To be so frustrated at the supermarket

[MinnieAnonyMouse]

I'm just so fed up. We've been observing lockdown really carefully but going to the supermarket just makes me despair.

DH is a nurse but I work from home so to try and keep delivery slots for those who really need them I go and shop once a week. There are so many people either trying to cheat the system or just ignoring it completely. A shop assistant was periodically shouting that only one person could come in per trolley / household but so many couples / families were there. These people then stood separately, got two trollies and walked round together. I completely understand about single parents etc. but there was a family behind me with both parents and three kids. Why on earth would you drag your kids round? There was also a woman who had apparently arranged to meet a friend or family member - they got out of their cars and queued up together for a good old natter. No thought to distance.

Likewise, the shop has put a one way system in place with arrows but the vast majority seemed to ignore totally, wander where they want and if you were where they wanted to be, no matter, just lean across you rather than wait.

I'm worried about DH given his work and this total lack of thought just makes me so cross.

I know IABU for being angry about something I can do nothing about but AIBU to hope that people would have more bloody sense

I work in a supermarket and I've given up.

I've given up asking people to queue down one aisle. I've given up asking people to wait for other people to move. I've given up asking people to follow the one way system. I've given up asking people not to come down a tight aisle while I'm putting out stock.

I've just given up.

YANBU.

Thank you for doing your job FusionEsque - this wasn't a rant at supermarket employees at all. I know from talking to out "regular" checkout lady how badly staff have had it. Last week, someone was threatening to hit her round the face with a basket. Delightful.

If you’re noticing individuals not sticking to the rules then it sort of suggests that everyone else is. You’ll always notice the odd outlier. Most people are doing their best.

Also, the one way systems really just don’t work and seem utterly pointless, keeping people in the shop and exposed to other shoppers for much longer than they need to be. Was in my local Tesco last week and a man just wanted baby formula but was made to follow the one-way system and visit every aisle, making a five minute trip into a 20 minute one.

I got told off for going the wrong way. There was absolutely no signage anywhere, no markings, no instructions nothing...or I would have followed them. I felt awful, like I’d shit on the salad section. I went up the first aisle, down the second, and I was going up the third when someone muttered at me “wrong way moron”. The check out lady said I was going the right way they just seemed to have a lot of people setting their own rules. I’m the same as you OP, desperately trying to follow the rules, one shop in 12 days. But the everyday basketers have set up their own rule because they go everyday day.

My mums local supermarket in Northern Ireland is refusing entrance to families going in together (don’t know about single parents I don’t live in NI anymore I’m in London) or if they are rude to the staff (some people are being vile to staff that’s why this rules came in) and they’re sending people to the back of the que if their caught trying to jump the que. They also have a one way system with staff policing it and no more than 15 customers in the store at one time they are doing a one in one out system.

We've got massive arrows on the ground so it's hard to miss. Sadly, I don't think it was the odd rogue outlier either; out of probably 50 people queuing, I'd have said probably ten were couples / groups which is pretty awful. And as for inside, I kept checking the aisles to make sure it wasn't me going the wrong way there were so many!

Stick to the smaller supermarkets they dont have the problem of crowd control. Out local co op has a one in one out policy there only seemed to havs about 10 in the shop and 4 queued well aprt outside. The streets were more of a hazard that the shop. The saff were unstressed which was lovely

This really surprised me - ive been to the supermarket a handful of times since the outbreak and everyone has been incredibly respectful, careful, patient and kind. The lady on the checkout said that she's been overwhelmed by how friendly and understanding people have been; no abuse or trying to break the rules, just lots of gratitude and leeway for tough times.

Really sad to hear that's not the norm.

I have total sympathy with single parents or parents of kids who need to take their kids with them or else they can't go in opening hours due to partner's shifts, but I was pretty cross with the mum who brought her 16 year old daughter to the shop yesterday. Clearly she could have left her at home.

As teenagers can do, she moped around taking up half the aisle so there were two people to pass at a safe distance instead of one. We also had to listen to their annoying procrastination- shall we get this one or this one. Oh no daddy doesn't like this one etc etc etc ... Deeply frustrating and just totally unnecessary.

There are massive arrows on the floor in ours but people keep missing them - me included. Supermarkets are designed and laid out for you to see and buy as much as possible (subliminally - there’s a lot of psychology applied) and it’s very hard to get people out of a habit that they’ve been trained into for the last thirty or so years.

I think it’s worse in stores than it was before. People getting closer - very few people acknowledging the one way system - even staff who were off duty and doing their own shopping.

