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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Checkout fuss

165 replies

veritata · 31/08/2014 17:30

I was approaching the checkouts at the supermarkets today, and saw one with two people - one, a man, was loading his trolley having paid, and there was a woman standing there who I assumed was with him. I joined that queue and started getting my stuff out when the woman said "Excuse me, I'm first". I was confused and said "Come on, you haven't got a trolley", whereupon she gestured to a lad who had come up behind me with a trolley and said "There it is". I said "Yes, and it's behind me". She got into a huff and stropped off muttering "Don't panic, it's only a queue" to which I just answered "Precisely". I was perfectly calm throughout - if anything, I was just confused - and in fact was about to move myself rather than get into a stupid stand-off.

WIBU? Has reserving your place in checkout queues become a thing that no-one's told me about?

OP posts:

CarmineRose1978 · 31/08/2014 17:36

No, you can't reserve your place in a supermarket queue! YANBU.

Even if she'd had a few items already on the conveyer and then her son had arrived with a trolleyful, I'd think she WBU. It's different if you have a full lot of shopping already on the conveyer and send your DP/child/friend for a couple of items you've forgotten.

lunar1 · 31/08/2014 17:41

I have a real knack for joining the most problematic que. It's like I'm drawn to them.

The ones where someone can't remember their pin, or where they want to query the cost of everything. Or where they want to chat to the checkout person. Sometimes they will burst a bag of flour or sugar loading it into the till.

Whatever the catastrophe I can also guarantee it will happen when I have half my things on the conveyer belt so I can't swap.

CombineBananaFister · 31/08/2014 17:57

yanbu, Nope - can't reserve places in supermarket queues, you're either ready to check out or not.

Can't stand it when anyone reserves ANY places in ANY queue tbh, you join the queue when you reach it and when you are ready - and I don't give a shiny shit who you know further up the queuE.

Can you tell I've spent a large portion of the summer in theme parks and developed and unhealthy intolerance to 'jumpers'

Nomama · 31/08/2014 18:21

I may have been the cause of similar angst this morning. I had a problem, was returning something and had to accept an upgrade... finally I get a nice thing happen to me... the manager took me to a closed till and worked out the slightly complicated discount, freebie, deal for me, took my broken thing, swiped my card and printed the new receipt for me.

As he did so we heard a loud moaning about my having queue jumped. There was a very angry looking lady stomping across from the queue she was in to the till I was on.

I ran like the clappers as I heard the manager saying that the till was not open, he could not serve her (the till had no cash in it etc) as he had only used it for a refund receipt... she had amazing volume for a normally sized human being!

MyLifeIsFictional · 31/08/2014 18:22

I was loading my shopping on the conveyor and this woman came up to me and said, "I saw this first and just took my stuff off that checkout to use this one"

don't remember what I said in return but she ended up queueing behind me and then kept shoving her food up to move the bar forwards. My DP then told her that the conveyor does the moving and if she made his food squash up any more then she would regret it.

I don't think, at that stage that she had clocked we were together. He was 6'8" and built like the proverbial brick shit house. She decided not to move her food any more.

PrettyPictures92 · 31/08/2014 18:30

@MyLifeIsFictional lmao

ImaginaryPoster · 31/08/2014 20:18

I joined a queue. With a woman in front. She then sectioned off a bit, leaving a gap between our food.

I stood there unsure if she was trying to create some space between us, as some people don't like people getting too close or she had an intolerance or aversion to food I had.

Nope she was saving a space for a friend who turned up just as my food was about to be rung through. After much huffing friend then asked to go in front as she was there first. Erm no you weren't.

Topseyt · 31/08/2014 20:33

You were not at all unreasonable. Places at the supermarket checkout are not reserved and do not have anyone's name on them. People have to wait their turn, however frustrating it can become. That is just life.

If someone was clearly in some difficulty (i.e. ill, carrying an injury etc.) then I might offer to let them go in front of me, but nobody should be so presumptious as to ask.

LindyHemming · 31/08/2014 20:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

picnicbasketcase · 31/08/2014 20:56

Oh god, is this a new trend for cheeky twats? I haven't seen anyone do this yet, but I'd like to think I would do the same thing - go in front of them as they don't have anything to pay for yet.

