AIBU to wonder if queuing is a British thing, what on earth do the rest of the world do??

[RubyCav]

I have heard quite a few people state "queuing is a British thing". So what I really can't work out is, how general life would work without people forming nice orderly ques. So I'm turning to mumsnet wisdom to help me understand.

Germans queue, despite their reputation. They're also generally not bad at letting people exit the train before getting on. In bakeries it looks shambolic but the staff usually know who's next and pushing in is Frowned Upon.

Germans queue in shops, but not usually at trains. At least I have never seen something resembling an orderly queue there.

My impression is that if you put up a sign that tells people to form a queue, you get one, and a very nice one, too. Other times, not so much.

In France people will queue but if there is an opportunity to jump the queue many will take it! We are good at pretending we haven't noticed people who were already waiting...
But I like the English system better, especially when there is one queue for all checkouts, completely fair and you don't have to stress about guessing which queue will be the fastest!

One thing though, in France pregnant ladies or with babies are often allowed to go to the front of the queue.
I was once in a Eurostar terminal queue in Paris, overheated, crowded, we had to stand in line for 45min at least and this heavily pregnant British lady was clearly not comfortable. We told her to go to the front of the queue but she was a bit hesitant, at the end my husband had to accompany her.

We are much more relaxed re buses in London.

Oh yes, I am highly familiar with this having had to physically fight my way through the massive scrum of people trying to force their way on (and presumably surge me back on, against their own interest) quite often.

Does anyone know what the lift etiquette is in Germany. We went on holiday once the there were lots of Germans there and they seemed to think that the first person in the q for the lift got to go to their floor first - even if it was past others floors. We ended up getting in a few arguments and one lady slapped my friends hand .

She had pressed floor 17 and my friend wanted to go to 10 and went to press it and the lady slapped her hand and said no angrily. We never worked out if this was the norm in Germany or if this large group of people were just strange.

I was in Menorca once and they had a fun fair on. me and my friends were 'queuing' to get on a ride but soon realised there was no queue - the ride stopped, people got off and new riders ran as fast as they could to the empty carriages hoping they would get a seat. it took us about 4 cycles of the ride to get a seat, the Spanish would just push us out of the way! an experience for sure...

They tend to just push to the front & get served.

Does anyone know what the lift etiquette is in Germany.

I live in Germany, but don't use lifts all that often, and have never had any conflicts. Would think it's sensible that the lift goes to the highest floor and just stops on the way as often as required.

I would say that woman who slapped your friend was not a lady!

I always remember queuing for a tube ticket in London and some poor oblivious tourist wandered in from stage left and unwittingly jumped the nice tidy queue. A posh old man behind me started bellowing 'SCOUNDREL, SCOUNDREL. GET TO THE BACK OF THE QUEUE. SCOUNDREL!'.

Poor Queue Jumping Tourist looked confuddled and terrified!

We don't use the word "scoundrel" enough

Are you kidding? In Portugal we queue for everything. But then we give priority to the elderly and parents with young children at supermarkets and official places.

Otherwise queue jumpers are loudly told to get back. Particularly for public transport in busy places.

Also, queues that form for very sought after things often start the night before. People end up with lists and calling people's names through the night. It's taken awfully seriously.

Depends on which part of Britain. My friend and I were in Birkenhead once and were nearly trampled in the bus queue by people barging in front of us.

I used to work in a shop that attracted a lot of tourists and honestly most of them queued like everyone else.
I've never experienced American tourists doing it, nor tourists from the majority of Europe. We would get bus loads of Chinese tourists at once and some of them would do it, often they would just go straight to the till, stand next to the person i was serving and just wave money in my face as though they expected me to stop serving the first customer and serve them instead. I used to find it a bit funny because they just had no shame in doing it so it must be pretty normal proceedure where they're from! They didn't really know what I meant when I explained they had to queue, we would usually show them where to stand in the line and they would oblige but at the same time look at us like we were mad, cos obviously we were doing it wrong

I found some Spanish and Italian tourists did it aswell, but only pushing to the front of other people waiting, not pushing the person already being served out of the way basically it doesn't matter where you stand - unless you are actually in the process of handing over money then it is fair game to just barge in front of you!

I think us Brits take queuing very seriously so it's a great outrage if someone pushes in because it's just not fair, we like to all be in the same boat and all have to wait the same time. Agree about trains and buses though, lots of Brits abandon their manners there if it means they'll get a seat!

I'm in Sweden. We queue when we have to but prefer to take a ticket. I've even seen ticket machines on market stalls.

Cutecat78 I didn't mean wave a note in the servers face. More like holding it so that they can see you are waiting. I have also worked behind a bar and always found it saved me having to ask if they had been served.

Air China check in 'queue' is an experience! Elderly Chinese women have such sharp elbows!

The sideways queue is so prevalent here in the Middle East. We all start in a line then someone just pops in from the side and goes to the front as if the rest of the queue are having a nice stand around. I usually let it go but when I had a stomach upset the other day I did March a woman to the back of the queue of the mall toilets. I once went for a hospital appointment and say all day getting shoved out of the way every time my name was called. I just came back home in the end. 10 years on I can elbow with the best of them!

ToxicLadybird

I prefer ticket systems. much more sensible

I remember seeing this picture after the London riots - rioters queuing to loot a shop. If you're going to steal and riot, at least show some manners and wait your turn!

I was once required to take a ticket in a butcher's shop before being served. I was the only customer in the shop.

DownWithThisSortaThing

I bet those were the reported naice middle class youths that participated in the riots.

I once failed to get a ticket (the machine was behind the door and there were no notices around) and the stupid upper class looking woman who got in behind me didn't even allow me to go in front, even though she noticed I had already been there and got a ticket after she arrived. Bitch.

In Lisbon, the whole public transport thing changed when they installed the (at the time) new 3 door trams. People stopped queuing for those, and got more relaxed elsewhere, where buses are not too full, but in some routes and some stops, queues get quite long and very orderly.

I became aware how British I was when queuing in Denmark. The Danish have a much more fluid attitude to it than we do, especially in shops. You have to just surge to the front somehow. I do NOT have the knack of it!

Yet they have queues all over the place elsewhere.

Article about it (not by me) here: www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/9909453/Survival-of-the-fittest-in-Danish-supermarkets.html

However, I think we might be the same. Having watched an acquaintance, who is a very eminent American professor, trying to 'queue' in a pub on a Friday night by sort of hanging around the back of the group of people at the bar looking eager, I realised that we Brits also have some areas of life in which a different logic applies.

Oh, and I LOVE the image of the posh old man yelling 'SCOUNDREL!' That has made my day.

I never knew it was just a British thing until I lived in the Middle East and had people go infront of me a few times, well my Britishness wasn't standing for that so I pushed back infront. It's a lot better than it used to be though, most places do have queues there now but apparently it used to be a mad pile to the front, fortune favours the bold, weak are left behind etc. Also money and being an old respectable person got you to the front.

izabella if you waved a note at me when I was a bar maid you would've been stood there till closing time!