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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Customer service goes out the window when you're clearly an idiot!

366 replies

RiskyRetail · 25/03/2020 10:08

This is more of a rant than AIBU, feel free to join me...

So I work in a supermarket convenience store. I was on the early shift yesterday and surprise surprise, people are still ignoring social distancing and essential travel... Just a few examples of people being idiots include...

  • Old people coming in to buy a newspaper
  • People coming to buy lottery tickets

Neither are food or medicine. What do people not understand about essential travel?

  • People coming to the till with a single item... Go to the self checkout FFS 😡
  • People not understanding the 2m distance. You don't need to be peeking over my shoulder whilst I'm dealing with the self scan.
  • People realising there's a queue to get into the shop and then grunting forget it. If you can 'forget it', it is clearly not essential so why the fuck are you out and about?

I was very snappy with a few customers yesterday but I'm beyond caring. I'm not going to stand with a smile while your idiotic behaviour puts me and people I care about at risk!

OP posts:
Barbies97 · 25/03/2020 15:40

@BronwenFrideswide newspapers are sold in supermarkets, they can be bought when you infrequently visit shops for essential items.

Newsagents do not just sell newspapers, they sell milk, bread, tinned items, they are not a newspaper stand. That's why they're open.

Does that clear it all up for you?

They will be shut down soon when people keep bending the rules.

MrsSnitchnose · 25/03/2020 15:41

For those saying shop once a week. Not possible when half the stuff you order online doesn't come. Also I only have a small freezer. There's only 2 of us and we've never needed to get lots of food in. I will only go out when supplies are nearing critical levels, but just providing a bit of perspective.

@leonardthelemming There absolutely are people willing to shop for others. I went to the shops for bread, milk etc for the self isolating elderly couple at the bottom of my street

ptumbi · 25/03/2020 15:43

FFS we are being judged on our shopping now? Hmm

I've already had my NDN - 'Oh you're off to work then?' Hmm (8am, me in uniform) 'Yes Barry', Hmm right back atcha.

If I or anyone goes to the shop for our 'essential' shopping FUCK THE FUCK OFF if I buy chocolate in a shop packed to the gills with chocolate, alcohol, fags, biscuits, cakes and newspapers! These things are not decorative, they are there to be purchased! Who decides what is my essential shopping? I fucking do, that's who!

And if I buy a Krispy Kreme, a TakeABreak and a pack of 20 that is NONE of anyone's business!

I've had elderly people crying at me; they are so lonely - the old people's centres are closed, so no more tea and cake, no Bridge teams, no Dances, no Coffee with friends, no afternoons with grandchildren, so again - FUCK OFF if they want to buy a newspaper in a shop where other people are. They can keep 2 meters distance, they can go at special times, they can hand-wash with the rest of us. DO NOT make their lives even less worth living by FUCKING JUDGING
ON WHAT AND WHEN THEY SPEND THEIR MONEY. Angry

Barbies97 · 25/03/2020 15:43

@MrsSnitchnose I get not everyone can shop once a week, for them more trips are essential but not going and buying a newspaper, then the next day a packet of sweets etc!

MrsSnitchnose · 25/03/2020 15:47

@Barbies97 I get that. It was aimed at PP who were insisting on once a week. FWIW, I agree with you. Told DS he will have to eat his snacks slowly as I'm not venturing out again until we need meals

Barbies97 · 25/03/2020 15:48

@ptumbi as far as I can see no one is judging what people spend their money on, they're judging going against government guidelines. That's the issue, it's leading to loss of lives

BodiesMakeForGoodFertiliser · 25/03/2020 15:48

@ptumbi I shall await your moaning when the strict lockdown comes...

irregularegular · 25/03/2020 15:50

For some people the walk to the shop (to get a paper, chocolate) is also their daily exercise i.e., the only time they get out all day.

Be kind, people.

MzHz · 25/03/2020 15:53

Looking at the frothing and “blood boiling” going on here on this thread more people will die of strokes and stress attacks than the virus.

We’re a nation of people who have always carried on regardless. That mindset has served us infallibly; until now.

Yes we need to concede, we need to comply, we need to listen and follow advice/instructions, but it’s still going to go against the grain for so many. The elderly especially.

Doesn’t make what they are doing any more right, but the coronashaming is just awful.

Let’s do whatever WE can to keep OURSELVES and those around us safe. we can educate our nearest and dearest/notsodearest how to do so, but we can’t change everything or everyone and especially not by snippy sarcasm, jibes and barbs spewed liberally at random people from behind a screen.

Barbies97 · 25/03/2020 15:54

@irregularegular that's been covered numerous times in this thread.

I give up, these are times none of us have lived before, we've been told how to contain this but still people justify some should "be cut some slack", not at the risk of others lives they shouldn't!

