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AIBU?

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Original poster

Queue jumpers

135 replies

Mushroomsarehorrible · 06/12/2018 10:57

Why do us Brits get so wound up about queue jumping when other cultures / societies happily bundle and jostle and push in and no one gets angry about it?

I see so many arguments over people 'pushing in' on my commute into work. Queue pushers annoy me too, to me it just seems so obnoxious and ignorant to queue jump but I wish I didn't bother me! I usually bite my tongue but v occasionally I will say something. AIBU for being pissed off and if I am, can you tell me why queue pushers don't get your back up... I'm usually pretty easy going but this is my bugbear!

OP posts:
Jayne35 · 06/12/2018 16:20

I prefer to queue, some places getting on a bus is like a rugby scrum and I'm just not rude pushy enough.

Car queue jumping is worse though imo. Once queued for a country show for over an hour - the left hand lane of the dual carriageway was for through traffic/emergency vehicles only and numerous signs stated queue left for show. The amount of people who sailed down the left lane and cut in was very annoying.

The woman who tried it in front of us had actually gone all along the left lane then across the left lane of the roundabout to attempt to cut in at the bloody gate to the show, DH would not let her in and he was called an 'Angry little man'! Many others behind us wouldn't let her in either, I'm surprised there wasn't a punch up that day and I have not been to that show since (3 years).

Jayne35 · 06/12/2018 16:21

Excuse typo - queue right for show! Duh.

TeaForTiger · 06/12/2018 17:03

When a new cash-register opens at at supermarket, everyone from all the other lines run for the new line. Whoever has been waiting the longest does not get priority.

I'm all for waiting my turn, but can't disagree with this one. It's a new queue, why should anyone have priority??

JustABetterPlayer · 06/12/2018 17:20

Personally they don’t bother me, I just hope that every single one of them dies in a fire.

BoswellandForshort · 06/12/2018 17:20

In 2004 I accidentally queue jumped at a cash point on Christmas Eve and I’m still mortified about it.

As I approached the cash point, the man using it walked away so I just slotted in behind him and got my money out. It was only when I walked off that I saw the massive queue behind me. They’d left such a big gap between the start of the queue and the cash point that I hadn’t even noticed.

Nobody said anything to me, but it still makes me cringe when I think about how entitled I must have looked, just sauntering up like I owned the place.

masterandmargarita · 06/12/2018 17:24

Although the British love a queue, I've always thought it weird this doesn't apply to the pub!

5foot5 · 06/12/2018 17:29

Although the British love a queue, I've always thought it weird this doesn't apply to the pub

Strangely enough we were talking about this the other night.

Dave Gorman was doing a bit about queuing in bars and DD described her strategy for this. Then not 2 minutes later Dave Gorman described the same move himself.

Basically you get to the bar and there are several other people who were there already, let's say you would be number nine in the queue. So you wait. When the bar tender becomes free they look for the next person and if you catch their eye you say "This person was ahead of me" indicating the person beside you. The bar tender then serves that person but then assumes that you are next so you jump from ninth to second in the queue.

KaitlynRep · 06/12/2018 17:37

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SonOfSaturn · 06/12/2018 17:40

I'm all for waiting my turn, but can't disagree with this one. It's a new queue, why should anyone have priority??

If you're standing in a queue and the checkout next to you opens, it's pretty rude for the person at the back of your queue to rush over to that one.

I mean, I've seen it happen plenty, so I guess a lot of people don't agree with me, but I think it's bad form. I'd let someone ahead of me who's been waiting longer go.

IrmaFayLear · 06/12/2018 17:51

Ime elderly people are the most expert queue jumpers. Every year there is a massive queue in the post office before Christmas, with the queue often snaking out of the door. There is regularly someone who comes in and goes straight up to the counter, and then expresses surprise when they are nearly lynched. "Oh, is there a queue?" Well, duh!

And today I visited a National Trust property. Gosh, it was brutal . Barging in the cafe, shoving in the house and as for the queue jumping... absolutely expertical.

brighteyeowl17 · 06/12/2018 17:52

I never understand when you are clearly standing in a toilet queue and someone pushes past them says ‘oh we’re you in the queue’ when you give them the eye. Nope I’m just lurking around the toilet for no reason Hmm

chemenger · 06/12/2018 17:55

Interesting that Germany has been mentioned as poor at queuing, that's certainly my experience of the queues for ski lifts, the more Germans there are in a resort the more queue jumping there is. Nothing is more satisfying than casually leaning on a ski pole you have just planted between the skis of someone trying to edge past in the queue.

MondayImInLove · 06/12/2018 18:13

5foot5 I did the same for a very pregnant lady waiting in a Eurostar queue in Paris during a heatwave. She was British (I am French) and was reluctant to go to the front of the queue initially but that is normal in France, even at the supermarket you go to the priority queue when pregnant.

