To be enraged by people who organise their purse very slowly and carefully before moving away from checkou

[derxa]

I suffer from irrational supermarket checkout rage. I especially hate people who stand there and slowly replace their card in their purse. I don't mean elderly people either.

Thx, M-Marbles.
Only trying to make the point, though, that sometimes there is often a reason for someone "faffing". They're not always doing it just to be annoying to someone else. We just don't know, do we?
'Just Be Patient' should be the motto

Actually, whether disabled or not, visible or not, it is not the prerogative of the person behind to be irritated, whether they 'think' it shows or not, with the person in front whom they consider to be dithering - it ain't up to you to judge, you know!

I live in a rural area. Life is slower here.
I often encounter clumps of older people blocking the aisle for 'a wee blether'. They are simply passing the time of day, comparing each others grandkids / operations / whatever.

Yes, it is mildly annoying when you cant physically get to the cheese / apples / cereal because Jean HAS to tell Aileen right in the middle of M&S rather than go and sit down in the café and tell her there instead, but, hey, it's not the end of the ruddy world. Sometimes I have to say: 'excuse me' 3 times before they hear me and shift, but I am not going to get stressed about it.

And I thought the 'fucktard' comment was completely unnecessary.

I'm not that nice Evans. I confess I was very tempted by those sunglasses . But if I'd have absent-mindedly left something that cost at least £200 on the counter I'd have been in a cold sweat and really grateful to whoever handed them in. And I'd have vowed never to be hustled again.

Not that you should steal a pair of £10 Foster Grants either.

But it doesn't matter if someone is old or ill or disabled or pissing about for fun or merely a bit slower than you'd like to be. If you can't cope with normal everyday life like queueing in a shop without actual rage, you have some proper issues.
It's your problem. I don't care why you think your time is more valuable or how you self-justify your rage, its your problem. So either deal with it pr fuck off to the internet to shop and stay away from people, since they make you so damn angry.

'Just Be Patient' should be the motto
Agree with that one Evans, certainly where there are reasons for fumbling, slowness etc. But we should have a motto aimed at the deliberately slow shoppers who seem to get a kind of smug satisfaction out of holding everyone up. "Hurry the f**k up seems quite apt.

Evans you sound lovely.

You could see the (non disabled) ditherers as inconsiderate and rude; or those who want to get the shopping done and get the hell out of there, as inconsiderate and rude. Depends how you look at it. It's interesting that some ditherers here admit to doing it deliberately. Something the non ditherers have always suspected!

I do think there is an element of ignorance/lack of consideration about many ditherers. Why is it even hard to have your bags packed and money to hand? If you were shopping for the first time in your adult life, fair enough - but as it's something we all do constantly, wouldn't it make sense to simply get it down to a fine art, after, say, your hundredth shopping trip? And what are they getting out of being slow? Who wants to be at a checkout longer than necessary?

Maybe the failing supermarkets like Morrisons and Tescos should take a leaf out of Aldi's book and make shopping less of a 'leisure' experience, and more of a pragmatic thing. I like it that you have to pack your bags elsewhere or at the car.

I'd love us to be more like Australia - the cashier packs the bags as she/he scans. They're fast as lightning and very skilled at it. As long as you unload your trolley properly, things go in the right bags - the cashiers are mostly very skilled and well trained. Gets you through faster than a British checkout too.

Then we could all get on with things without apparently loathing each other and trying to police each others' emotions. Except with aforementioned tourists and escalator blockers. I'll come up with a solution for them later. (Catapult?)

^I also do get annoyed with people who take ages to pay...it's human nature isn't it. luckily i don't live in a city where it must be even worse!

growingupslowly1 I live and work in central London. I take enough time to pack and pay as I need. I don't understand why people on MN think big cities are a hotbed for hotheads and nowhere else is.

Tourists who dither on the London Underground irritate me but it's swings and roundabouts.

My MIL lives about an hour's drive from the m5. Well, it takes me just over an hour. When DH is driving it takes about 45 mins because he grew up on those roads.

I'm sure that I have annoyed locals. But I don't care because I'm a competent driver who is a bit unsure of the locality. So they can fucking wait.

