There are two kinds of people in life...

[SheSaidHummingbird]

Those that abide by the one-way arrow systems in grocery stores, and those that don't. Which one are you?

Vote YABU if you are an arrow follower. You follow those arrows, no matter how inconvenient.

Vote YANBU if you think 'screw the damn arrows' and forge your own path round the store.

Feel free to comment and explain your choice. Undoubtedly, whichever side you are on is making you want to scream AIBU???

I voted YANBU OP. I dont really think screw the damned arrows, I take the safest, easiest option at the time. Sometimes that means me following them, sometimes it doesn't.

Not all shops have arrows and I've noticed too late a few times. Luckily not at busy times. This is why I shouldn't leave the house ever.

I'm half and half! If I've forgotten something and I'm at the wrong one of the aisle then I cba to walk all the way around so I just go and get it.

I follow the arrows unless the aisles empty,
One thing I hate though when following the arrows -
Say there's 3 people on the same aisle in front of me, I only wanted one thing at my end and now want to go to the next aisle but the other 3 people are looking at things, I've waited 5/10mins to get out of an aisle just because I couldn't pass people and I find myself awkwardly looking at things I don't need on the shelves because I don't want them to think I'm rushing them! Nightmare

Imagine you think "sod it" and ignore the arrows. A few days later you come down with a nasty cough. You recover after a few weeks but that little old lady you saw kn aisle 3 lies in ICU with very little chance of recovery and her granddaughter has nasty symptoms now which have passed to her unborn child.

The scenario above may not be likely but it isn't ridiculous either is it?

Not following the lines is lazy. I suppose the exception would be is he aisle.were empty and you corrected your route once it started to fill up

I attempted to follow a one-way system in a store today. It was impossible, they’d made it insanely complicated and there several aisles where they’d mixed up some of the arrows and you couldn’t tell which way you were supposed to be going. I was in a different store which had no arrows, but limited to a certain number of people. That was a lot easier and quicker overall, despite having to queue to get in.

crafty

I feel your pain

I went for the first time to A small tesco and didn’t know if I could overtake...the lady in front of me was spending ages (it felt) looking at which brand of toothpaste she wanted

And then she stopped to look at birthday cards and I’m like...youre fucking kidding me, then an announcement said people could overtake and oh the relief 😀

How come Co op have managed to f this up so completely? Mine is as others have described, with one down aisle and then three up aisles

You'd think with just 4 aisles it would be easy enough - or maybe we're all neighbours and complaining about the same store

It was nice to go into a store without arrows.
I'm dreading going back to school as I'm bound to go the wrong way round there as well ! I'm not as young as I used to be.

london

Ive just worked it out...my co op has 2 up aisles and 3 down...i think

So not the same one, that would have been funny 😀

I follow them but don't see the point because people get so close anyway. There was a lady looking at the section I needed something from so I waited. Another lady pushed past me, actually barging into me, stood right in front of the other person and got what she wanted and stomped off muttering about how she wasn't waiting. The first person laughed and said she couldn't imagine being that desperate for yoghurt!

Both. I will go the wrong way if I’m the only one there.

Brilliant @CherryPavlova

I'm like shinynewapple2020 and others, the intention is there, but. . .
Fortunately, my local supermarket doesn't have them. Which is lucky, because I'm shopping for 4 households at a time atm, and that is stressful enough!

So you are one person or the other based on whether you follow arrows on a shop floor? You are talking about changing habits of a lifetime. Ingrained behaviour takes time and effort to change; if it was as easy as that nobody would ever need therapy. It is possible to become distracted, preoccupied or just forget that they are there. I don't think that anyone but a small minority not following the arrows is consciously thinking 'screw the damn arrows'.

This also applies to the fucking car park

The arrows and one way systems don’t work in the larger store with the massive gap in the middle. I zigzag the top level of aisles then do the same on the bottom set. But there are some aisles I miss altogether and that puts me out of synch.

Common sense helps me stay away from other people though so I think it’s ok. And the shops I go to operate a strict volume of people so it’s never a problem.

You're original theory is right! Where there rules I simply want to break them. I'm told it's called sociopathy

I try to follow the arrows as much as possible but it’s easy to accidentally not realise you’re going the wrong way, especially if you miss a few aisles. I think we need to make some allowances with the new rules. For people to have went 20-70 years going about their life to suddenly in the space of a few weeks adapt to a whole new normal in regards to shopping & social distancing, we have to give some breathing room to the odd person that comes a bit too close or goes the wrong way down an aisle.

I've been dissed for going the wrong way!
It is mortifying when you are trying your best.

Sometimes I follow them, sometimes I don't (and get screamed at by other shoppers).

It’s easy to accidentally not realise you’re going the wrong way, especially if you miss a few aisles. You won't accidentally not realise if you look before walking up/down the aisle.

@wateroffaduckscrack sorry I would much rather get through my shopping quickly than spend the full time staring at the ground & not watching where I was going. Ahhh to be so perfect

I've not been in a shop with one way arrows (except Superdrug and I only realised half way round the second visit!) but if I did I would follow them. They need to be blindingly obvious though, as otherwise people like me don't notice them

Our Tesco's arrows make no sense at all.
I would follow but to follow properly would mean everyone ended up stuck in the bakery section with no way back.
There's also a queuing system where the supermarket worker sends you to a till number and you have to walk to the till in the opposite direction to the pointing arrow with other shoppers walking the correct way.