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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Checkout tills

134 replies

FloraPostalOrder · 04/12/2019 21:23

I've read lots of threads on here, over the years, complaining about women checking out at supermarkets. The complaint, or question, is often "Why do people seem shocked at the end, as if they're surprised that they're expected to pay?" Why do they have to fumble in their bag to get their purse out? Why don't they have their money or card ready? Why do they wait until the very last minute? Why do they keep everybody else waiting?

Answer: They are not surprised that they are expected to pay.

What I'm hearing is "I've only got one item and I'm paying by contactless, so hurry the fuck up"

Well it's confounding me, because even when you don't have children with you (which makes it even harder) you have to unload onto the belt, then get your bags open in the trolley to receive your purchases, then pack as they are flung down the belt, trying all the time to guesstimate weight of items so that bags are of equal carryableness. put cold stuff altogether to avoid thawing.

Then, as you are tucking the last item in the only available place you can find, the cashier tells you that's £92.50 please. Your back is now a bit achy, you stand up straight, to stretch it out a bit while you open your bag for your cash/card. And somebody behind you who has one item and contactless card in hand is thinking "Why hasn't she got the money ready?? Didn't she realise she'd have to pay!!??"

I've seen this complaint so often.

If you have a lot of shopping to load onto conveyor and then pack into bags, are you supposed to do it purse in hand? What is so irritating to see a fellow human being do a huge family shop single handed, and then take an extra 30 seconds to open bag and locate method of payment?

How can you 'have your money ready' when you are engaged in unloading and packing?

I'd like to hear some opinions.

OP posts:
WorraLiberty · 04/12/2019 21:27

Stick your purse in front of you on the bit where the cashier puts the scanned items Confused

EmmiJay · 04/12/2019 21:29

To make my life easier I do the following: Keep my purse under my arm as I unload my shopping on to the belt. In order from heavy to lighter things like tissues. As the items are scanned I load them in order back into the trolley. I ask for how ever many bags I need. Pay and push my trolley to one side out of the way and pack at my own pace. No hassle. Quick and I'm relaxed.

JLo1979 · 04/12/2019 21:33

What @EmmiJay said. Always push my trolley out of the way. Put my change in my purse and back in my bag and am out of the way so not delaying anybody.

Original poster
FloraPostalOrder · 04/12/2019 21:33

Keep my purse under my arm

I'm busy doing stuff. My purse wouldn't stay under my arm.

OP posts:
TheRightHonerable · 04/12/2019 21:35

I totally agree OP.

I’m late 20’s and firmly in the ‘one item and contactless’ impatient generation but I also do a weekly shop alone!

It’s common knowledge that if you go through a staffed till it takes longer and you need to chill out and wait. I don’t get flustered anymore - screw them! If you’ve got a couple of items and are in a rush go through self service 😬

Peony99 · 04/12/2019 21:36

My purse wouldn't stay under my arm

So put it in a pocket or an easily accessibly but if your bag.

It's the fumbling which is so infuriating.

Fantababy · 04/12/2019 21:37

I don't find packing my shopping twice to be remotely relaxing, so I'll do it, at the checkout, in my own time. However, I do leave my purse on the conveyor belt so it's handy and I am a very fast packer (Aldi shopper!) so am often way ahead of the checkout operator.

Original poster
FloraPostalOrder · 04/12/2019 21:39

Put my change in my purse and back in my bag and am out of the way so not delaying anybody

I do that as soon as I've paid. I always pay by card anyway. So no change required. But I don't get my card out until the end of the transaction. So IBU?

OP posts:
Tumbleweed101 · 04/12/2019 21:42

I'd rather keep my purse safely in my bag until it's time to pay. After loading everything on the belt and then running through to pack it all away the last thing I want to worry about is misplacing my purse.

Original poster
FloraPostalOrder · 04/12/2019 21:42

It's the fumbling which is so infuriating

Maybe that comes with age. You'll appreciate some tolerance in 50 years time.