BodiesMakeForGoodFertiliser · 25/03/2020 15:54

Again tho. I feel like it's not really processing with some people.

It can be few months of this if we ALL do our part and behave responsibly. It's is not forever and I am genuinely getting a vibe from some people that they feel like it's for ever and that's why they are not willing to just do what they are told for few weeks.
Or it can be for a year. Or two. Who knows if public isn't capable of forgoing some things for a bit.

Former has a small death toll, latter rather large one.

BodiesMakeForGoodFertiliser · 25/03/2020 15:56

@Barbies97 yup

SapphireSeptember · 25/03/2020 15:57

Oh thank you for telling me to 'be kind'. How about y'all be kind to people working in shops? Or do we not count? Do our lives and health mean nothing to you? Of course when the NHS can't take any more because it's been overwhelmed don't come crying to me. Or when we go into proper lock-down like Spain and Italy.

Alsohuman · 25/03/2020 15:57

Can all of you saying people here are frothing and whatever by arguing that we must stop doing bullshit for a bit go and open foreign newspaper?

No, because according to the frothers we’re not allowed to buy one.

LegallyBrunet · 25/03/2020 15:59

I have to pop to the pharmacy later to get my essential prescription. My pharmacy is in a supermarket so I’m also going to see if I can get some of the bits that weren’t available when we did our big shop the other day. It may look like an unessential visit but I’m actually killing two birds with one stone

TheFairyCaravan · 25/03/2020 16:00

Let’s do whatever WE can to keep OURSELVES and those around us safe.

I can't keep those I love safe because too many idiots think they're too special for the rules to apply to them. Then when they're admitted to hospital it will be the likes of DS2 and his lovely girlfriend who are expected to look after them without the correct PPE.

Frontlineson · 25/03/2020 16:02

Let’s do whatever WE can to keep OURSELVES and those around us safe. we can educate our nearest and dearest/notsodearest how to do so, but we can’t change everything or everyone and especially not by snippy sarcasm, jibes and barbs spewed liberally at random people from behind a screen.

The way I feel I can look after my nearest and dearest is by stopping people ignoring the rules! I'm sorry if that upsets people who don't want to keep to the rules, but they're upsetting me.

THIS IS SERIOUS!

My son had described his (much loved) job as harrowing this past few weeks, the hospital is at breaking point. The nurses are asking him to seal doors that can't be sealed and he can't do, he is having to tape them up and bloody hope. He came home last night having been into a "corona" ward of elderly people saying "I don't think any of those are going to make it".
He has no PPE, he's at risk, he's concerned about infecting us, if we cough I see the fear on his face.

So yes I will judge, yes I will try and educate.

Everyone's NHS is about to collapse and we all need to adhere to the requests.

Puppywithattitude · 25/03/2020 16:02

There's 6 people having a barbecue in the park near me.

Frontlineson · 25/03/2020 16:02

@TheFairyCaravan I feel your pain Thanks

BodiesMakeForGoodFertiliser · 25/03/2020 16:03

No, because according to the frothers we’re not allowed to buy one.

🙄🙄🙄 I just. I can't anymore.
Just go for a walk and buy your newspapers only.

Seriously. Brexit didn't make me want to leave. The attitudes now certainly do.

Frontlineson · 25/03/2020 16:05

@Alsohuman you don't have a close relative or friend on the front line do you?

also the sarcasm is awful, I assume as you've been able to join mumsnet then you can access on line news.

Also totally relying on newspapers at this time is not good, the pace of this is fast, we need to listen to news bulletins and act immediately, not the next days papers.

BronwenFrideswide · 25/03/2020 16:07

Funnily enough I am in a country in proper lockdown and guess what I can go to the supermarket, bread shop, greengrocers, newsagent, pharmacist, tobacconist, petrol station EVERY DAY if I so choose. You don't want a proper lockdown you'll only be happy with everyone locked in their homes under martial law enforced at gun point.

StormyClouds · 25/03/2020 16:07

@Barbies97

Newsagents won't be shutting. Newspapers are rightly classed as essential items, and even in Italy, kiosks that only sell newspapers are still allowed to open.

Frontlineson · 25/03/2020 16:09

@BronwenFrideswide what's the death toll in your country?

Marieo · 25/03/2020 16:10

@BronwenFrideswide because people here can't be trusted to sensible. The local park is brimming with people in the skate park (which has been locked up but cut open), and there aren't enough police to patrol or even attend a lot of call outs. People still milling about in large groups and popping to the shops for some chewing gum, or driving to their holiday homes. I would rather a total one to be honest if the economy is to take a bashing and those who are adhering to it, it seems a waste of time and money if people aren't taking it seriously.