To hate it when people queue WRONGLY in the shop?

[ICameOnTheJitney]

I use a local Sainsbury's....the small type. It's a weird L shape so there's a bank of tills in the short section and then a long bit where you queue....the "space" in the L is taken up with shelves.

MOST people begin queuing in the long section which is CLEAR....but there's always some numpty who stands in the wrong place when they're queuing....and if they're next, the whole queue has to go behind them down the narrow bit which is meant for those using the self service tills or browsing!

I am so British about it though that I'd never say "Excuse me...move to your left and queue there or we'll all be to cock in a minute when more people arrive."

So I meekly get behind them where I know I will be in the frigging way! Are you someone who queues WRONGLY?

It's almost as annoying as people who queue in traffic in the wrong lane.

Why do they DO it? Can't they work out the dynamics of movement or are they just thoughtless and selfish? Genuinely interested.

What it is, is that they're not queuing in front of the tills...but rather off to the side....why would they do that? The bit in front of the queuing area is deliberately left clear of boxes, stock etc.

I dislike it too. I also hate it when it's somewhere like argos and some numpty blocks the end of the exit part of the tills and then some other numpty daren't say anything to them so just waits silently behind them and you just get a queue of people waiting to leave the tills all because they daren't say "excuse me!" to the one numpty at the front. Then when you join the numpty queue you have to navigate each numpty before you can escape yourself. Drives me insane.

navigate each numpty I swear that if I ever get access to the intercom thing at the supermarket I will announce "Will sensible customers please navigate each numpty as they exit."

And then there's my particular favourite - people who don't queue at all.

I was in H&M today - trying to buy white tights for a sodding angel costume when every other bloody parent in Somerset has clearly got there first, but that's a whole other rant - and they have those queue barrier things, with big QUEUE HERE signs. So I was obediently queuing here, with a whole load of other obedient queuing-here types behind me, when a lady, presumably with her mother, came up to the side of the tills, looked straight at the queue, and then loitered, looking shifty.

Sure enough, a till became free and she made a sideways dive for it. I was only about two steps away, so got there first, and she actually tutted at me and retreated, muttering "oh don't mind me."

The bloke behind me said loudly "No, because there's a QUEUE."

Both ladies pretended not to hear. He said, more loudly, "Did you hear me? About the QUEUE?"

She muttered something about not having noticed and sidled off, looking annoyed.

I think I'd object less to queue jumpers if they would just say "it's a fair cop" when challenged, rather than trying to make out that they're the wronged party!

Oooh I hate those sideways steppers! Arses! I usually let older people do it....even the ones who know I'm there and are doing it "because they're old" I just smile and nod at them...but anyone of a similar age to me...they're getting stamped on.

I have reorganised queues before. Once notably in M&S when the queue had gone so wrong that someone's head was in the middle of a knicker stand. I just said, oh come on, this is silly, you move round & you stand here etc... They all did without a murmur. I reorganised a tube carriage once so people could sit together too.

My job does involve sitting people in the right place, so maybe it's got under my skin.

I was in a shop in some big London train station once, and I politely told a queue jumper, 'there's a queue here'. She tried to argue that we were all waiting for the 1st till, and she was just going to the till that was free!

I said, 'no, there's one queue for both tills'. And the cheeky bitch (who was most definitely British and should know better) said 'oh do you make the rules then?' in a very sarcastic tone, at which point I nearly chinned her.

The shop assistant overheard and said 'yes it's one queue' and wouldn't serve her.

I hate it when there's clearly ONE QUEUE for, say, two or more ticket machines or bank machines or whatever else, and some clever-clogs comes up and thinks they can make a second queue (starting with themselves in front obviously) for a particular machine. This is just skipping the queue, and the line of people wouldn't all be waiting for one of the identical machines out of choice!

Oh yankncock - cross posted! Exactly what I was about to say!

Mim78 yes, I tend to shout loudly at people when they do that, especially at customer services at the local leisure centre. What the fuck do they think the rest of us are doing?

Once notably in M&S when the queue had gone so wrong that someone's head was in the middle of a knicker stand.
Brilliant
I know what you mean OP. I see it occasionally in M&S. In another store, the customer service desk is at one end of the row of tills. It is clearly marked, and the queue for the tills should start at the opposite end. But I have seen the queue form at the 'wrong' end and sometimes have joined it, reluctantly.

Can I tell a secret? I am usually quite tickled by telling British people off for not queueing properly, in my obviously forrin accent.

YnC, I had that last weekend at the leisure centre, woman squeezed past queue and breezed to counter (looking like perhaps she had membership card) and then proceded to ask about how much 1 game of squash cost, whether they had multi passes etc... I did speak, but she ignored me and by then I was next served, but the rudeness of it, shocking.

ICOTJ, do you have a minimum age to qualify as 'old enough' to sidestep the queue? I tend to think, unless you look like you're going to kark it in the next half hour, you've got time to queue with the rest of us.

Jenny70, when they try to ignore you, the trick is to just keep saying 'excuse me!' louder and louder, until they can't possibly pretend they haven't heard you, and then you point out the queue. If they try to keep going with the transaction, you put the onus on the person at the till, and say, 'I hope you'll be serving in the order people queued' or whatever is appropriate.

Works if you don't mind making a scene, and with my accent people realise I'm not British and therefore will not predictably shy away from causing a fuss. I'm like the Team America Queue Police.

Last week in Bodycare a man marched past the queue and stood behind a lady at the till. A few of us shouted out at him but he pretended not to hear. I had to laugh when the lady behind the till promptly marched off and ignored him. No one else let him in and he was reduced to pretending to browse the Smints and then walking off nonchalantly :o

I do love a good queue.

Queue jumpers deserve to have their Yorkshire puddings to be soggy and unrisen for always.

I remember being both pleased and mortified when DH told off a group of women for pushing in front of a woman with a buggy on the bus. You'd think they were 5 years old the way he explained the nice woman with the pram was first and they should be ashamed at their lack of manners. They were very pushy in his defence.

My sister and I had a run in with wrong-queuers today. We were waiting to pay for our parking ticket at the hospital. We stood in the 'normal' queue, where everyone else was. A lady then pushed in and starting using the ticket machine, then someone got behind her, then someone else and so on until there were about 5 wrong-queuers. There ended up being 2 queues trying to get to one machine.

I got annoyed as I was holding my fidgety 11mo son so said quite loudly "why is everyone pushing in?" The wrong-queuers stared at me so I put my hand on my hip and stared back. Then they all shyed off and got in the 'normal' queue

There was a lot of eye rolling and tutting but I pretended not to notice

Lol at Team America Queue Jumpers.

Jumpers Police

I love a good queue story. It has everything. Rule breaking, social scandal, mild peril and the eventual restoration of order.

So I understand that some countries don't do queuing....but others do....do Americans?

Macdonalds is a bugger for the one queue for five servers thing. And someone tries to start their own queue. I go to the drivethru now, but that's got more complicated with two lanes for ordering which then merge into one for paying!