etiquette at the self-service till...

[mollypollly]

OK ladies, I know this is petty but bear with me...

I've just come back from waitrose where I bought a few bits and bobs at the self check-out (about 3 bags worth, plus a couple of bigger items I couldn't bag-up).

So once I'd paid I then started to load the stuff up onto/underneath the pushchair (I was not taking my time over this - in fact I was desperate to get out as DD was due a feed so I was on borrowed time). It's also worth noting that there wasn't really a queue (about 2 people queuing for 4 tills)

But before I could even lift the first bag off, the woman who was next in the queue came charging over, plonked her basket down and started trying to scan her stuff through - then huffed and puffed that a couple of my bits were still in the way.

AIBU to think she could have given me one minute just to sort myself out without getting in my way, slowing me down and stressing me out?! I know this is super petty but it really annoyed me...

She was bloody rude.

Not unlike the two slightly wobbly on their feet guys I allowed up the stairs at the market, unimpeded by almost as unsteady on stairs me or arm-flaily DS1, this morning. The only thanks I got was a big huff at the top from one of them because they wanted to turn left and we had the audacity to be in their way. (Same guys sat near us on the bus home and stunk of beer and took the piss out of everyone getting off the bus and made no effort to let me past with my bags, when I got off. Jerks. And no they weren't the "entitled youth of today". They were older than me.)

Limited She was right. I only buy fags at the ciggy counter. Fuck off with your poncey fucking celery .

As an aside, I was once sneered at for reading a book on the bus in my town

I think the other woman was rude. In these situations, I know it will take time and I will have to wait for other people. I try to be gracious about it. When someone ahead of me seems flustered and apologises for taking too long, it is my absolute pleasure to reassure that it doesn't matter and that I am not in any rush.

Of course, sometimes I am in a rush, but often I am not, and it is nice to reflect on my good fortune and offer someone else a little kindness.

The most important thing in the world to me is other people and my relationship with them. Courtesy costs nothing, and an extra 30 seconds of patience is almost always worth it.

Another reason I never use them.

Even when the staff say, 'The self service tills are free.'

I say, 'Thanks, but I don't care to use those.'

Babycham. Feel free to rush your way through life to a stomach ulcer, or worse. The rest of us will pack our shopping at a sensible pace that suits us, tyvm. There's no medal at the end of the day for being efficient at the customer side of the checkout.

You're probably the person who barged past me and my neurologically disabled DS to get into the lift that we were trying to get out of on Saturday. Or maybe you're the person who pushed in front of us in the queue for the bus on our way out. The bus that would have left at the same time, regardless of which order we got on it, of course.

The world is full of people who think their time is so much more valuable than that of others. Just like the guys on the stairs/bus, today, they tend to come across as jerks.

The customer who wakes up my inner grievous bodily harmer is the one who remembers something else halfway through the scanning process - and instead of paying and going back keeps the queue waiting to go back and look for the missing item.

Self-service tills are the work of the devil. I thought the first episode of Sherlock was fantastic when Watson gets frustrated with the self-service till in his local Sainsburys - I felt for you there John.

And yes I LOVE online shopping. Best service ever. Sainsburys delivery drivers - I love you all. That is all :)

Oh yes, they merrily scamper to the far end of the supermarket because they forgot their chocolate hob nobs.

Forget scanning, bring back hanging.

squoosh I believe hanging was said to be quick and painless. Boiling oil,I think. Or melted lead. Or both.

Ouryve - what a shame about those two twats on the stairs/bus; how utterly ignorant and rude. I do hate it when you let someone go past/hold a door open etc and they don't say thank you - in fact, i always mutter 'you're welcome' just loud enough for them to hear... a little passive aggressive I know, but I hope it makes some of them think and be a little more polite next time.

What a lovely post, Toomany - I have to say, I have been so heartened by the number of lovely people around since having my DD (people helping me on and off trains and buses/random strangers coming to talk to me about my DD etc), it's amazing how big an impact a little bit of kindness from a stranger can have

I was behind a woman of about 30 at a regular checkout who had a week's worth of shopping and was like lightning.

I was so stunned that I complimented her on it and the checkout bloke joined in, and he must have seen thousands of shoppers.

She turned round to thank us - she still didn't stop - and at that moment her small daughter made a bid for freedom from the childseat in the trolley.

'She's why I'm so fast,' she said, with the right hand restraining her DD and the left hand continuing to pack.

