Shitty experience on supermarket

[TinyStripe]

Went to supermarket today. First day out after 14 days at home. Shoppers we're all pretty vigilant about social distancing but a few staff members didn't bother. One walked past me from behind and actually brushed past me then stopped dead on front of me. I asked if she wouldn't mind moving 2 metres away. She apologised and smiled and didn't seem too bothered by my comment. I felt my frustration levels rising and ended up finishing my shop early. I was there with my son. Someone in the queue said 'cannot believe how many selfish fuckwits bring their kids to the supermarket' - clearly aimed at me. I ignored. WIBU, to feel frustrated by the lack of social distancing, and by the comment? WIBU to take my son to the supermarket, considering I am a single mother living on my own? I burst in to tears in the car (ok, a lot of this is also due to being at home with my son and feeling really low in general). Just not a great experience and feel nervous to go shopping again in a couple of weeks.

I think people were unpleasant and ridiculous about your child being with you but you also are being a little ridiculous to get so worked up because someone brushed up against you accidentally.

It would be good if people could calm down and yes respect the rules, but also stop getting into such a state about every tiny infringement on the part of others. It will not be the lockdown itself that causes the upset, it will be the way other people treat us.

I went to Tesco today about 3pm - had to wait no more than 5 minutes to get it - the queue ahead looked quite long but did more quickly. Whilst in the queue, the lady behind was chatting to me - she lived locally and said the worst time to go is when they open as the queue is out of the car park and down the main road! I had been putting it off - 13 days - and was pleasantly surprised that is was easy to shop, people did stay apart and respect the social distancing and I managed to get everything, lots of fresh fruit & veg, dairy, meat & loo roll. It really was ok. A few people did have their kids in there. Again that was ok too. Everyone smiled too. I used the gun to self-scan and pack as I went they 2 seconds to pay and out through a different door to the entrance.

@TinyStripe
No you are NBU .
Like you, I went out after a week indoors, and was shocked at people not keeping distance.
I think there must be a lot of eedjits about who just don't care.
As for your son, what else are you expected to do with him? ?Tie him up outside with a facemask on?

I was thanked by a Shop worker for 'keeping distance'...she said so few do.... It is depressing.

I'd love to get online shopping, but don't have a freezer .

Just to add to the stories of idiots out there
We went on our daily walk with the dog. Waited patiently for 3 separate families to come up a path leading to the fields (fencing either side and only 1mt wide about 80 meters long), finally get onto the path and a boy on a bike starts after about 10 steps in, so we reverse and go back to the start and wait. Boy heads behind us, we start again. At halfway down the path a mid 30's guy with flat cap and mobile starts at the bottom of the path ignoring us. I wave arms and shout "excuse me! Hello/?" ignored. So we bid a hasty retreat back to the entrance of the path, where the boy seems to suddenly decide he wants to come back into the path, so we are stuck. I say to the boy (about 9) excuse me, we need to get out and you are too close. You need to be 2 meters away" boy looks at me gormlessly and says nothing, doesn't move his bike. Me: "excuse me, we need to be 2 meters apart so you need to move back. There is another man coming up behind us and we need to get out, move BACK please" boy begrudgingly slowly moves about 1meter back and rolls eyes. We manage to stand to the side and as the man approaches I call out, "excuse me, but we were halfway down that path when you started to walk up it. There was no way to be 2 meters away in there" and he laughed in my face, took a step towards me and said "You want to say that again?" I took a step back and said "how selfish do you have to be!" - he found this hilarious and kept lunging towards me. Turned out the boy was his son, so not only was he not supervising him, he hadn't taught him about 2 meter rule and was also giving him a huge lesson in being a selfish dick. How many people do they do that to every day? Why do men seem to think they are immune; more of them die with this than women! Possibly because they catch it more if they act like this twunt to be honest.

OP I think I might actually pin a label to my back with
"I am a single mother, my child HAS to be here with me"

And if a man gets close/attempts to barrage us again maybe it will elicit a sneeze and a cough just as they get alongside.

@WickedlyPetite

She was so close that I could smell her breath.

I didn't know wether too laugh out loud or shriek with horror.

