MN jury. Minor queuing upset causing a lady to glare every time I see her.

[WineIsTheAnswer]

Queuing up about 2 weeks ago.

The set up is this. One queue opens up to 3 tills. Start of the queue is just behind till 2, till 3 is smaller as it is used for the lottery machine and stops the queue from being able to see cashier 3. Queue line doesnt have barriers its just always happened like this. Fairly busy store at lunch hour.

Queue moves along until the lady in front of me is at the front, let's call her Jane. Till 2 becomes free. Jane makes no attempt to use till. Cashier waits for her, nothing happens. I do the "excuse me" pointing at the till, she nods and does nothing. Queue stood waiting. Till 3 becomes free, Jane makes no attempt to use either till, still stands doing nothing. Cashier 2 is still waiting, unsure what to do to make Jane come forward to use the till. Smiling and trying to get eye contact isnt working for cashier 2. So after a minute I pop round to till 3. Suddenly Jane jumps into action, decides IABU and stole her till. So I offer her till 3 and say I'll use till 2. Lots of "how dare you" so I ask her to explain what the problem is, she had two tills and didn't use either and I couldnt wait all day for her. She decides that she wasn't called over to a till and was waiting to be called. I tell her it's not that sort of place. Nothing I can do now, at least we are both getting served. Goes on and on until I snap and say "look, we are all wanting to get served, I waited for you and then offered you till 3 when it was clear you weren't happy. Your getting served, I'm getting served and I would rather do it without going on about it" "well if you didnt steal" came the response. I finish and leave her to her tutting.

Now I've seen Jane frequently since, I wouldn't remember her if it wasn't for her tutting, telling her friends I'll queue jump them and making herself known she's still unhappy with me. Starting to bug me, I thought I was reasonable but she clearly thinks not.

So MN jury, WIBU taking a till and should I have waited for her to select a till even if that means waiting until all 3 tills are free. Surely one person can't control all the tills just because they are at the front. If IABU I'll apologise when she next tuts at me in a coffee shop or points me out to her friends.

YANBU on either. What an odd woman.

Everytime you are her just walk really slow behind her and then just as she's about to pick something up grab it before she can. That'll learn her.

Everytime you see her from now on smile really creepily and lick your lips. Do the pft pft pft sound from silence of the lambs.

Or wait until she does it again at the tills creep up behind her and boom now dearie it's time to get to the till can you manage it? Have you wee weed your self again

Why couldn't you have said 'the till is free'? Why couldn't the cashier have said 'next please'?

Why don't people communicate anymore?

You did push in. Granted, it's annoying to be held up by a ditherer, but you shouldn't just decide that they are taking too much time for your liking and go around them in an established queue, imo.

Every single time you see her give her a cheery hello. If she says anything negative or tries to kick off, stay completely silent with a smile on your face.

washing ha she the best idea and no you were not being rude. She was being an IDIOT!

Agreed with @lougle - you pushed in.

Not sure how people can say OP "pushed in" when there were 2 free tills. And annoying woman was making no move to use either one of them.

I do agree that the cashier could have called "Next please" and kept on until annoying woman moved up to the till. However, you can't just stand there all day holding up a queue! Bit of common sense needed.

Lougle - The op indicated that the till(s) were free but Jane did not move forward. The op did nothing wrong and Jane is not only sad but her subsequent actions make her childish and weird given she is the one who was holding up the busy lunchtime queue for no explicable reason. Like the parking police, you have here the till police.

washing you just made me blow my cover (sneaky read of MN at my desk) because I burst out laughing. I love your plan.

@lougle are we reading the same OP?

I do the "excuse me" pointing at the till, she nods and does nothing.

She clearly did everything BEFORE just going for it.

According to the OP but the till person and the OP told the woman the tills were free. She's obviously got a screw loose, how un English is it to not be able to queue properly AND then confront someone directly rather than being passive aggressively annoyed and carry on with their life?

Also I would say YWDNBU as it was a non issue, there were 2 customers and 2 tills, and you offered to swap tills to make the idiot woman happy. Complete storm in a teacup load of bollocks all around.

both, not but*

Similar happened to me recently, two of us waiting to be served, two tills opened at the same time and the cashiers beckoned. I walked forward (towards the furthest till) and the woman next to me started ranting about being next - I said I'm aware of that but there are two cashiers waiting, one for each of us to which she just kept responding 'but I was next and I have been waiting ages', in the end I got annoyed and said 'for gods sake are you not listening to what I'm saying, you would have been through by now if not for your carry on'! Some people are just weird.

2 free tills - definitely not pushing in.

There are some strange people about...I must have a 'don't fuck with me' face because this sort of thing never seems to happen to me.

Saying "Excuse me" and vaguely gesturing aren't the same as actually saying "that till is free, are you going ahead?".

I agree it's the cashier's fault in the main, it's their responsibility to manage the queue and they should have called Queue Lady forward. And obviously she has reacted excessively. But ultimately OP still pushed in!

bluesunshine Someone holding an opposing view to you isn't a 'psycho'.

Admittedly I could have tried harder but she acknowledge my "excuse me " and pointing at the till with a nod. So I didn't feel the point in explaining futher especially when till 3 became free. Cashier could of been more assertive but she looked confused and was trying to interact with Jane. Jane was just ignoring her.

Jayne35 I think we may have met the same lady

I do agree that the cashier could have called "Next please"
Some places don't like their cashiers calling out.
Yanbu, the woman sounds rude and possibly something wrong with her.

I don't think you did anything wrong, but I also think it's odd that the cashier(s) didn't say, "I can' help you over here," or whatever. Why just stand there smiling at her?

Jane should have been quicker. I would have done exactly what you did OP but wouldn't have had a conversation about it - there's no reasoning with people with these funny internal scripts for how interactions should be.

I totally agree about communicating properly.

My Adult DD, with ASD, wouldn't have the confidence or just the realisation that she was being called forward, unless it was made clear.

Neither would someone with hearing/cognitive issues etc.

We pay lip service the Society being disability friendly, but it's little things like this that shows that it really isn't.

YANBU and she is a weirdo.

I do agree that the cashier could have called "Next please"

Even when you do that they don't always listen!

I work in a supermarket in customer services ... my work area (and till) is one end of a long desk, with the two tills for the cigarette/lottery kiosk at the other end. The kiosk queue forms at the end of the desk and people filter down to one of the two tills when it is their turn. This works well as the queue for the CSD forms on the other end of the desk and it is very clear that they are two separate queues for two different services who just happen to share a general workspace.

Kiosk queue >>>> (Kiosk Area ----- CSD area)

Saying "Excuse me" and vaguely gesturing aren't the same as actually saying "that till is free, are you going ahead?". Are we now the whole world's social secretary?