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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Supermarket divider, is this a thing now?

163 replies

Whatshallidonowpeople · 11/05/2018 09:58

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.

OP posts:
Original poster
Whatshallidonowpeople · 11/05/2018 16:43

It's just as much fun to move up to the pay bit before the person in front has paid! The rage!

OP posts:
soupforbrains · 11/05/2018 16:44

^ If it IS a thing, then it's been a 'thing' for years as MumsNetters have always been wont to do this.

TheFillijonk · 11/05/2018 16:52

@spiderlight I still do the vertical divider too, as do my children 😂

jeanzbeanz · 11/05/2018 17:10

I've literally never even thought about this and have no idea whether I do put it down behind my shopping or not?! Think i do but only if there is someone waiting behind me!

WhatchaMaCalllit · 11/05/2018 17:10

On some of the dividers, it has "This till is closed" on one side and "Next Customer" on the other. I try and find those ones and put it down with the "closed" side facing the next customer. Usually, they pull their trolley up to the belt and then read the divider and back away...slowly....I can then take my time and correct the divider at my leisure

The80sweregreat · 11/05/2018 17:23

The nice check out lady asked me to put a ‘sorry I’m closed ‘sign up the other day after my shop had been done.
Made my day especially watching people stop / then have to carry on! Supermarkets are such fun sometimes.

IgamOgamJones · 11/05/2018 18:29

Ever since the addition of dividers at supermarket checkouts, I have played, and won almost every time, a game I call "Checkout Chicken".
What a great game it is, my daughters [now adults] play and I've got a couple of friends into playing too. We are all damned good but I am the undisputed champion.
It's a very simple game, the rules are as follows; Do not put the divider down.
Some rounds can get quite interesting when one's opponent becomes agitated or aggressively places their items on the game board.
In my opinion not enough people play this game, they are probably unfamiliar with the rules or nervous about playing for personal reasons.
OP, you won your first round, well done.
Checkout Chicken Champion :)

The80sweregreat · 11/05/2018 18:33

Igam - it’s not on. At least try and help out your fellow shopper. It’s just a divider.
It can make people’s day - or ruin it.
You are ruining people’s lives here - you should hang your head. In shame.

Lweji · 11/05/2018 18:41

Why do some people take pleasure in annoying or confusing other people? It's not them who lose out.

Put divider or don't. But I don't see the point in acting like arseholes towards other people just for the sake of it.

WingsOnMyBoots · 11/05/2018 20:01

It never enters my head to be upset if the person who's gone before hasn't done it. I am also fairly sure I don't always put one on after my shopping. It's so trivial.

MissEliza · 11/05/2018 20:15

My family are wondering why I'm laughing. There's no way I can tell them I'm laughing at a thread about supermarket dividers! Grin

Celticrose · 12/05/2018 01:23

It's just as much fun to move up to the pay bit before the person in front has paid! The rage!

Yes the rage. Please wait until I have paid before breathing down my neck. Never heard of personal space? It was not the checkout counter just an ordinary till at M & S and while paying a woman practically stood right beside me as I was paying. It was so rude and I had to make sure she could not see my pin Angry

UatuTheWatcher · 12/05/2018 03:20

If someone has moved up to the pay bit before I’ve paid then I will just stand there quietly and do nothing. If they don’t seem to get the idea I need some personal space then I’ll just ask them if they want me to give them my card after I’ve paid so they can use it? That usually gets a reaction and they move.

needingamiracle · 12/05/2018 03:24

In all honesty I would have taken her load and said thanks I knew there was something I forgot.

How petty of the woman, quite often if I'm still unloading I'll say to the person jump in front, if they have only a few items.

Supermarket etiquette isn't something I've heard of, makes a change from parking space rows Grin

ScreamingValenta · 12/05/2018 03:27

Slightly off topic, but I was very annoyed when a woman started chucking her shopping on the belt before I'd finished unloading mine - and I don't mean when I had a couple of items left in my trolley I'd only just started unloading mine when she started throwing (I use that word accurately) her stuff on.

However, when I asked her to wait, she was apologetic and desisted immediately, so I have no real complaint.

ScreamingValenta · 12/05/2018 03:28

A semi-colon went missing from my above post - sorry Smile.

infertilitybitch · 12/05/2018 03:29

Sorry for being incredibly dim but I've been living under a rock or two clearly and never heard the term "divider" I thought you meant those colourful folder things you place on shopping trolleys to keep your groceries seperated

Is it the triangle thing you're all referring to on the conveyor belt?

sueelleker · 12/05/2018 07:43

I do say thank you if someone puts the divider down for me.

Deathraystare · 12/05/2018 07:47

Equally I find people who passive aggressively make a show of putting the divider down, when either I have absent mindedly forgotten to, or it is slightly out of reach and I am waiting to get nearer to it, annoying too.

Whoops! That's me told then!!!!

SoupDragon · 12/05/2018 08:05

Why on earth would anyone make a show about whether the divider is there or not? I really don’t get it.

If the person before hasn’t put it down, I just put one down before my shopping. If I can put a divider down after mine and still have time to sort my bags out and get packing I will. No fuss is necessary and there really is no etiquette involved. Perhaps it would be better if we went back to the dark ages before dividers and left a gap between the batches of shopping

Anniegetyourgun · 12/05/2018 08:21

Do you know, that joke about the old lady scamming the bloke into paying for her shopping has made me come over all peculiar. I'd go so far as to say it made me feel a bit sick for a moment. One should endeavour not to take these things seriously.

Re supermarket etiquette, I would normally put a divider after my shopping because (a) it signifies to the person behind us that we've finished and (b) I'm in a better position to reach the dividers. I don't feel it's my bounden duty though Confused

Teacher22 · 12/05/2018 18:05

Hilarious,it would never occur to me that there are lives so bereft that this could upset them. I do put dividers up but I wouldn’t be bothered if the person in front did not. I would find one myself and put my own up.

What a helpful reminder about the territorial and belligerent nature of humankind.

Just a thought, if this was in Waitrose it make s it ten times worse and Trump suddenly becomes comprehensible.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 12/05/2018 18:10

I'm very upset that I didn't have room after my shopping to put the divider the wrong way round today. 😭

kattekitt · 12/05/2018 20:15

Ok I’m probably missing the whole point of this thread, although it does sound a fun game..

Who puts bread on the conveyor belt first Shock

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 12/05/2018 20:24

An idiot.