My husband and I have been going together with a basket each.
He is getting our shopping and I am getting the shopping for our shielding sister in law and her husband and also the shopping for our elderly neighbours, we are only going once a week though.

I was told I had to either leave my 3 year old outside or leave my semi disabled autistic son (10). Luckily my 13 year old had returned from his nans (to check up on her) and babysat the 10 year old for me. 10 year old decided to make a run for it and hurt himself! 13 year old tried to cope with it as best he could in the circumstances. I really don’t know how I am going to shop now! I would normally leave him at home, but he is currently obsessed with candles and fire.

I went shopping yesterday in a bigger town than where I live. Population 30,000. I was so stressed by the end of it. Too many people let in the shop, all going whatever way they wanted, constantly coming into my personal space. I had to shop there for my df who is shielded.

Up until then I thought everyone was following the rules. Shopping in my small town population 5,000 even though only 8 miles away is a completely different experience. Only let in a few people at a time, everyone is polite and tries their best to follow the social distancing rules.

In even larger towns/cities it must be a bloody nightmare. YANBU.

YANBU I work in a supermarket to and see this all the time and remind people all the time about the one way system. We need dedicated staff to police this but we dont have enough staff
The people they took on are mainly home delivery

V irritating man in front of me on Thursday kept parking his trolley on the next 2m line and the just going backwards and forwards wherever he wanted in the aisle without a care that there were other people within 2m
I overtook him in the end

YANBU. The most annoying thing though I find are the staff trying to restock the shelves and stand and just chat to their work friends for a good 5 minutes and you can’t avoid them going down the aisle! (Thought the point of them closing at night was to restock 🤷🏻‍♀️)
Makes the whole queuing up system pointless.

You're not alone. My last shopping trip was very stressful. They were letting far too many people in at 1 time. Couples. Lots of people not even trying to stick to 2 metre distance. People leaning over others. The thing I found most surprising were people shopping with their elderly parents, I'm assuming, in their 80s. 2 women shopping with an elderly man who was coughing. Another woman with her mum also in her 80s. She was in the queue to pay. All she had was milk and cakes in her trolley. Very little else. I was gobsmacked. I don't care if I sound miserable, it was bloody stressful. I think some of then were treating it like a day out. I'm staying put for at least a fortnight now.

Omg it's driving me mad. We always shop early on a Sunday and even through lockdown it's been relatively quiet. The one way system is new so it took a bit of getting used to but it worked well for the most part. What made me scream inside though was that one individual repeatedly refused to follow the one way system or social distancing. Every aisle I'd go in to he'd be there, marching past in the wrong direction. Worse still, he was there in a mask so it all seemed a bit callous like he was protected so all good, never mind the effort everyone else was making. Very annoying. He was certainly in the minority though so just another idiot with no awareness of what's going on around him!

My husband and I have been going together with a basket each.
He is getting our shopping and I am getting the shopping for our shielding sister in law and her husband and also the shopping for our elderly neighbours, we are only going once a week though.

One of you could do all that with a single trolley.

My DH works in a supermarket. Most people are lovely, have been trying their best to follow the signs and keep their distance. They’ve said some lovely things to DH and his colleagues and it has been really appreciated by the staff working there.

There are a few, however, who are utter cunts. Staff have been lunged at, verbally threatened, spat at, shouted at and spoken to like shit. I wish horrible, horrible things on these people and I’m not sorry.

Wish my supwrnarket would limit entrance where possible. No need for whole families with kids runningb around bothering staff 6 inches away from thier faces. No need to be leaning over staff trying to sort out shelves, no need to be actually brushing past me when you could just move over if i have my head in a shelf and didnt see you.
No need for men and yes its always men so far, standing in the middle of the aisle blocking it looking at thier phone while the woman gets on with the shopping.

Common sense serms to be left at the door these days.

People were always selfush idiots and they havent changed just because of current circumstances.

If you think shopping is bad trying working around them!

No one way systems here. But lots of couples and a few families (both parents), and far too many people busy staring at their phones or fiddling with their face masks and not looking where they’re going.

In defence of the couples, maybe they were maximising the amount they could carry home? I’m sure I don’t need to keep reminding people that not everyone has car, and they might have decided that 2 people shopping once a week (for example) was less risky than one person going twice a week.

@dentydown your 13yo sounds quite responsible. Could you give him a list and let him go in?

This is why iv started shopping as late as possible in the evening. Less huge families