WIBU NOT to say anything to this woman

[Justforlaughs]

I work for a supermarket and was working on the checkout earlier. I was serving an elderly lady who had a massive pile of vouchers and was trying to sort them out and yes, it took a while. However, my issue was with the customer behind her in the queue. She huffed and puffed, kept pushing forward and sighing and then started moaning about how she "thought this queue was going to be the quickest", she was "in a hurry" "had to back in work in the next 5 minutes" "the shopping wasn't worth losing her job over" etc, etc. I know its annoying when you chose the wrong queue, and it's annoying when people don;t have their vouchers ready and take longer than you expect but I don't think there is any need for the fuss she made. All I did was kind of laugh it off and say that I always end up choosing the wrong myself, in fact I normally warn people not to queue behind me, because it will be the slowest moving one! I could see that the elderly lady was feeling uncomfortable so should I have said something stronger to the second customer? Or should I have told the elderly customer to hurry (not that I would ever do that/ accept that I should have done so )

I would have smiled brightly and said to the woman behind "Thanks for waiting, I'll be with you shortly" then turned my attention straight back to the elderly lady and told her not to worry one bit, as the person in front of me is the person who is important to me at that time.

If she was in so much of a hurry why didn't she use the self-service till?

I'm not sure what I'd say tbh but at least you were polite.

I've got some sympathy with the impatient customer actually. Why do people clog up checkouts at busy times (e.g. lunchtime) with vouchers when they know that they are probably going to hold up other people, whose time is more limited? So you were right not to say much; if you'd told the old girl to hurry up she'd have complained, and if you'd been sharp with the other customer she'd have complained too.

Also think it was bit selfish of the old lady to hog the line. She could have stepped aside, sorted her vouchers and then came back. The lady behind was rude to say something but can't blame her for being irritated.

"Why do people clog up checkouts at busy times (e.g. lunchtime) with vouchers when they know that they are probably going to hold up other people, whose time is more limited?"

Why can't these people organise their time better? Order online? Go after work? Go another day? Use the self service checkout? Use another counter?

If you get stuck behind someone then tough - whinging about it isn't going to change a damn thing.

That customer has as much right to shop when the hell she likes. Yes, it was lunchtime but it might have taken her all morning to get herself sorted and to the shop in the first place. You have no idea what her circumstances are - she might well be restricted by medication taking times as to when she can get out or have an elderly husband to look after.

As I said before, if you're in such a rush, use the self service tills.

Every person has the same right to be in the supermarket whatever bloody time they want.

You can't blame her, but really- poor old lady.
OP you did the best thing in the circumstances.

You couldn't really say anything to your 2nd customer in case you got hassle for it.

But I would have scanned her shopping really really slowly

OP I think you handled it well.

I have sympathy with the woman behind, it's awful when you are in a rush and get stuck behind someone who is faffing around and not prepared at the checkout. The old woman obviously has just as much right to shop then though. Bit no win really.

She can't have been that worried about her job though as if she really needed to get back urgently she would have just dumped the shopping and walked out (I've had to do that before, assume most people would if they had something really important to do!).

Bright smile, 'thank you for waiting' And reassure the older lady not to worry and that she take her time.

I thought the same music was SO tempted to say "better not risk it, leave your shopping and run" but thought I might lose my job!

"thought this queue was going to be the quickest"

"Well you thought wrong. Better luck next time"

Hard to get that one right.

I think you did well in the heat of the moment.

I guess in an ideal world you would say something pithy that made it clear you were 100% fine with the current customer and also got the other customer to shut up.

Blowed if I know what that pithy something is though

YANBU. Im a cashier and come across this all the time.
Some lunchtime shoppers are in such a bloody hurry I often wonder why they bother going out during their breaks.
They are the ones who need to organise their time better..not an elderly lady who IMO can take as long as she bloody likes. They should do online shopping or go another time..tut tut at being so unorganised .
I once had a lady who was slow and needed extra help, the miserable bat behind her was muttering under her breath and kept looking at her watch.
She decided to move all her items to the next till because she thought it would be quicker..only to then be stuck behind another customer who had a price query.. OMG it made my day.

I think I would have ignored the second customer's comments and ramped up the comfortable chat with the older customer to make the older customer feel like it was okay to take her time if she needed to. And then when it was the second customer's turn, I would have just said politely "sorry about the wait" and gone into the usual script and let her whinge at me if she wanted.

Did you laugh and make your comment about always choosing the wrong checkout in front of the first customer? If you did that would have made the first customer feel even more uncomfortable than she probably already was!

I get this all the time. I totally ignore the next customer if they do this, until their turn where I smile sweetly and not comment about the situation at all.

Kerwhizz no, I didn't say about myself choosing the wrong queue until after the first customer had left. Just kept smiling until then

I got tutted at the other week. This couple only had about five things but had arrived at the checkout after my items (a week's worth of shopping) had started being scanned or I would have let them go first.

As I was on my own I was packing and organising my shopping as quickly as I could but not quick enough for the tutters. It just made me go slower, strike up a conversation with the lovely checkout person about the price of cheese and fumble about longer than needed for my nectar card.

OP, I think you did the right thing, too.

But it does puzzle me when people don't sort out their vouchers before they shop. I was stuck behind someone this week, who put a pile of vouchers down and said to the assistant, "I don't know which ones are still in date." Needless to say, only about half of them were

Phew! I was picturing this poor woman stood there while you said it!

Suburban I don;t get it either tbh! Especially when they've been standing in the queue for ages (often tutting themselves) and then stand while they try to find the £5 off a £60 spend, discover that they actually haven't bought the actual product so need to go and get it, etc, etc. You've just stood looking at a conveyor belt full of stuff for 5 minutes - did it not occur to you to check what you were buying/ get your vouchers out!

But then I'm a bit of a Mrs Brady at the moment, justforlaughs.

Today I was coming home from work on a really packed bus and there were three people taking up a total of seven seats (each one had one of those wheely walking frame things, one of which was parked in front of two seats so that no-one could use them). For some reason I felt inexplicably annoyed at them.

And I can't be hormonal!