Saving a space in a queue to pay. Who was BU?

[TriggersBroom]

I'm intrigued as to who was being unreasonable (if anyone) here.

There is a queue of about 7 people waiting to pay at a small supermarket attached to a petrol station. Three tills are open.

Woman A is number 6 in the queue and realises that she has forgotten something so leaves her basket at the side of the aisle and nips off to get forgotten items.

Woman B is number 7 in the queue and moves up to take her place.

When woman A gets back to the queue, it has reduced to 2 people. Woman B is now number 2. She doesn't offer to give her place up to woman B.

There is a bit of follow-on too, but interested to see whether MN thinks there is anything unreasonable in this scenario so far.

This is why I avoid being among other humans

In woman B's place, I would let woman A back into the queue in front of me.

at vivi

Did she ask or attempt to go back to her original place or was she just annoyed you didn't offer?

I want a salmon cob and some wotsits now. And a brew.

Lunch

I'm with Vivi

It seems obvious to me.

Woman A should have negotiated this outcome from the start.

She should have turned to woman B and said please take my place ahead of me as I need to go and get something but please hold my place at position 7 behind you.

This way woman B gets an immediate pay off for holding the place for women A by moving one place forward to position 6. Meanwhile anyone joining behind in position 8 is no worse off than they would otherwise have been. All parties are happy. Its an optimal solution that elegantly maximises utility for all.

Can you tell I used to teach Queueing theory - oh its fascinating is the psycho-social and economics of queuing?

x post. That was meant for the previous post, although it could apply to this one too.

you should have said 'yes I kicked the basket because it kept kicking me'. As the queue was so short she should have joined the back of it and not expected to get back in where she was.

could go either way. If I were woman B I think I'd acknowledge her return, look at her full basket and ask if she minded if I went ahead as I only had four things.

If I were woman A and such an offer wasn't made, I would have tried to maneuver myself ahead in a casual way, or if that wasn't possible muttered something about rude people under my breath.

"Did she ask or attempt to go back to her original place or was she just annoyed you didn't offer?"

No she didn't ask. Also she left her basket at the side of the aisle rather than in the queue itself.

woman B was not rude though and woman A shouldnt have been so entitled to think she could leave a queue and then return to the same position. If woman A had asked woman B to hold her place then that is entirely different.

In the end, because three tills were open, we both got served at the same time anyway.

of course you cant leave the queue for that long
this is like people who put the trolley in the queue then go do the shopping and expect to push in!

was it passive aggressive pushing basket pushing into your ankles then?

To be fair, she wasn't gone for long. She just went off and picked up one item.

"was it passive aggressive pushing basket pushing into your ankles then?"

I assumed it was. If you hit someone's ankles twice, it's unlikely to be accidental surely.

The queue went down quickly because some people were paying for petrol and not groceries.

I think you are the reasonable one.

She shouldn't have tried to save her place, she should have just left the queue. But as she did try and save her place, she should at least have had the courtesy to say something along the lines of 'I'm sorry I just need to grab x, would you mind if I nipped back in' sort of thing.

She was unreasonable.

I have a slightly different situation that peed me off. I was at the supermarket. Looked at the length of all the queues and joined one.

When the women in front of me (who had a full trolley) got to the front she waved over her partner who was standing in another queue also with a full trolley.

He pushed his full trolley in front of mine and thought it was totally reasonable.

Morebeta - what does queueing theory say about that?

That was totally unreasonable wobbly. Did you challenge her?

nooo she did it wrong.. you have to wait until you're getting served and then nip off for your forgotten item while the others are being scanned

wobbly.. I hope you said something?

I did challenge her - she said she thought it was fine but her partner looked a bit mortified.

Did she back down though?