’s cart, “fewer” should be used (i.e. fewer vials of air, fewer glasses of water, fewer blades of grass).
Is the grocery industry going to end up destroying English grammar as we know it?