Supermarket divider, is this a thing now?

[Whatshallidonowpeople]

I was in the supermarket yesterday, put my shopping on the belt, by the time I'd finished loading it the cashier had started scanning. Got to the end and there was a loaf of bread, he asked if it was mine, I said no. The woman behind me said "she didn't put the divider up so I left it" and then as I left, i heard her say "I refused to do it on principle as she (me) hadn't done it for her." Is that really a thing? She wasn't in the queue when I unloaded.

I would always put the divider down after unloading my shopping, assuming there was space. But only because, as a cashier in my youth, it was annoying when you picked up the last item to scan and the belt just kept on rolling because there was nothing to break the beam and stop the belt.

Always funny when someone put their credit card on the belt without the divider there. The look on their faces when it just got sucked under the checkout was priceless!

Do the MN divider test of putting it round the wrong way next time

I cant' imagine being so petty as to not put the divider in because the person in front of me hasn't done it "for me". I'm not a fucking spoilt princess brat who needs it to be done "for me", I'm quite capable of doing it myself!
Unbelievable.

I always put the divider up, unless there isn't one and I have to wait for the checkout operator to whoosh one down.

The other day DP and I were shopping, we had about 4 bags of stuff in the trolley, had unloaded about half and were still unloading and the woman behind me started unloading her stuff while I was still trying to put mine on the belt. DP and I made eye contact, I swear my blood pressure rose to epic levels and then I turned round and gave her a very HARD STARE Paddington stylee. That fucking learned her! She very swiftly moved her stuff back so I could finish my stuff.

DP and I left muttering about conveyer belt etiquette and how some people are just fucking rude.

Couldn't you just have said, "excuse me but we haven't finished emptying the trolley yet" or something equally polite but to the point?

What a waste of a Paddington Bear Stare!

Yes putting the divider up is code for “I’m done, you crack on”
But I wouldn’t be all passive aggressive arsey about someone not doing it.

Presumably she put a divider down behind her bread.

DontMake that'll teach them to put it on the belt! 😂

elQuintoconyo I think she could quite clearly see that a) we still had stuff in the trolley and b) we were still unloading it and she'd left about a 3 inch gap! It was blatant rudeness. She had to keep shuffling her stuff back to let us put ours on and I was really annoyed at having to wait for her to move her stuff to put mine down and the checkout operator was having to wait because we hadn't finished unloading.

I can only presume it was her first ever visit to a supermarket.

I use my Hard Stares a lot. It stops me from shouting profanities at people.

This is something that quite honestly has never been on my radar and now just a tiny bit sorry that I have now opened this thread. On reflection I usually have to put the divider on myself before unloading my shopping unto the belt but also end up putting it on for the person after me

I hadn't realised it was a specific person's job to put the divider up.
If one hadn't been placed down, then I will do it - It wouldn't even register to be honest.

I'm more concerned with working out what I'm putting on the belt first and the order everything will go in!

I always put it up

Sad woman, whatever makes you feel big eh! ;)

People in the Aldi near me never put the divider up. I always do it myself. I can’t imagine why I’d get cross about that.

This is something that quite honestly has never been on my radar and now just a tiny bit sorry that I have now opened this thread.

Quite a lot of MN threads achieve this. You start wondering if people really do care about this stuff. This one’s quite mild (in comparison to the ones that would make you terrified to cut your grass).

this thread and the old one have reminded me of that joke...

There's a man in the queue at the supermarket and there's an old lady in front of him who keeps looking behind her at him in a strange way. Eventually the man asks her if everything is ok, and she says "You just look so like my eldest son, I can't stop looking at you. We sadly lost him to cancer last year and the likeness is incredible" They have a brief chat and he sympathises with her and she sayd "could you please do one small thing and make me a very happy old lady? When I finish at the till would you mind smiling and waving at me and calling out 'Bye Mum'". The man agrees and does so as the old lady leaves. he watches his small amount of shopping go through the till feeling good about himself for having made an old ladies day. Then the checkout assistant says "that will be £150 please". Astonished the man says, "but I've only got a few things!" and the checkout assistant says "yes sir, but your mother said her son would pay for her shopping"

Somebody acts like an idiot, and the Mumsnet ressponse is ''Is this a thing now?''

Is this a thing now, to ask if this a thing?

she was being stupid, you put the divider up before you put your shopping on the belt not after, so she should've put the divider on, this is why i use the scan gun as i go round.

i LOVE the longways divider game, but if dh is there he sighs and sets it acrossways

then i pick it up and do the PA thing of replacing it, slowly, gently, perfectly centrally and he rolls his eyes at me.

It can be quite hard in tesco as ours has remarkably short conveyors, whereas aldi and lidl have very long ones.

My best game is to NEVER EVER move ahead of the end of my shopping, until it it my turn to checkout.....I like to give the person in front space to breathe and pay, and also to completely freak out the overanxious person behind me who is panicking about the wasted space in front of me. I idly peruse the items in the shelves along the conveyor if they are getting really wild :o

@MsHomeSlice I LIKE that game I shall be joining you in playing forewith.

It's 100% the etiquette round these parts to put the divider up at the start of your shopping, not at the end. The person behind you puts that up. Never even heard of people putting a divider at the end of their shopping.

i do the end of my shop thing and i did it today with pride in fact.
the lady behind me was pleased as punch.

I always put it up after my shopping, because often the person behind can't reach them... (lengthways along the checkout obviously)

it is stressful , lidl have the longer belts but they go through at the speed of Usain bolt on the grid and i cant keep up, let alone look around for the divider as well. i come out frazzled.

Is this a thing now, to ask if this a thing?

Is it a thing to ask if it's a thing is a thing?