Rushing when a new till opens at the supermarket is definitely queue jumping, it is a new queue!!

ForalltheSaints · 06/12/2018 18:40

I like Dave Gorman's idea, must use it myself!

It amuses me to see the patient queues for the Jubilee line at Canary Wharf, which I do not have to endure as I am going in the opposite direction.

Lweji · 06/12/2018 18:58

See, in Portugal when a new till opens we are told to move to it in the same order.
People sort of tend to respect it

Nanny0gg · 06/12/2018 19:13

I like the single queue system they have in post offices and McDonalds.

I can't bear watching the queue next to me going down when three people in front of me are all faffers and take forever.

Vivianebrezilletbrooks · 11/12/2018 02:19

I've queue jumped before but only for certain reasons and one of those times I wasn't served and it's not a shop I normally go to or would again.
Ffs it's not illegal, the only thing that's damaged is the pride of people standing in the queue and the last time I checked hurting someone's pride wasn't illegal and i personally couldn't care less if someone did it to me.
You'll all get served in the end.
Remember if you do so much as touch someone queue jumping you could be done for assault.
It's the old British stiff upper lip must not complain attitude.
People are happy to queue like sheeple and say nothing for one till only open instead of saying something.
I somehow think there must be people who actually enjoy it or we're lead to believe that we must enjoy it.
If there's not enough tills open I will say something but then I would come back later if there was a long queue.
People who incite violence over it or attack those who queue jump I actually can't understand what's in their heads to do that.
The person who wished they'd all die in a fire..what the actual f*?
Wow. Hurting your pride and principles is worth wishing that on someone?
People get so wound up over it that they'd assault verbally or physically?
When people get like this when someone breaks out of the conformity over something non illegal that is when social order breaks down.
To the poster that was ill and needed to be served quicker I feel for you. This sanctimonious attitude of 'I was here first no matter what!' is just so ingrained in some people it's unbelievable.
The French will avoid queuing as much as possible and so will I.
Rule of thumb..if there's a massive queue for something it's probably not worth it. Either come back later if really needed or just don't bother.
But people getting so wound up about it... ffs!!!!!!
Hmm

selepele · 11/12/2018 02:35

its rude but if you ask because you are in a rush and im not i dont mind you going in front of me

fleuriepeninsula · 11/12/2018 06:05

We had a German man try valiantly to cut in the line for our flight on Sunday night. We were at the front and there were 30m of people queued behind us. He was incredibly brazen and tried to be charming and physically force his way in once we refused to move for him - he was not expecting 3 cross British and American women to tell him off loudly and physically block him from cutting in ahead of us.

ElsieCat · 11/12/2018 06:16

I've had that at an airport with a German as well and I did take him to task on it, hence how I realised he was German, when he had the cheek to argue back at me and not be remotely shamed into getting back behind me.

It shocked me because I didn't expect it of a German, with their love of orderliness and rules and general decency in my experience. There are some cultures/nationalities where this sort of thing has begun to feel to me like par for the course, so I have been shocked that Germans have been mentioned on this thread more than once and it's just made me remember my own GCF! Grin

AngelinaNeurosurgeon · 11/12/2018 06:57

In Japan you queue on the train/tube platform to enter the carriage - I like that system.

AngelinaNeurosurgeon · 11/12/2018 07:05

Remember if you do so much as touch someone queue jumping you could be done for assault
I think you're confusing the UK with Dubai Hmm

I was queuing for a train ticket once - I'd gone the evening before to avoid the Monday morning queue, and while I was waiting a group of men in suits were hovering at my side. As soon as it was my turn they attempted to push in front and told the cashier they were late for their train and needed to be served first. I pointed out I was next in the queue and for served. Had they asked ME politely before pushing in I'd have been happy to allow them in.

SnuggyBuggy · 11/12/2018 07:09

Vivianne you sound a right twat. People wouldn't all get served in the end of everyone behaved as you did. How would you feel if you were small or elderly and not physically able to push your way to the front? Would you be happy to never get served?

easyandy101 · 11/12/2018 07:56

I love queue jumping, it is genuinely pleasurable

It's no good if it's blatant though, you have to do it in such a way that people don't notice. It's not always possible or appropriate though

Me and my friend once did the glastonbury cash point in about 20 minutes, when the expected queue time was 4 hours. Every time the crowd moved and sat down again we'd have moved to the other side of the barrier. We got to the last barrier and someone noticed us doing it and started to say something so I grabbed them and took them with us, they stopped complaining then Grin

Used to just always walk up to the front at fabric or other clubs, take a guess at a guest list, wonder loudly why I wasn't on it, then just say is it alright if I go in and don't remember ever getting turned away

Will actually kick off with people if I see them push in though, or people barging through, I hate that, gives queue ninjas a bad name

Isleepinahedgefund · 11/12/2018 09:27

Queueing is a national sport in the UK. It has its own unique and complicated rules like cricket.

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