Checkout fuss

[veritata]

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?

[TheMaw]

Findo I thought that too.

But OP, YANBU.

[EmeraldLion]

Completely agree with Findo.

That sounds really aggressive. I'd be mortified if dh spoke to someone like that in a checkout queue, not boastful about how big he is, meaning the woman obviously had to back down

[MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig]

I'd speak to someone like that if I was pissed off enough. I'm not a brick shit house by any means but I wouldn't have to be if I was enraged enough. There are plenty of cheeky bastards in the world, they don't need encouraging.

[MrsCosmopilite]

Not quite the same but last week I was in a local charity shop with a long-ish queue. I overheard the woman at the front querying the price of something; "But it's £1.29! That's a lot of money, I could pay that anywhere.."

After miserly woman had huffed and puffed for five minutes, she decided not to spend such a vast amount of money and put the item back on the shelf. The queue shuffled forward a bit and I was aware of a woman lurking beside me with armfuls of stuff. The person in front of me noticed her trying to edge her way in and pointed out that there was a queue.
Armfuls of stuff woman then tried to push in, in front of me. I too pointed out that there was a queue. She then tried to push in behind me, and the person behind me again reinforced the concept of the queue.
She dumped everything on the floor and walked out.

[mineofuselessinformation]

This also annoys me, but I have to say the people who come armed with about 20 vouchers and insist the checkout assistant scan them all to find the one that saves them 5p have me biting my lip too....

[dustarr73]

I remember a few years ago,it was Christmas and i was standing at teh checkout with 2 huge trolley.Dp was gone for something and i was busy unloading my first trolley.There was no one with the other trolley which was behind me.Cheeky mare seen there was no one with the other trolley and as cool as you like wheeled it away.And put hers there.I said to her that was my trolley you wheeled away,would you mind getting it.Her face was a picture and i did go extra slowly.

[RahRahRasputin]

We had this a while back, I wasn't sure if they were being unreasonable so I just let them go ahead.

My dad and I were in the supermarket, it was quite busy. We joined a queue with one person's shopping going through the till and then a woman and small boy behind with just a couple of tins on the belt. I put down a divider and lifted the basket onto the end of the belt to start unloading. I could hear some muttering between the woman and boy in front. Then he pipes up, you need to wait, our stuff is just coming. Then they wave at a man and other child at the far end of the supermarket with a loaded trolley. We just shrugged and let them go in front as neither of us handles confrontation well and I wasn't sure who was in the right. I was a bit that the woman got her son to tell us though, instead of telling us herself, he can't have been more than five years old. Presumably she was embarrassed as she knew they were being cheeky!

Also agree that there's no need to intimidate or threaten violence. As I say I'm not great at confrontation but I usually find that a clear and firm "Please stop " is enough with most people.

[partialderivative]

There was no one with the other trolley which was behind me. Cheeky mare seen there was no one with the other trolley and as cool as you like wheeled it away.

I think I might have done the same as the 'cheeky mare'. How was she meant to know it was yours and you were waiting for your husband to push in front of her. (She could have asked you, that would have been better)

And how pathetic to then 'go extra slow', how old are you?

[LittleprincessinGOLDrocks]

I was once in Aldi and had just loaded our trolleys worth of shopping on to the conveyer belt. There was one man in front of me being served, and a few customers behind me. A man rushed up to the side of the queue, with a full basket and a child dragged behind him.
He said to me, "Its ok love, the guy in front said I could go after him!"
I looked at him puzzled, then the cashier said "Sorry sir, there is a queue. Please join it at the end and I will serve you when it is your turn."
The man then turned to me and said "Oh but this lady really doesn't mind me going next!"
The cashier said "Sorry but it doesn't work like that. It is a queue, you join the end."
The man then said " But my wife is in a taxi outside and the meter is running. I can't afford for it to wait that long whilst I queue to pay!"
The cashier said "Sorry to hear that sir but I can't let you queue jump."
The man gave up and went to the back of the queue.
I was served next as per queue protocol.
Because of me needing to bag at the end (you know the Aldi way) I was behind him as we left the store. He didn't have a taxi waiting at all. His child turned to him and said "Daddy why did you lie about Mummy?"
He said "I couldn't be bothered to wait!"

