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

[DeathStare]

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?

There was a small, polite round of applause when the check in person firmly sent them to the back of the queue where they had cheerfully barged in front of a knackered elderly lady and 200 odd other patient queuing people

A pointless queue though, if they had assigned seating. Just because your elderly MIL chose to queue for a long time for no reason at all, does not mean anything.
If I worked for BA, I wouldn't expect to have to queue unnecessarily just to appease people who could have been sitting down but weren't. If they were in uniform, they were working, probably being flown in to replace another crew.
Not entitlement, but what they are supposed to do it working.

Many many years ago, due to a bit of a travel miscalculation, we once arrived in Manchester 6 hours early for a flight to Mexico. As you can imagine, we were seated right beside the desk for boarding since we were by far the earliest arrivals. As soon as the flight was called to board - hundreds of people appeared like magic and we were then faced with the choice of walking away to the back or, since we had allocated seats, just sitting where we were and joining on the back when it reached us. We went for the latter option. Anyway, we board the flight and can see that our seats which handily are in the middle of the plane with no seats in front are already occupied. This was in the days where you didn't have on-line check in and extra charge for leg room etc. You got to the airport first, you got allocated good seats. DH and I adopt confused faces, Flight attendant asks if we are okay, we just show our passes and say that the only two empty seats - across the aisle from ours and in the centre 5 seat row and with seats in front - don't seem to match our passes. This resulted in two chancers being ditched into the squishy seats and DH and I getting into our seats and stretching our legs out with a happy sigh, ready for the flight ahead, chancers staring daggers and us adopting smug faces. :o

Lol at the airport queue. I never ever see the point when there is assigned seating and join the queue at the last possible moment.

As for paying for speedy boarding - why?! I'd rather pay for express check in rather than have the opportunity to sit on the plane for even longer than is necessary.

The problem with waiting patiently at the airport is that you'll still get your assigned seats but you won't necessarily have space for your carry on luggage. All the budget flights I've been on recently the last few people getting on have been told their cabin baggage will have to go in the hold. Sulks, rows all sort has ensued.

YANBU! I accept holding a checkout for someone who is off grabbing that one last thing they have forgotten and who has already unloaded the shop. But you can't hold the whole system up for an invisible trolley!

This is one reason I love Aldi. The checkouts are about 10 times faster and people like that don't stand a chance.

Flying - I think part of the issue is that this is, by definition, an international activity and not all nations have the same attitude to the queue as we British do! (I was amazed by Denmark, it really made me realise how my use of space is cultural). However, when I flew last, a couple of weeks ago, Easyjet had an auto check-in system where you print out your own luggage labels at a computer. It was SO much better, easier and faster than the old queue for the desks. What is usually a tedious wait of an hour or so was over in 10 minutes. I hope all airlines adopt it soon.

The whole cabin luggage never used to be so much of a thing back in the olden days, you took a small bag with what you needed for the flight and the rest went in the hold, space in the cabin bins wasn't an issue. Now where you may have to pay for luggage separately, people try to go away for a week holiday with their cabin allowance meaning that there is no space after the first half of the flight boards.

I flew Flybe recently and they had the lovely automated check in. We checked a bag into the hold and also had two small cabin bags. I noticed they have reduced the size allowed for cabin bags as ours are relatively small compared to the piss taking ones I see some people take on flights and they only just fitted. So hopefully all airlines will adopt this soon.

Wankers that is exactly it. I remember when you used to fly with a magazine, your purse and a hair brush. Maybe some tic tacs. Now I have all my clothes for a week squashed in!

I did once do the "jumping the queue" in a long winding security queue at Luton (or was it Stanstead?). Train to the airport had been really delayed, so it was something like 10 minutes until my flight closed (and a still 10 minute walk once you were through security! ).

At the double-backs, I asked the people in the line in front if it was ok if I jumped through and explained my flight was closing. I think it helped that I asked nicely as they all let me - and I got to the gate with 30 seconds to spare

Some times I will send my oh to stand on the queue while I grab the last few bits
But only when the lines are 3 or 4 people long and he takes the trolley and unloads the shopping.

Rushing round the supermarket before mobility issues: I dashed up to a till. Furious lady behind me smacked the trolley as hard as she could into the back of my legs. I was like wtf?! She claimed I had 'cut her up'. I hadn't even seen her!

I'm poor at confrontation, so people who creep closer and closer in queues might get me moving back towards them, pained looks etc. I don't understand why people need to be so close that I can feel them breathing on me! I absolutely hate it.

fastday - I just pay for luggage - I really can't be bothered with all that faff. We still take small bag on board with drink, purse, passports, magazine and phone - this inevitably has to sit at our feet. It also means that if we have miscalculated our hold luggage we have plenty of scope to take some stuff out and shove it in our cabin bags - never had to do it yet though.

