AIBU to be pissed off in the supermarket queue has a go at me for being rude to the shop assistant, when I had a valid reason

[CarpetDiem]

So, I was stood at the check out, woman in front was packing up her stuff, I was getting served. The girl on the checkout had already put her 'till closed' sign up behind my shopping. A woman in her seventies came up & tried to put her shopping on to be told 'I'm closing now' fair enough, two minutes later a twenty something couple came and did the same & she said nothing. So I said 'sorry she's closing now' & the checkout girl said 'it's ok' I replied 'er, no, that's not fair, you just sent that older woman away' she huffed & repeated 'it's ok just once'. I was not amused, I hate unfairness, especially when it was blatantly ageist. So when she asked me if I wanted a bag, do you have a points card? I said 'no & no' to which the customer in front of me ( still packing her shopping) said 'there is no need for you to be rude to her'! I said 'what's it got to do with you?' & she repeated herself, as did I. She walked off gossiping away to who I presume was her mum.
AIBU? I've just got home & it's really pissed me off

[Natkingcole9]

Lol OP you are so obsessed with age and so very rude. Retail staff get so much shit from the public and it's because of people like you. Concentrate on yourself when your out shopping.

[BeanGirls]

Wow you were really rude. You challenged the check out assistant on who she could/couldn't serve. I'm trying to imagine this and I'm especially as it didn't (funnily enough) have anything to do with you.

[Natkingcole9]

'You're not fecking batman' made me lol

[MascaraAndConverse89]

So was the "girl" on the checkout a child then?

Or was she actually a young woman (20ish?), and doesn't deserve respect because she works on a checkout and she's young?

[Natkingcole9]

Well said converse

[Noodledoodledoo]

Having done that job - I would sometime misjudge the time it would take me to serve the customers in the queue already.

So for example my shift finishes at 7pm, at 6:50 I look at the current customers queuing and think yep about 10 mins more work. So put my sign out and turn people away.

I then get through it slightly quicker than anticipated so another customer comes along and I decide I can serve them before the shift finishes so I do.

Absolutely nothing to do with who the customers are just my misjudged timings.

[spillyobeans]

Im with op i think checkout girl was out of order and dont think you were wrong to speak your mind!

[amarmai]

you were not rude, op. You were brave standing up for the older woman. As an older woman myself, THANK YOU.

[Andylion]

OP, you have admitted that you were rude but I don't understand anyone giving you grief for standing up for an elderly/older woman.

[PowerPantsRule]

I am with OP too! As an older lady I thank you as well! Grey power!

[kali110]

noodle yes! Having worked on a till you can get through customers quicker than you think.
All this sticking up for the older customer is unfair, as the op is simply assuming that was why she was turned away!
I am so happy i no longer work in retail.

[chumbler]

You all sound a bit rude to me!

[Senpai]

Noodles Yes, I think people are thinking far more into the situation than any cashier ever does.

My decisions to serve someone or take a break were arbitrary things that had nothing to do with the person. Such as "How hungry am I?" or "I took a shorter morning break, so I'll take a longer afternoon one to compensate." or "I don't feel like it, break time!"

You go to a store (or in my case a kiosk), you expect to stand in line. I'm not going to worry about making someone stand in a different line to wait. I got paid on sales commissions, so it was in my best interest to get people through quickly and up sell. But I generally didn't worry about popping out and leaving people to go standing line #2, because it was my loss, not theirs. Some customers would make me feel bad, or I'd quickly take a bigger group because it would be a bigger cut for me with half the time then leave.

But honestly, customers were mostly just numbers on a chalk board during work. Any things I said or did had nothing to do with them personally. So I do find it a bit amusing that people think it was a deliberate personal slight against an older woman, when in reality she was likely just one more check out to ring up to that cashier.

[suchafuss]

Good on you OP she should have served the old lady.

[Fallout4fan]

Well if you are going to be rude op you may as well go the whole hog and should have told the interfering customer to fuck off.
You have let the side down somewhat I'm afraid

[zebra22]

YABU you butted in on someone else's business and then get upset when they are annoyed

[TheSultanofPingu]

She may have been instructed to stay open if the checkouts suddenly got busy.
You have no idea why she did it, so yabu.

[kali110]

Senpai you had commission on how many people came through your tills?
Wow, i could have made a fortune!
I was always told when my break was etc
I put my sign up few minutes before break/hometime but if i realised i could fit one more customer before i left i would.
Poor woman on the till, bet she won't do that again in a hurry.

[Kintan]

Poor checkout girl. You were incredibly rude for no reason, and you ought to ask yourself why you were still so pissed off when you got home. Why did the incident mean so much to you (especially as you were clearly in the wrong)?

[MagicMojito]

Still giggling at the batman comment

Yes yabu. (Obviously)

[imwithspud]

You should have just minded your own business to be honest. No need at all.

[jellyfish1979]

I worked on a checkout whilst studying for my mathematics degree (and later masters). I have never ever been so badly treated as when I worked on a checkout. It was literally the worst, most mind-numbing, poorly paid job and on top of that I had people who were so rude and abusive daily. Ok the abusive I could just about handle (call security and count them as disturbed) but the rudeness was the worst, because you literally cant do anything and it's always from seemingly normal. Some people think that because you are paid to sit there and scan your shopping means you are also paid to take cr*p off people. My favourite was getting lectures off people for there not being enough people on checkouts...like hello I'm working on a checkout, I literally have no say nor power in how said company chooses to staff the store....

Spare a thought for those working in retail over christmas, a bit of kindness can really make your day!!!

[WorraLiberty]

I saw an advert this morning that said Smyths toy shop is now open until 11pm on the run up to Christmas.

My first thought was, 'OMG the poor staff'.

I used to work in retail many moons ago, but back then there wasn't even much Sunday opening, let alone late nights and 24hrs.

[jellyfish1979]

4am Boxing Day Next Sale. Enough said.

[jorahmormont]

I'm waiting to hear back about an appliation to work for Next for two weeks over Christmas, including Christmas Eve and Boxing Day Sale... seeing how rude people are to retail staff is making me think twice!