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Original poster

Supermarket checkouts: This isn't a thing, is it?

273 replies

DeathStare · 02/08/2016 17:12

I've just been to the supermarket. Did full-trolley shop and went to the check-out with the shortest queue. The person at it was having his stuff go through the scanner and there was about half the conveyor empty.

There was also another man just hanging around about 2 feet back from the end of the conveyor - no shopping with him.

So I went to start unpacking my shopping onto the conveyor and the man hanging around said "Excuse me I'm next". So I apologised and moved and indicated to him to put his stuff on the conveyor belt ahead of me. So he said "Oh I'm saving it for my wife for when she's finished her shopping". I looked around - thinking she had maybe just nipped back for something - but nobody was nearby. I asked if she was coming and he said he didn't think she had finished yet. So I said he didn't think he could save the check-out then and started unpacking my stuff.

He started complaining at me that I'd stolen his checkout but I just ignored him. Then when I'd filled the rest of the conveyor belt his wife turned up and he told her I'd stolen his check-out and she demanded that I remove my shopping because her husband had been saving it for her. When I refused (politely!) she shouted "you are so rude" and the pair of them stormed off.

This isn't a thing now is it? You can't save a check-out can you? Or have I just not noticed it before?

OP posts:
FoxesOnSocks · 03/08/2016 08:29

Oh sorry HunterHearstHelmsley mixed up your first post: I thought you'd wrote what Pipistrelle40 wrote first, then came back to call yourself antisocial

As you were ...

Pipistrelle40 · 03/08/2016 08:30

Shopping is a minefield, hate it.

icouldabeenacontender · 03/08/2016 08:31

I too have had this.
Joined a small queue and only had a basket, all of a sudden a woman barged past me with a trolley and joined her dh who as it turned out was 'place saving'
I said " Excuse me am I invisible?" and the man replied that he was before me.
I replied "but you had no shopping" he told me "Fuck off to self scan"
I was in no mood for a any more of a scene so I muttered some unpleasantries and moved tills.
Was not impressed at the cashier saying nothing though tbh.

HunterHearstHelmsley · 03/08/2016 08:32

I also see the supermarket like a road. The aisles are side roads and you should check before pulling out. Likewise, if you're "pulled in" looking at a shelf you should check over your shoulder before moving off.. ha.

Pipistrelle40 · 03/08/2016 08:33

It gets worse, I would torn him a new one for that and scanned it for him at self scan!

RoseGoldHippie · 03/08/2016 08:33

I always put the divider up but tbh I normally end up putting it up at the end too! I think it shows your finished - equally I shop at funky times so not often people in the que behind me.

I met a very rude woman in lidl once - she was very very posh (i was in joggers after the gym - looked right down her nose at me!) I went behind her in the que and she turned around pointed at s sign at the end of the till (I hadn't noticed it as was juggling items) and stated very loudly "can't you read? This till is closing" - I joined another que only for them to remove the sign a couple of minutes later because the tills were busy Angry

Original poster
DeathStare · 03/08/2016 08:35

Igneococcus - I don't think you are the same as the couple I encountered. That wasn't your fault. Your trolley was there with you, she just separated you from it. The man I encountered had no shopping at all with him and his wife didn't turn up with the trolley for about 5 minutes.

OP posts:
NisekoWhistler · 03/08/2016 08:35

Not read the whole thread but first thoughts....what a bell end! This is most certainly not a thing

icouldabeenacontender · 03/08/2016 08:37

Pipistrelle I was caught off guard really, not what I would normally encounter in Sainsbury's.
Pissed off that I didn't give him more grief though.

allegretto · 03/08/2016 08:41

No.... You put the divider up after your shopping.

But there aren't any divider rules as such - yes, I normally put it up after me but it's hardly the crime of the century not to. To deliberately put your shopping through with someone else's and inconvenience the cashier and the rest of the queue is against etiquette however. Hope that clears that up!

Igneococcus · 03/08/2016 08:45

I know death stare but the women was treating me like a queue hogger, maybe she was paying no attention to how the situation developed. It wasn't even busy, we went straight to another check out, finished before her and then ambled very slowly in front of her to the exit taking up all the space.

HunterHearstHelmsley · 03/08/2016 08:46

Nope. To deliberately not put up the divider and cause the inconvenience is where the problem lies.

Trills · 03/08/2016 08:50

You should put the divider up after your shopping because it will always be easier for you to reach a divider than for someone behind you to reach a divider.

If the person ahead of you has not done this, either because they don't know the rules or because when they finished unloading there was no divider available, you should do your best to put up a divider before your shopping and after your shopping. Even if that means you are doing more than your fair share of divider-putting-up.

NeedACleverNN · 03/08/2016 08:52

Hunter that is dickish

Where I used to work we had to be careful over our voided transactions.

If we got over a certain limit, we got a disciplinary. Why should a cashier suffer because you know what is your shopping and what isn't?

allegretto · 03/08/2016 08:52

Even if that means you are doing more than your fair share of
divider-putting-up.

And for this extremely onerous extra work you are entitled to piss off everyone else. Ok, gotcha.

NeedACleverNN · 03/08/2016 08:53

AND pippistrelle for that matter

Trills · 03/08/2016 08:54

allegretto what part of what I described could piss people off?

icouldabeenacontender · 03/08/2016 08:54

I think sometimes doing more than your fair shareof divider-putting-up is worth it for general check-out harmony.

DesolateWaist · 03/08/2016 08:54

I think this started when sitting at a table before buying your food became acceptable, but I know that's an unpopular opinion here.

woodhill · 03/08/2016 08:55

I think if someone had told me to F off in a queue when his wife had pushed in with a trolley I would have asked the cashier to call the manager, disgusting behaviour.

icouldabeenacontender · 03/08/2016 08:57

You're potentially opening a can of worms there Desolate

allegretto · 03/08/2016 08:58

Trills - oops, sorry misread your message. I thought Hunter was saying that it was too much work! My apologies. Flowers

FoxesOnSocks · 03/08/2016 08:59

Sitting at a table before having food as gone on for eons though. I have vivid memories of being sent as the reverser in BHS when I was small (pre-schooler sent off alone in restaurant - another can of worms!!)

Trills · 03/08/2016 09:03
Flowers

Nooooooo let's stick to supermarkets, not the cafe table stuff.

JudyCoolibar · 03/08/2016 09:09

I had this once. I thought a woman standing in the queue was with the person in front of me, so started unloading my stuff. The woman said she was saving the place for her son who came up with a full trolley at that point. I just said very calmly "Sorry, he got here after me, he's behind me in the queue" and carried on. She got flustered and said "Don't get worked up about it", I said "I'm not, thanks" and she and son huffed off.

I do think supermarkets need to get pro-active about this. A few signs up saying "Place-saving in checkout queues is not permitted" would save a lot of arguments.