Two minutes silence and refusing to serve customer

[BalugaBelle]

At work today I was on the checkout (large retail store) and the silence was announced over a tannoy.

A woman (on the phone) came up to the checkout during the silence, so I shushed her. Motioned to poppies next to till!

She then said, "I'm going to miss my train, please continue serving me!"

I refused, shook my head and sat silently for the two minutes.

At the end I put her items through, she moaned at me and called me rude and petty and then went on her merry way.

So was I being unreasonable to respect the two minutes silence, even if it meant a customer was unhappy at me doing so?

I know good customer service is needed but surely the two minutes silence takes priority? She clearly had no respect!

Quite frankly I didn't give a damn about her train, I was paying my respects as was everyone else in the shop. It was literally almost silent apart from young children (understandable) and general noise, i.e., heating making noises!

*was

So you didn't observe the silence either Sussex, so intent were you on shushing others. How hypocritical of you to disrupt what you say is so important to you?

* “lack of respect and disregard* ”

You WDNBU. Can't believe people think you should have carried on serving! You definitely did the right thing.

I went to a ceremony at the lifeboat station nobody said a word everybody showed respect except for me who cried when the poppy wreath was laid to sea as my GD was on the boats One of the crew went all the way to London to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph well done to him!

It was actually nice to see people so respectful.

It doesn't sound like people had much choice! I'd be fuming if I was locked in a shop because they were observing a silence.

You were right Op - glad you were able to observe the silence.

I get your point but it was only two minutes, after all. I know I'd have had every right to leave if I wished but I wouldn't have wanted to create a fuss. Like if I had a massive issue I would email head office or whatever, I wouldn't make a massive din then and there. You may be right! I'm not saying it was right for my local shop to do this, I assume they were trying to stop all 'activity' or prevent people coming in who didn't know the silence was going on. But it does seem a bit 'YOU ARE CAPTIVE.'

Where I live has a lot of memorials to fallen veterans, near a military barrack, etc... lots of parades and very fully participating in Remembrance Sunday. The town is definitely a lot 'stricter' about two minute silences and almost enforcing it

@spiney - I expect your bias in the situation is colouring your viewpoint (I don't mean that in a negative way - we all have biases). You believe the silence and people's right to observe it and to expect others to observe it trumps social norms regarding manners. I don't (that is my bias).

I do think people should respect others' rights to observe a silence. I do think that respect includes not interfering with the silence by being noisy. Equally, I think people should respect others' rights not to observe the silence. I think that respect includes not trying to impose the silence on those who do not wish to observe it (by shushing or otherwise). Both shopper and OP were being disrespectful of the other's rights.

Jesus wept, there’s loads of reasons why she might be in a hurry and on her phone and not have noticed the signs or the tannoy, but please keep shouting ‘entitled’ and ‘scumbag’ because that’s obviously going to bring more peace into the world
I'll be honest, more problems exist day to day because entitled people are entitled. You know, the type of people who are rude in shops and think shop workers should serve them but they can't be arsed to stop their conversation because they are so important that they don't need manners. She didn't jusy decide to have loud phone chats etc because its remembrance, she will be like that as a person so if she missed her train I'd call it karma for her rudeness.

At the end of the day she says she had 2 minutes. The item may have been out of stock, the queues might have been longer, the till could have jammed, there might have been a problem at the station. Any number of things could have happened. The woman decdied she was more than happy to take her chances. She took her chance to sho and something happened.

The woman was a rude person whether the 2 min silence was happening or not.

I wouldn't want to create a fuss in that scenario either and would just wait to leave, but inside I would feel annoyed that I was being dictated to like that. It places a huge irony on the idea of people fighting for our freedom if you can't choose where and when you contemplate things.

@MaisyPops - The OP was not clear on whether the shopper was on the phone at the till. She said she has been talking on the phone. If it was at the till, then yes this would have been rude regardless of any other circumstances. If it was before she approached the till, then it would not have been rude in other circumstances. In these circumstances, it was only rude if she was aware of the silence.

wiggy
The shop made it clear they were doing the silence.
The woman could have gone elsewhere, or kept going ti the station by which point thr 2 min silence would be over.

Nobody is forcing her to stand still and not collect her items from the shelves. They just aren't serving for 120 seconds. Hardly inconvenience of the century.

The woman sounds vile and you were quite right not to serve her, you can't do that silently.

However, I do think you were wrong to 'shush' her. I've been in the opposite end of this, having a supermarket shop assistant try and serve me during the 2 minute silence, I think she'd been in the back of the bakery section and had missed the announcement.

I didn't want to break the silence so just ignored her and then she cottoned on, I apologised after. You could have just ignored her rather than shushing her.

In these circumstances, it was only rude if she was aware of the silence.
You don't miss a whole large shop going silent.
The woman chose not to participate in the silence, fine.
I still personally think continuing a loud phonecall was rude and disrespectful to those doing the silence. By all means if she wanted to quietly collect her items etc then fine but anything stupidly noisy is just rude to me.

Putting the silence aside the customer sounds really rude and entitled to me. I think it's incredibly disrespectful to the person who is serving you to stand having a conversation on your phone.

Just put it down for a minute and stop being so bloody rude, and if it's that important that you can't wait until the conversation is over before going to the till.

Theymademejoin I expect we will have to agree to differ on this.

I expect others to show respect for other people’s traditions. Not necessarily to observe them.

I think phone lady got what she deserved.

You were right, I wouldn't have served her either.

Course you can choose when and where you contemplate things Wiggy!

Just don’t yak thru other people’s 2 mins.

@MaisyPops You don't miss a whole large shop going silent.

It depends how busy the shop is, how engrossed in the conversation you are (presuming the conversation had started prior to the silence), how observant you are in general, whether you're aware that there is going to be a silence etc.

If she was aware of the silence, then of course continuing a loud phonecall was rude and disrespectful to those doing the silence.

I’m not saying she wasn’t rude, but I don’t think she deserves to have literally hundreds of people frothing at the mouth calling her a scum and a bell end and worse than a holocaust denier for essentially wanting to be served in a shop that’s open when there’s someone at the till.
Sometimes people are busy and lose sight of what’s going on around them, sometimes theyre in a flap because they’re late and harassed and sometimes maybe they’re just a bit rude.
This thread is ridiculous, the op doesn’t have an Aibu she just wanted to froth at the mouth for a bit and everyone has piled on to join in.

@MaisyPops You don't miss a whole large shop going silent.

You might do if you have a hearing loss. Which would be 1 in 6 of the UK population.

That doesn’t seem to apply to the shopper in this case though.

Sentimental I think you’re frothing and exaggerating now.

@spiney - I also expect people to show respect for others' traditions, within reason. However, I don't think people should feel entitled to treat someone rudely because they are not respecting their traditions.

I think where we are disagreeing is in what we consider to be an acceptable response to a perceived disrespect. I think behaving with dignity and politeness is a much better response whereas you seem to be saying that responding with rudeness is acceptable, although presumably within certain limits.

FFS! its two minutes respect for people who died for our freedom. It's pretty sad if people can't give two minutes per year to respect others.

In my 20s I once forgot and was shushed at and I was mortified. Mortified I'd forgotten, and I immediately stopped.

Personally I can't think of anything other than a medical emergency that I'd not observe it for.