I had to go to the building society today.
The door was locked and they were allowing one person in at a time. There was no queue and no one in. I had to tap on the glass to get the attention of the 4 staff.
There was a man cleaning all the time, a man who helped me and two women. The two women were awful. No signs but he asked me to stand in one place which I did- no problem with that. One of the women then shouted from the other end of the building society 'Can you observe social distancing and go and stand round the corner in the other booth' which I did. The other woman then appeared again and said 'Can you go and stand over there behind that barrier'. I said 'There are three of you, one of me and you have each told me to stand in a different place'.
She looked irritated and the man said 'Thank you. We are just about done' which shut her up.
He paid the cheque in which I had given him and -standing 2m back from the counter- I said 'Am I to step forward to pick up the account book?'
'No, I'll bring it to you' which he did and I followed him to the door.
One of the women said 'Could you both make sure you stay 2m from me please' which was physically impossible as she was standing next to the door- he had to open it and I had to go through it.
I said 'Well you'll have to move so he can open the door and I can leave. No other way to stay 2m from you I'm afraid.'
She tutted at us.
Grr!

Went to a big store today to try and do a big shop so I don't have to go back again for a while.

Other customers were respectful and kept distance however a lot of the temporary click and collect staff were just leaning over people to get to things or were stood together chatting

There was a lot of management type people in store watching the in and out of customers but think the temp staff need to be monitored a lot more.

I had to ask a girl excuse me three times because she was stood chatting to another temp and both trollies were blocking the aisle.

CoffeeRunner

Oh, and the comment about the child is pure out & out ignorance. My friend experienced the same and she too is a single mother. What else is she supposed to do?

Agreed. I left my child (9) in the car yesterday while i went in to shop for 2 other households plus a few things for us. It took bloody ages. I did warn her I'd be a long time but must've taken about an hour 😬. (She had books & drawing stuff to keep her entertained).

Cue a tannoy announcement just as I was at the checkout - she'd been seen crying in the car 😬😬😬.

Felt awful (she was fine) but thought it would be safer than coming in with me. So you can't win! Frankly a very stressful experience!

Criticise the other shoppers by all means, but please don't criticise the supermarket staff. They are in the front line (ie don't have the luxury of isolating and often don't have any protective clothing) and are doing their best to keep the shelves stocked and shoppers moving in very difficult circumstances. Thank goodness they are in their working - imagine if they all downed tools because they didn't want to take the risk. You don't expect to be exposed to infectious diseases when you sign up to work in a supermarket (usually for a low if not minimum wage). You've had 14 days at home, presumably you've now stocked up so you can hunker down for another week or so - they have to go in day in day out and face all kinds of unreasonable behaviour (stockpilers, queue-jumpers and other moaners - the kind of person who was rude to you in the queue). I'm living in Paris where we applaud the emergency services every night and I always make a point of telling the checkout person at the supermarket and the other shopkeepers that we are applauding them too.

Sadly, for every reckless twerp flouting the rules there is a another twerp who has discovered his or her inner Nazi in the lockdown. Women with children are often their primary targets. I remember the weaponised disapproval from when my children were tiny.
No sensible advice for you, OP. I used to just visualise Baroque revenge scenarios in which critics and muttered met terrible deaths. But then I am weird.

Mutterers, that should say!

I feel your pain. Grocery shopping is seriously stressing me out.

Nipped into asda today after collecting a prescription. Queuing system outside....wasnt too bad as there was only me....except for the drunken/drugged up scrote with a black eye lingering by the barriers harassing people coming in and out. Security guard was too busy faffing on her mobile phone to do anything about him.

Once inside it was horrendous. People not sticking to social distancing. There were very few self serve checkouts open and you had to go into the actual area to find one that was working which meant people were coming up behind you. Imo there should've been a staff member directing people. Drunken/drugged man was now in the store wandering round harassing people. I was a nervous wreck by the time I got out 😔

No more big supermarket shopping for me until all this is over. We've a one stop nearby as well as a tesco express and a couple of local shops. Will stick to those from now on.

People can be idiots. Today, at one supermarket (where there's one lane to walk through after the entrance before the rest of the aisles) there was a customer on one side dithering, workers on the other. These aisles are not 5m wide and after waiting and seeing none of them were moving I had to walk through. I didn't even brush anyone but still got tutted at. There was literally no other way to get through, my other option was to turn around and walk out.

