In the supermarket

[Year6teacher754]

Hello,
I'm Just asking because of something that happened yesterday.
We went to Asda, we know some (15-20) of the staff there, because my DD works there. We had a chit chat (2 meters apart) with a few of them, as we seen them on the way round. Everybody was giving us dirty and Judgy looks. Is there anything wrong with doing this while your doing a big shop??

[Peppafrig]

Maybe they were thinking look at them chatting while there is a queue of people outside waiting to get in.

[Ilikewinter]

Was this chat taking place in the aisles therefore making it difficult for people to pass you and maintain 2m distance?

[Floatyboat]

Yes. You'll have been in people's way and adding to the wait time of people outside.

[Year6teacher754]

@Ilikewinter

No, there was room for people to pass with 2m distance.

[Nquartz]

What @Peppafrig said. Presumably they are limiting the number of customers in the shop so you taking longer than necessary means people waiting longer outside.

[Ilikewinter]

Theres a lot of emotions running high at the minute (i work in retail), some people just dont care about social distancing and carry on as though life is completley normal and others are a complete wreck. Unfortunately ive seen some nasty interactions between customers where one doesnt agree with the other, one perceived to not be following the rules etc.
Maybe those who were giving you the looks were of the opinion this isnt the time to laugh, joke, chat and you should crack in with shopping and go home.

[Runkle]

You could have been blocking something on your side of the aisle that they wanted to look at. This has happened to me so many times

[pocketem]

You shouldn't be going to the supermarket for chit chat. It's so annoying going and being held up by some old gossip who stops to chat to everyone, spreading their germs

[Littlejayx]

Sorry no it’s no time for a chat. Yesterday in my local Tesco a couple of women were asked to leave as they stood and chatted for 10 mins holding up the one way system while a line of people waited outside.

Don’t be rude

[KatherineJaneway]

Yes, if you were standing within 2m of any goods. People might want to buy them and you were in the way.

[Actionhasmagic]

I think if there was room to pass yanbu. A long gossip probably not a good idea but a quick catch up and checking in on each other might just boost the hardworking staffs mood. We are all starved of normal interaction after all

[Sirzy]

Unless the aisle is at least 6m wide then it’s impossible that your stopping to chit chat isn’t making it hard for others to do their shopping and socially distance.

Especially at the moment supermarket visits should be as quick as possible and when in the aisles keep moving as much as possible.

[Sirzy]

And also when you say “we” went to Asda how big was your party?

[Year6teacher754]

@Actionhasmagic

Yes, there was room to past. We only spoke for about 3 minutes at most.

[Year6teacher754]

*pass

[NatashaAlianovaRomanova]

How big are the aisles in your ASDA? Because in mine there's no way the aisles are wide enough to leave 2 metres when passing a single person when both are pressed against the shelves on either side let alone a group having a chat.

Also 3 minutes is a bloody long time to wait if you're needing anything from the section that the chatty group are blocking.

At the minute the food shop should be done as quickly as possible, people should have a list to reduce dithering time & where possible use the scan & go to reduce interactions with staff.

[WiseUpJanetWeiss]

Yes, there was room to past.

You were both 2m from each other and 3m from any stock to allow another shopper to reach it? Where is this massive Asda?

[IncrediblySadToo]

You'd think a teacher would have more sense tbh

[Lalala205]

No, nothing wrong with it. But people are anxious, upset, and quite frankly scared right now. So yes, judging looks were probably utilised because nobody else knew you knew the people you were chatting to... Presumably they just figured you were hanging about more than necessary. Tbf no one has a crystal ball to know anyone's circumstances.

[Nighting]

I would have tutted too.

Just do your shop quickly and get the hell out of my way.

I was just the same pre-corona, to be fair.

[Mummyoflittledragon]

Yes, ywbu. We are all being told to go out only where necessary, for as short period as possible and not to hang around in shops. Have some respect for those around you, who are waiting, scared and anxious. My friend works in the post office. I have been in there once and only to post something. A quick 15 second chat whilst she was working and without holding up the queue was fine. Anything more would have been disrespectful to those behind me.

[Lalala205]

I'd also add I'm continuing to work and have done since the outbreak. Nothing special in that, but we all limit contact as much as we can even under the same roof, and we're in a 1:1 contact environment. I don't stop to chit chat with co-workers on the same shift unless we can't avoid it. So I think engaging your child's colleagues when you've presumably nothing of interest to say to other than 'hi, I'm xxx mum! How are you? Blah blah...' is just kind of unnecessarily excusing an invalid reason to 'hang about'. And to be truthful they're probably just being polite because they're paid to be but wishing you'd bugger off 😕

[Year6teacher754]

@Lalala205

Just so you know, they came up and started talking to me first, thank you.

[Sirzy]

At which point you say hi quick and then carry on shopping.

[Lalala205]

But did they really? All the supermarket staff I know are currently run off their feet, in between limiting shoppers, advocating they follow the marked arrows on the floor, and staff doing a quick swerve to free up the active aisles for customers, and trying to shield behind screens (if in place)... I can't imagine many shop staff flouting the guidelines to actively engage you in idle chit chat when their floor manager would likely pull them in over it 😕