OP posts:
Fantababy · 04/12/2019 21:43

It'd be much easier if you had your partner, or an older child to help you pack, or hold your purse, but - hang on - you're not allowed to go to the supermarket as a family either. Grin

Khione · 04/12/2019 21:46

Where I'm paying by card I hold my card in my mouth so ready to pay as soon as asked.

Pack straight away where possible but have sorted, as far as possible on the conveyor so things come in the right order to be packed with lighter or delicate things coming through last

Original poster
FloraPostalOrder · 04/12/2019 21:46

I'd rather keep my purse safely in my bag until it's time to pay

Exactly that. I don't want it under my arm or resting somewhere on the conveyor set up. I want it where I know where it is.

OP posts:
SuperMeerkat · 04/12/2019 21:47

I was behind a faffer in Sainsbury’s the other day 😡 She looked so surprised when she had to pay and fumbled around for ages. Annoyingly, she was with someone who could’ve packed whilst she fumbled for her purse.

SimplySteveRedux · 04/12/2019 21:47

DP and I often go shopping with her forgetting her bank card, have had audible tutting at using the mobile to transfer money between accounts, takes under a minute.

WorraLiberty · 04/12/2019 21:48

Well I put mine right in front of my eyes, right next to my shopping, right in front of me Confused

Original poster
FloraPostalOrder · 04/12/2019 21:49

So put it in a pocket or an easily accessibly but if your bag

There is no way on God's earth ( although I'm atheist) that I'd put anything I value in my pocket. Certainly not my purse.

OP posts:
gumdrop2 · 04/12/2019 21:50

I take my time just because someone else is in a rush its no problem of mine. There's plenty of other tills, or self scans, or order online. Everyone wants everything right now and fast paced these days life would be easier if people just chilled the fuck out Confused

georgialondon · 04/12/2019 21:51

You're doing it all wrong OP that's why.

Spacebowlisback · 04/12/2019 21:51

I always keep my purse at the front of my pushchair now. But only because I’ve read so many of these threads I’m afraid of the general public.

NoSauce · 04/12/2019 21:53

I bloody hate supermarket checkouts. I’m pretty efficient in the way I pack, don’t dawdle or fanny around looking for my purse but I hate it when the operator tells you the amount when you’re still packing.

I just say “ yep I’ll be right with you “ and carry on packing. I always think that it’s madness that someone high up hasn’t put a stop to this by now.

And as for the idiots that stand right up next to you trying to hurry you up... that has the opposite effect.

TreestumpsAndTrampolines · 04/12/2019 21:56

Stick your purse in front of you on the bit where the cashier puts the scanned items confused

done that. Left purse behind when kids distract me too due to that.

I wish I could grant my phone permission to contactlessly pay more than 30 quid in some shops. Just go up to 100 in lidl, and I'll be fine, and the purse can stay wherever it is.

People need to chill out. I'm quick - I used to work on tills for a living, I can pack, and often I just chuck it in the trolley anyway, but I'm not going to fluster myself just because you want me to. I let people with a couple of items ahead of me, but there's nothing so special about someone else in general that they can't wait for me to pay for my bloody shopping without tutting.

My most indignant was when I'd unloaded, with a full conveyor belt before me of someone else's stuff, and I realised I'd forgotten to buy a single bottle of floor cleaner, so I ran off (leaving my son) to grab it (lidl, so about 20 steps away only). Came back to some dude had decided to overtake, despite having no room to actually put his stuff on the till, and the person ahead of me not having paid, then, his payment got bloody declined. He got all the looks and tutting, and performance parenting about rude people.

DopeyDazy · 04/12/2019 21:58

take your card out hold it in your mouth while packing, pop it in machine while you throw last few items in bag PIN number and go , how is that hard

Elodie2019 · 04/12/2019 22:10

Purse stays in bag until last item is packed.
Paying as soon as the assistant has finished scanning causes it's own problems.
I HATE it when they start scanning through the next customer's items before I've packed mine.

WorraLiberty · 04/12/2019 22:22

done that. Left purse behind when kids distract me too due to that.

But you would've picked your purse up to pay, after you finished packing. So why did you put it down again, instead of shoving it in your bag?

It sounds like you would've left it on there no matter what way round you did things.