I agree that people who have no choice but to keep working in these jobs will be more accepting of the impossibility of keeping a permanent 2m radius clear around themselves. Someone working in a public place will simply not be able to do it, so they'll crack on as best they can and hope those around them try to be sensible ie be hygienic enough to be moving about in a confined space.

The Billy Big Bollocks moaning about a baby deserved to have been thoroughly and loudly humiliated.

To the pp above regarding drunken/drugged man, homeless people who rely on begging on the streets will be getting increasingly desperate. No one is on the streets giving them money and street drugs are becoming less easy to obtain. Homeless people often have mental health issues too.

I'm not excusing that behaviour but I think we will see more of your example.

It’s a stressful time OP. I’m sorry you had a shitty day. It’s annoying when you’re mindful of keeping the 2m distance and other people seem not to take it so seriously, I had a similar thing happen today in Sainsbury’s, where a group of assistants were stood near the tills chatting blocking the aisle, even if I’d have asked them to move because there was so many of them I wouldn’t have been able to keep 2m away from them all, so just went up a different aisle.

Hope you’re feeling a bit better now

They'll likely get sacked far quicker for not re-stacking the shelves. Your comment is the moronic one.

Actually Bucket, & please do excuse my french, but you are a first class fucking moron🤬.

My very old & very dear friend is currently hooked up to breathing apparatus in a london hospital because he was a key worker in a supermarket & went to work because he was needed. That was despite having serious health issues that put him right up there in the very high risk group. He has had to deal with not only people ignoring rules & in his face all day, but abuse from customers pissed off he couldn't magic up some more toilet roll & right now he is in a critical condition with CV19. They do not get sacked for not stacking shelves in favour of putting customers & their own health first. Another old friend died if it yesterday, so don't you fucking dare 🤬

I also know of a postie who was caught in CCTV only yesterday delivering mail to the house. He was filmed coughing into his bare hands & then riffling the his pile of mail to put through the door of a very high risk lady. He is very likely to be sacked for it as it's not the first complaint made about him & that comes from his boss. So you clearly know jack shit so shut the fuck up 😏

If I was a single mum and someone made a comment to me I would very loudly announce that I didn't have the luxury of someone helping me out with my DC and I'd be dropping F bombs like there was no tomorrow, whilst holding my hands over my DC's ears.

Don't take any crap off anyone using this as an excuse for a free pass to be an arsehole.

Yeah today I saw a woman ask a man to step away and he was all 'for f*cks sake'. In the shop a guy stood right next to me and I said '2 meteres please" in a nice way. He said 'Don't worry I wont cough on you, this is all blown out of proporition'.

So yeah, people still are in denial and being idiots.

RockinHippy I'm really sorry about both your dear friends. Not sure what else to say, but your post brought tears to my eyes. It's a horrific situation, it all seems so unfair with some workers almost thrown to the wolves but the one thing we can do is to show each other some human kindness

It makes sense not to talk to people at all in the current situation. Keep your mouth closed. You can smile, give the thumbs up etc. Talking generates droplets even at a distance.

It is understandable you have to bring your DC shopping but please keep them sat in the trolley or close to you. Running about handling stuff on the lower shelves is not acceptable given the virus is active on packaging for three days.
Youngsters will often not show symptoms but can be carriers. Why do you think schools were kept open for as long as poss....so a measure of immunity was introduced into the population.
Don't be sad tho as everyone is under so much strain atm. The shop assistants are having to put up with a lot from tetchy customers. We are all in it together. I hope you and yours remain well. Be kind x

Unfortunately OP there will always be ignorant people around.
They may feel they are invincible but they should respect other people and keep a 2M distance away.

I was in a shop yesteday and a young couple shaved straight passed me (like you I had my back to them so I couldn't see them coming).

The ridiculous thing was they were on their way out and there were THREE totally empty isles they could have chosen to walk down to exit the shop!

It's really frustrating when I am trying to be really careful (self-isolating for 2+ weeks) and only go out when absolutely necessary.

Take care it will all come to pass💐

Totally agree Lillian, am so grateful to supermarket staff for making this possible. Braved our huge Tesco today and was impressed by everyone's behaviour. Orderly queue, everything stocked, tannoy encouraged everyone to keep it moving. But I felt for the staff exposed so much more than me exposed once a week. They were trying to do loads of orders and are probably under great pressure.