Which one is correct?

The basic rule is basic enough: "less" refers to uncountable things, such as sand, arrogance, and talent, while "fewer" applies to countable things, like warts, flowers, and cars. Since the people at the parade and the items at the store are both countable, "fewer" is the right choice in these scenarios. But then it gets a little murkier. For some countable things, including distances, sums of money, and units of time or weight, we actually use "less" because we tend to think of them in total amounts. So, while the number of meters in a long jump are technically countable, we're really talking about "five meters" as one chunk of distance: "The long jumper hoped to break the world's record, but her jump was less than five meters."

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