NinjaPanda34 · 31/08/2014 21:12

I encountered conveyor belt rage today... I was unloading my shopping as the nice tesco man had just opened up a till for me. So anyway, I was unloading and this woman starts unloading her shopping onto the belt too! I was like "er, I've got a trolley-full here" and she was already using half of the belt! Cheeky mare. grrrrrr

listsandbudgets · 31/08/2014 22:19

YANBU.

I often let people in front of me when they have just a small basket and I have a huge trolley load. I did it a couple of weeks ago and a woman with a over flowing trolley tried to follow saying "oh thanks she's a friend of mine so we're shopping together". I politely responded "I'm sure she'll wait for you after I've done my shopping then and help you bag yours up".

If looks could have killed I'd have rolled over dead on the spot

Icimoi · 31/08/2014 22:42

I've had people unloading their stuff when I clearly haven't finished unloading mine more than once. I tend to spread my stuff out more than I normally would and then point out that I haven't finished and need more space so they have to take theirs off the conveyor belt.

TaliZorahVasNormandy · 31/08/2014 22:56

I clearly shop in the wrong places as I never get this shit.

Nottinghill1 · 31/08/2014 23:43

You did the right thing.....

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 01/09/2014 02:29

I was at the checkout one time and I just forgot to place one of those divider things down after my shopping. Well the bitch behind me wasn't happy. She glared at me, tutted and snatched the divider and banged it down and did the same with shopping all with face like thunder.

Pathetic!

I was going to pay by card but instead I paid with cash and I took an about it. Luckily I had a lot of loose change which I made a huge show of counting out loudly and slowly and I cocked it up on purpose to hopefully irritate her even more. And I made conversation with the checkout girl to prolong things as well. Made sure I glared at her on the way out too.

steff13 · 01/09/2014 02:49

What a brilliant idea! I have to go to the grocery tomorrow. I think I'll have my husband stand in a line when we get there, I'll do my shopping, and then an hour later I'll have a nice spot reserved in line.

Just kidding, you're not being unreasonable, OP.

Summerisle1 · 01/09/2014 02:52

I'm not tolerant about queue jumpers and certainly not queue reservers! But actually, what I truly cannot be doing with is are those people who know they are in the "10 items or fewer" queue but think that this this doesn't apply to them.

I'm easy going about someone miscalculating and having a couple of items over but the bloke in front of me last week knew he had at least 25 items. And no, being "in a hurry and anyway, my wife has got bad legs" is no excuse either.

Unrealhousewife · 01/09/2014 03:02

I screen my queues for trouble. Teenage checkout assistants and elderly with alcohol I usually avoid.

Andrewofgg · 01/09/2014 05:17

Mine uses central queuing for the machines and a separate central queue for the tills. Sorts most issues.

MokunMokun · 01/09/2014 05:48

I had a queue incident yesterday too. I was in a smallish shop with two tills but only one was open. Then a woman opened the other till. I gestured to the man in front of me to go ahead but he shook his head and said it was fine for me to go. I think the guy who was being served was his mate and was almost finished. So I went over to the other till and the woman blanked me and called over to the man "I think you were first". He then shook his head and said "It's fine, go ahead". The woman on the till gave me such a filthy look :(

MyNameIsSuz · 01/09/2014 06:55

This happened to me recently! I joined behind two people - one currently beeping through a big shop and one man with just one item. No room on the belt so waited, 5 minutes in a woman appears with a whole trolley full - he goes 'alright love, you get everything?' and she starts unloading right in front of me! They didn't even glance my way.

I can understand the other way round, nipping back for something you forgot, but this was ridiculous! Added a good ten minutes on a shop with an already fractious toddler, I'd have queued at the other checkout if I'd known.

FindoGask · 01/09/2014 07:02

"My DP then told her that the conveyor does the moving and if she made his food squash up any more then she would regret it.

I don't think, at that stage that she had clocked we were together. He was 6'8" and built like the proverbial brick shit house. She decided not to move her food any more."

This may well sound a bit po-faced, but I was with you right up until the point where you started bragging about your partner physically intimidating a stranger. There are ways to deal with conflict that don't involve intimations of violence.

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 01/09/2014 09:24

That sounds like a plan unrealhousewife

dannydyerismydad · 01/09/2014 09:43

This happened to me the other week at Costco. I'd only popped in for a few books and some rubber gloves.

I queued behind a couple of ladies clutching some flowers. Just as they got to the front their menfolk appeared with 2 groaning trolleys.

Grrrr

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