I shop in Aldi, where this isn't an issue because the checkout people move you on unbelievably fast (I like it a lot and don't mind packing things in bags by the shelf at the end of the shop).

YANBU. Pisses me off as well.

Skin on custard, I'm with you all the way scan and shop, I LOVE it, no hassle of queuing my kids aren't irritated and you never have to que to pay! Everyone should just scan and shop! So much easier!

Reena - scan and shop brings me out in a cold sweat! (severely sight impaired and always fuck it up). But I firmly encourage others to do it, and leave the till with an assistant for me

We have no luck doing the self scanning. Always been stopped because we're buying alcohol, or the thing malfunctions, or some other reason! And then you have to wait to be helped, and the person helping has about three other people whose tills' lights are also flashing, before they even get to you, and...

Scan and shop's great as long as it works, sometimes you'd have been quicker in a queue. The thing is though, for every scan and shop till, that's one job lost. They don't put them up for our convenience that's for sure. Less staff, more profit.

I never realised that about packing your shopping at Lidl and Aldi. I just thought you didn't get much space at the till.

I keep a tube of nice handcream in my bag. Whenever I am help up at chechouts I squeeze a dollop on my hands and give my hands a little treat, inhaling the sweet fragrance. By the time my turn comes I feel calm and my hands are lovely and smooth.

What a FABULOUS strategy, antumbra!

Lidl gets me in a spin trying to pack while everything keeps coming at me and slowly pushing it all off in the tiny amount of space, whilst simultaneously trying to stop toddler climbing out of substandard trolley with no safety strap.

definately believe in supermarket etiquette

I'm jealous of them.

I went shopping today only to find that I didn't have a single debit or credit card on me. Because I'd carelessly shoved them into coat pockets instead of purse after paying for things....

My supermarket bugbear is people who waltz up and then stand between you and the goods you are looking at!

eg. I'm standing there looking at the 132 varieties of tinned tomatoes trying to find the chopped ones that don't have added basil/garlic/chili etc and someone will come along and stand right in front of me.... not slightly to my side where we can happily browse side by side, not even saying "excuse me" and quickly popping in front to grab what they want which would be fine.
No, they stand in the gap between me and the tomatoes so that I have a view of the back of their head whilst they stand there and peruse the shelves at leisure.

I was once behind someone who had all of her own small-ish bags folded inside another one. When she started packing she examined the item, rummaged through to select the right bag, changed her mind put it back found another. Repeat ad infinitum. I just have big trolley bags and lob the stuff in.

but I was annoying today as one item was not recognised by the computer and the guy who went to sort it out took forever. Even though it wasn't my fault I must have apologised twenty times to the lady behind me.

I mortally offended someone in Waitrose today. I went in for one item which was directly behind a parked trolley whose owner was at the other end of the aisle. I moved it about 2 feet to get to the shelf, and she came storming over, grabbed the trolley and said 'oh don't mind me ' and stomped off, glaring at me over her shoulder.

Clearly I should have either stood there patiently until she deigned to move her trolley, or gone and found her and asked her to move it for me.

I don't understand the not moving trolleys thing.

But then I never realised that asking your partner/friend/kids to sit down at a table in a cafe while you got the drinks/food from the bar was a crime either...

To be honest I don't dare faff at checkouts because I often find the staff themselves are impatient. Sometimes I do look for change because there is nobody behind me so I think I'll take the opportunity to offload some 20ps if it comes to £x.80 and I can see that the staff are getting huffy (maybe they want to get off the till before someone else comes).

Ultimately it's all about tolerance as a good few people have said on here. But remember just as people may faff because they have good reason, so may people get agitated for good reason eg they've got limited time in a lunch-break to get something. People can be very time-poor, so it's good if the time-rich can bear that in mind too. And all the people who've told people to be less f*ing impatient might need an anger management course as well.

No idea I would stir up such a hornet's nest with OP. Lesson for me- never go to the supermarket at 4pam I'll stick to going in the evening. I genuinely feel sorry for people with disabilities and never huff and puff at them. I'm off to start a new post about tailgaters- the demons from the Dark Side.