It is odd what people will do to avoid waiting.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

In fairness to MyLifeIsFictional's dh, Findo, he can't exactly stop being 6'8" and built like a brick shit-house, and there is no reason why he shouldn't point out to the woman behind that she needed to stop squashing their shopping. I don't think '...or you'll regret it...' was the best choice of phrase, but I suspect whatever he had said, she would have felt intimidated, simply because of his size.

So should he never stick up for himself?

[gamerchick]

Heh give it a few more pages and the posts will be telling the OP off for her thug of a husband snarling right in the woman's face with a raised fist and then pages after that saying LTB as he's obviously violent and a danger to woman personally good on him.. Some people need intimidating.

[Cleio]

Recently in lidl, very busy, long queue. I had been waiting for a good long time already. Person behind me asks can they go ahead, they've only got a bunch of flowers. I say yes, then surprise, surprise, she also has her DH with a very full basket of stuff. Not nice.

Another time. Me in the queue for the self service check out, no staff nearby. Two women ahead of me, one very pregnant, the other with a small child in a buggy. I have a new born in a sling and a cranky toddler trying to escape on foot. Man turns up, and blatantly skips the queue to stand in the front. When the woman in front protests he gets into her face very aggressively and tells her he doesn't care and she can just wait. Me and the other lady chip in too, get the same treatment. Really scary, very physically intimidating. I can tell you, I was delighted then when my build like a rugby prop SH turned up, and on realising what was going on politely but firmly told the guy he was going to take his place at the back of the queue.

The man then said he was going to call the police on DH for threatening violence! (He hadn't, he was careful to stay polite)

I often have to remind OH that people can find him intimidating, and he can come across as being aggressive even when he isn't, but there are times when it is a good thing. (Very rarely, obviously) Of course, ideally the shop should have had staff nearby to deal with this sort of nonsense, it was a rather extreme situation.

[BiddyPop]

Our new au pair was very impressed with supermarket shopping in Ireland coated to Germany. We scan the items as we go, pack the bags as we scan, and only hand in the scanner and any few items un scanned for some reason, loyalty card, car parking ticket and money.

BUT. Sometimes we are rescanned, sometimes the system drops so everyone gets rescanned as counter loses all data, (individual scans are quality control and fraud control so random but periodic for all users), sometimes all scanners are in use and we need to do it at ordinary tills. And that supermarket is also inhabited by a lot of pensioners so the regular tills can be painful, especially since they took away the bag packers when the chain was bought out last year.

So it mostly works well, but ideas the new owners deciding it's not worthwhile keeping that scanning system for the few stores that do use it now in the larger chain.

[BiddyPop]

I have dh people trying to load the belt when we are still loading it though. Mostly I can handle them, (we do use a couple of supermarkets so have to q lots of times). But I am letting DD "do" the shopping a lot recently to build independence. So she has a small trolley of things, the
Orally card, cash in her hand and was unloading as I was just the far side of the till. Except she couldn't get everything on the belt as the woman behind was loading up a huge trolley load well before dd had a chance to finish.

Dd is a very petite 8.5 year old. But still, it was really rude and the girl on he till turned to the lady and said the girl in front is still putting her things up,lease stop until she has them on or I cannot serve either of you. I was about to step in, but the till girl had her measure and it comes so much better from someone in authority, even if they are only about 17 compared to the 50+ of the lady behind.

[dustarr73]

I think I might have done the same as the 'cheeky mare'. How was she meant to know it was yours and you were waiting for your husband to push in front of her. (She could have asked you, that would have been better)

She didnt know it was my trolley but it was somebodys trolley.It wasnt her place to move it.After all she would have been queue jumping.And some poor fecker coming back after getting their tins of peas or something and there is someone in their place.She was in the wrong.

[HermioneWeasley]

OP, YANBU, you can't reserve your place in the queue!

Dustarr73, I'm with the others on this, it wouldn't have occurred to me that the trolley was yours and if someone is not with their trolley and ready to load up then they lose their place (IMO). It's a misunderstanding and to go slow over a reasonable misunderstanding was childish.