If ever it becomes an Olympic sport, she's our woman.

Whenever I use them in Morrisons there's always a lady of certain age (NBA not the same one every time, that would be really spooky) that lingers after doing her own shopping to instruct me on the optimal method of doing my own.

As I don't walk up to the till like I'm not sure why these ladies feel I'm in need of assistance.

Today there were squadrons of such ladies in Marks surreptitiously handing out 20% off vouchers they'd printed at home so that no one missed out on a freeb.

Sorry, Ouryve, but I've already said that my inner torment and frustration is belied by my tranquil and calm exterior. I'm most definitely NOT a pusher or a huffer or a queue-jumper. I'm another who was dragged-up proper. For the same reason, I'm not a dawdler or a faffer, as I recognise that other people have their own lives to be living, without me getting in their way.

You said it yourself; you got on the bus that left at exactly the same time, regardless of your place in the queue, yet it irked you. You probably managed to make it into the very same lift, too. This is no different. Some people are selfish pricks, be that in a passive or aggressive way, and they frustrate and annoy all of us. Clearly, your zen-like composure isn't quite as pure as you think it is.

Limited when I was a Safeway check out girl in my teens, they held a competition to find the fastest and most efficient packer (no eggs near tins, no cleaners near bread).

I was South East runner up

20% off at M&S? Where?

Voucher codes Ouvrye

She was rude, op.

As an aside, I'm not sure if it's true at all self scanners but at asda and tesco, if the "finish and pay" button flashes, it is safe to remove a bag to hang on pushchair/move to floor to make room for another.

the bagging area bit in my local Sainsburys is so sensitive that you can't bag your items as you scan them because it won't allow you to put a shopping bag on it without grinding to a halt and asking you to remove the unexpected item. Tesco on the other hand seems to not recognise anything that weighs less than a kilo so it grinds to a halt and starts demanding that you place the item you have just scanned in the bagging area, even though you already have done. And then a red light starts flashing and a staff member has to come and key in a code, and you continue...and then it does it again. It's always an adventure.

one express desk for the economically active, and another for the not.

We were trying to get out of the lift, Babycham. Struggling with a stiff hip and painful knee, that day, and steering a boy who often struggles to walk in straight lines and becomes overwhelmed in crowds (though is determined to learn some coping mechanisms, hence his request to visit a busy city centre on a Saturday, a month before Christmas) past someone barging past us in the opposite direction, when they could have waited all of 5 seconds, made it take a lot longer for us to get out of the lift.

And they were, in fact, ladies of a certain age, so I'm sure they had nowhere more important to be than we did.

Sounds like on of the rude Waitrose shoppers DD has to deal with when she's working there. Clicking of fingers is not unknown.

This thread just gets worse for me.

Yesterday I was in Sainsbury's buying a bag of cat litter and two bottles of wine.

What would you think, if standing behind me? Be honest. I can take it. A lady of a certain age such as I am has developed a thick, if wrinkled skin.

The cat litter bag had a hole in it which I hadn't noticed, but there was a Hansel and Gretel-style trail of cat litter all the way from Pet Comestibles and Sundry Items to the till and on the conveyor belt.

I said I wanted to go back and get another. The checkout bloke looked at me like: 'Are you joking? It is bedlam in here and we will get lynched. And frankly, I don't get paid enough to take a bullet for you.'

But all he said was: 'Would you mind paying, Madam, and then swapping the bag over. Keep your receipt and if the security guard stops you just come back here.'

This was, of course, the sensible option.

I paid with the exact change.

BTW wikipedia has a long list of methods of torture

This terrifies me the most.

TSSDNCOP Impressive. But do you ever wake up in the night thinking of the way that you could have been the winner?

I say, 'Thanks, but I don't care to use those.'

LegoAdventCalendar The use of the word 'care' marks you out as a very classy person.

A natural Waitrose shopper even if Waitrose is not your supermarket of location or budget.

Reading this thread I feel that Waitrose could do with more people like you

regarding lots of shopping and tills.

I go to asda before 9am and theres no one at the tills, you HAVE to use the self service ones.

other supermarkets have staff on tills but not my local asda, and I have to do my big food shop early for medical reasons. so a big shop for me.

they do have quite a lot of SS tills though, but you know, sometimes theres no one on other tills.

I hate it personally, id rather deal with a person than that infuriating machine.