Was I wrong?

[Daet]

At the checkout queue earlier, I asked the man behind me if he’d like to go in front of me - he had about 4 items, I had a trolley full. He gratefully accepted.

But the woman behind him said “you may have time to spare, not all of us do”.

I just said I was sorry and turned away. I’ve never thought of it from her point of view before, I’ve always thought I was doing a helpful thing.

Don’t do it in future or carry on as usual?

She was behind both of you, so it was utterly irrelevant what order you went in.
I had the opposite experience on a bus recently, though.
A nice old man about two people ahead of me decided to wave a gang of young girls who had just arrived on to an already full bus ahead of him (there were around 6/7 of them, and as they smiled charmingly at him he continued to wave even more through ), leaving some of the queue behind me unable to get on at all.
That didn’t go down well...

that's priceless!!!!

You should have replied 'You probably do have time to spare, it's just you don't understand how time actually works - I wouldn't worry about it'

!!!

She was passive-aggressively complaining that you had too much in your trolley.

Her problem. Not yours.

@Thisismytimetoshine oh now that would piss me off majorly

What an idiot. I might have met this woman when she pushed to the front of speedy check-in for a flight, complaining that she needed to hurry home after getting off the plane.

It's possible that this was an aggressive dig at you because you didn't offer to let her in front of you too...or she's thicker than a whale omlette. In either case she's rude so don't let it bother you.

the stupidity of some people....that's hysterical.

The man was in front of the lady? So she would have to wait for you and him, regardless! You did a nice thing that didn't affect anyone but yourself. That lady had no business complaining.

The angry woman clearly didn’t know how to count.

But the woman behind him said “you may have time to spare, not all of us do”

Her logic is wrong - as PP have pointed out, she'd have to wait the same amount of time whichever order you & the main immediately behind you went in.

It’s probably something to do with Relativity The spatial orientation of customers altering her position in the space time continuum.

So she is either a genius or batshit.

I really wish she had said that to me :) What an idiot.

She's the batshit one, you were being friendly and polite. I sometimes do the same and really value it when it's done to me.

You did a courteous thing.

Stop being a woman and apologising for things that you don't need to apologise for!

We all need to stop saying 'sorry' when we don't need to be.

You should have said: ‘If you can explain how exactly this loses you time, then I’ll not only let you go ahead of me, I’ll pay for your shopping”

I only apologised because I thought I’d obviously overlooked something - couldn’t imagine why she’d be annoyed otherwise! I should’ve asked her what it was I’d “overlooked”!

Anyway - thank you all :).

Take comfort OP, that there are people in the world you can't work our basic concepts of time, and that you aren't unfortunate enough to be one of them out embarrassing yourself!

She's just soooo important.

She sounds like an idiot who just wanted to make trouble. She would wait the same amount of time if he were in front of, or behind you.

Maybe she was annoyed you didnt let her go in front as well.But thats her lookout.

don't be daft - she had the same number of people and the same number of items in front of her. Smile and wave in situations like this.

Obviously she missed the logic bus when it pulled up at her stop this morning. You did a nice thing and she was as mad as a badger.

She's batshit. It made no difference to the time she'd have waited.

To give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe the situation was this: OP, basket man and complaining woman all walking to checkout at same time. Complaining woman is behind OP and basket man is approaching OP and her from the side, but it’s not 100% clear whether basket man is going to be able to slip into the queue behind OP before complaining woman gets there and claims the space (with basket man forced to go behind complaining woman). OP stops and waves him through in front of her, so in complaining woman’s eyes OP has allowed basket man to go first when his rightful place was at the back of the queue behind complaining woman.

However I think possibly CW was simply “a moron who doesn’t understand how time works”

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