[picnicbasketcase]

Was your DP going to sort out the other trolley separately when he got back, or were you paying for the stuff in both trolleys at the same time? Because if you were doing it separately, it wasn't that rude of her to push in, as she had no way of knowing when the owner would return, but if she got rid of the second trolley that you were about to empty after you'd finished with the first, then she was a bit out of order. Probably should have asked you if it was yours rather than moving it.

[dustarr73]

No both trolleys were being paid for together.So if you came to a queue and seen a trolley you would push it straight away or wait for a few minutes.Because she wasnt there long and just seem to think she would get in first.
Im surprised at that cause it could be anybody forget anything and they come back to their trolley pushed aside i dont think anyone would be very happy.Including the people on here saying they would do it.

[picnicbasketcase]

No, I absolutely wouldn't touch somebody else's trolley in a queue, I'm just trying to play devils advocate about how rude she was.i think she should have asked if it was yours. But I suppose most people wouldn't expect someone to have more than one trolley of stuff at a time? I don't know.

[Gruntfuttock]

Regarding dustarr's post, if I saw an unattended trolley in a queue at a checkout I would assume that someone had left their trolley there to save a place in the queue and gone off to get some more items. For that reason, I don't think the woman was rude to have assumed the same and moved it. It was an understandable mistake for her to have made.

[MummaB1014]

Some people just don't think at checkouts!

Today I was stood in line with my dd1 (5years) and dd2 (3 weeks), both we're fed up as it was a long, slow queue. Dd2 was due a feed and started crying. Person in front and check out girl proceeded to attempt full on conversations with me while both girls were fussing and I was trying to regain some form of calm. Then just as I was leaving, check out girl commented to next customer about how I shouldn't go shopping if my children we're going to cause a fuss!

[SistersOfPercy]

A few years ago DH and I nipped into Aldi for a few bits. In the queue was young lad, us, middle aged man and older couple at the back.
The cashier, a young girl, was having some issues with card transactions being slow and so, whilst waiting for the young lads card to process was chatting pleasantly to him.
Suddenly the woman from the couple at the back comes storming to the front of the queue and starts shouting at the poor girl about how she should be chatting on her own time and she was in a rush and to 'shut up and do your job'.

I let rip, I wish I could say I had a speech but it came out along the lines of 'rude, ignorant woman, bullying young cashier and actually the card machine was slow etc'. She shuffled back, purple with rage.

Well, when I got to the checkout the poor girl was visibly upset. As I was going to pay DH said 'I've got this' and proceeded to pay very carefully in loose change, about £6 worth, slowly. Woman by this point was muttering and moaning, huffing and puffing.
As I stood bagging my few bits the middle aged man behind was messing in his wallet having 'misplaced' the right card. He searched his jacket etc and some moments later it turned up, it was in his wallet all along . Woman now is apoplectic with rage. She slat her money at the cashier and as she was storming out I did comment to her that perhaps if she hadn't been so damned nasty and rude she'd have been out of there ten minutes ago.

[Booboostoo]

I live in France and hate the supermarkets, everyone is so rude. It's common for people to park their trolleys in the queue and go off to do more shopping...not just one item they may have forgotten but 2 or 3 trips with armless of cap. If their turn comes up and they are not back the people working at the till just wait and never say anything.

The staff can be terribly rude as well. DP was waiting in a huge queue of one of only two open tills. He finally got to unload his stuff, the woman behind him was also unloading when the cashier looked at her watch and announced she was closing for lunch. When DP asked her what he was supposed to do with the shopping she told him to put it all back in the trolley and go join the end of the queue of the one still operational till! To his credit DP just left everything where it was and walked out.

[FernMitten]

Blimey, these stories

Can I just double-check that reserving an empty space in the queue for a loaded trolley is wrong and can be challenged then? I may need to know this.

Last Christmas, I noticed a few times in shops that people would stand in the huge queue empty handed while a friend nipped round and then they would swap places and eventually pay together.

[EvansOvalPiesYumYum]

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

As a person approaching pensionable age (with alcohol) I am delighted that rude whippersnappers like yourself will be avoiding me. Checkout all to myself Mwahahah rubs hands with glee