And yes, a polite request with a reasonable explanation generally doesn't offend anyone if you really need to skip a queue.

But, the crew who were "working" also had assigned seats, and could also have chosen to wait. MiL is a bit batty (and was knackered) but they know how planes work and that their seats will be there for them.

Also, by the time they arrived it was not a pointless queue but the start of a queue to get onto a plane. A uniform dies not give you permission to barge in front if a sleep-deprived and very determined lady.

We actually had similar on a flight back from Munich. We got to the waiting area early and it as a sort of seated queue - benches on either side of a narrow tunnel. We just sat but there were far more determined travellers in front of us, several with very young families - and it was late at night. We now have teens but remember well late night flights and tired toddlers. Not fun.

Just as the desk opened and we were standing, 50+ pupils from the same school steamed past, teachers whipping them on. Toddlers, parents etc could do nothing in the face of the entitlement. (And, I blame the teachers, and AM a teacher who leads a lot of school groups). There was little the check in people could do because the space was narrow, and the parents were calming upset children. They made the flight a misery and made my teens mutter a lot about how they would never behave so badly. I nearly wrote to the school after all 4 teachers fell asleep while their pupils swore constantly and acted like they had chartered a private jet.

I do think attitudes to waiting show an overall unpleasant and selfish attitude.

I was getting cash from a machine and had someone standing so close I could feel his breath on my neck.
Gave him what for.

Oh, and they had paid for luggage (booked through from Malawi). And BA does not have the same issues with lack of cabin bag space.

A uniform dies not give you permission to barge in front if a sleep-deprived and very determined lady

It does actually. They were working, they don't get paid to hang around in queues. They are SUPPOSED to go and get straight on. Thats how it works.

bite but if this is the case, why were they sent to he back of the que? Surely the attendant would have known this and let them straight on?

I hate the pay for luggage in hold area policy. I pay for it so that I don't have to stress about finding space in the cabin, and then my nice handbag either gets absolutely squashed in the overhead compartment or has to go by my feet and get trampled on by my neighbour every time they need the loo. It all just encourages selfish behaviour: push ahead in the queue, squash other people's belongings in order to fit in the maximum allowed size case, people putting their case at the front of the plane when their seats are at the back...flying has definitely lost its glamour

Lufthansa now charges £60 to check in a piece of luggage, on top of the almost £1000 I paid for the four of us to fly EDI to FFM. So we each had a suitcase on board rather than the one medium-sized tote I used to take on the plane. It's a pain. No waiting around for the luggage afterwards though.

I think it didn't happen tbh. (The BA Staff story)

I went to Starbucks the other day - it's in a Sainsbury's, so people do sometimes sit at the tables outside with a supermarket sandwich or a cigarette if there aren't many people there.

Got there, and the tables were full. The guy at the end table had no drink and was just sitting there. Fair enough; I'd sent DP inside to get the drinks while I waited outside (I struggle in loud, crowded places); presumably he was doing the same thing.

The woman at the next table and a couple further along looked like they'd finished, so I thought while DP was getting the drinks I'd hang around and see if a table came free, or ask someone if they minded sharing once DP was out. DP comes out, no tables free, guy at the end table still sitting there alone, no drink.

I asked the woman who'd finished her coffee if she'd mind us sitting with her, rather than asking him, which is cowardly but he looked rough as fuck so yeah. There was one other chair at each table so when she happily agreed to share the table (and apologised for not leaving - I told her that of course it was fine and thanked her for sharing!) I said to the guy, "do you mind if I have this chair?" and reached out for it. He said no, he was waiting for someone.

DP had nearly finished our drinks and the woman had long ago left when lone guy's mate turns up. He doesn't even sit down, our guy gets up, and they bugger off into the shop using the Starbucks entrance instead of the main one, the lazy buggers.

FFS. What kind of a brass neck do you have to have to take up a table and two seats outside a busy café, with no drink, waiting for a mate for at least fifteen minutes while people hover around with their drinks, or sit inside on a lovely sunny summer day?

Wow, that was long. It must have really pissed me off.

BTW it's normal for the rest of the people to sit down while one person queues at that Starbucks, as there's very little space in the queueing area and at busy times it stretches into the store.

And I had an iced vanilla latte

I forgot about people standing too close!! I whipped a sweaty ponytail (on way back from the gym) in someone's face because they were too close and they had the temerity to tut!

Off topic but re Starbucks... I always order in advance on the app. I only queue in store if the app is playing up. The amount of dirty looks you get for walking past the queue and grabbing your drink is crazy.

Hunter that has blown my mind. You can do WHAT? And go straight to the front to collect?

Extremely excited...