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AIBU?

Customer in front rearranged my groceries

58 replies

LapinR0se · 09/05/2021 18:05

I don’t know, maybe I am some uptight freak or something.
I did quite a big supermarket shop today and the guy in front of me at the till kept commenting on what I was putting on the belt. Already I found that odd. Like mind your own business mate? (I was buying totally normal things like eggs, bread, sausages, milk etc for the week).
Then he decided I was putting them on the belt incorrectly and he started rearranging them all. I had them lying down so they wouldn’t topple but he put them all upright to make more space.
I was so uncomfortable. I didn’t say to stop because he was talking to me in rapid French (I live in Switzerland). But I was very anxious and wanted to clean everything when I came home.
We’re in the middle of a pandemic. You don’t touch people’s groceries ANYWAY but especially not now!! Am I right?? Or just some crazy uptight person????

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flippertygibbit · 09/05/2021 19:16

Well, much as I'd have hated that, it's obvious he has some kind of problem so I would just have let him get on with it. There will be loads of people who had touched the goods on the shelves anyway.

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littlepattilou · 09/05/2021 19:16

@DroopyDaff

YADNBU! What a twat. I bet he wouldn’t have done that if you were a bloke!

I’d have to clean them too so I don’t blame you. I’d have told him straightaway not to touch my stuff though.

I only use a self scanner in the supermarket so no one else touches what I buy (always stuff from the back of the shelf too!) and if I get randomly checked I insist on picking up the items myself to be scanned

so I don’t feel the need to wipe them all when I get home. I hate going into places like Home Bargains where they don’t have scanners.

THIS. No way would he have done this if you had been a man.

YANBU at ALL @LapinR0se I would have told a store assistant (maybe the checkout operator,) actually, that this man was messing with my stuff, and it was freaking you out/upsetting you, and you are vulnerable, and don't want to catch anything, and can someone PLEASE tell him to stop. Really lay it on if it happens again, and get the fucking weirdo in trouble. What a weirdo he sounds.

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littlepattilou · 09/05/2021 19:18

@flippertygibbit

Well, much as I'd have hated that, it's obvious he has some kind of problem so I would just have let him get on with it. There will be loads of people who had touched the goods on the shelves anyway.

I have a 'kind of problem' too. When someone messes with my stuff, I screw up my hand into a fist, and punch them in the nose, and knock them out. So should I be allowed to 'get away with it?' Knocking someone out for pissing around with MY STUFF? Because I have a problem that I cannot help?

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Meowchickameowmeow · 09/05/2021 19:19

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Sadsiblingatsea · 09/05/2021 19:22

Sounds very Swiss!
I once had a swimming pool lifeguard storm into the mixed sauna complaining we still had swimming costumes on.

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EvelynBeatrice · 09/05/2021 19:24

I understand your anguish really but.., I am now having a lot more fun in looking for the funny side in everything. In a way this would have overjoyed me as lightening up an otherwise tedious day. Perhaps you should have smiled and started rearranging his shopping too.

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Summerfun54321 · 09/05/2021 19:27

I’ve never had my groceries fondled at the checkout.

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TillyTopper · 09/05/2021 19:40

I have such a great resting bitch face that even if someone speaks to me once in the sort of situation they rarely say anything else. However, if he had struck up a conversation and then touched myself I'd have said "Leave me stuff alone please" very tersely. If he persisted I'd have told him he had a warning now fuck off. YADNBI!

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randompeople · 09/05/2021 19:56

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mnahmnah · 09/05/2021 19:59

He just sounds like your ultimate mansplainer to me. Always knows best arrogance!

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flashylamp · 09/05/2021 20:04

@randompeople

No. No. No.

Not fucking ^this

Stop with the offensive bullshit

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bellabride · 09/05/2021 20:08

I had to google "connard": don't remember learning THAT in my 1978 "O" level French

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Lilymossflower · 09/05/2021 20:42

Men do stuff like this to women to assert there dominance.

Pricks.

Also as someone else said there's no way he would have done it if you were a man. Also whoever said about autism/ocd that's also a no and damaging to the neurodiverse community to put us in the same box as misogynistic pricks who just HAvE to assert there dominance and better opinion as a man wherever they go in stupid, petty ways. Ugh

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suggestionsplease1 · 09/05/2021 20:49

I wouldn't have said anything I don't think. If someone is acting so clearly in contravention of social norms, for whatever reason - under influence, mental health etc I would estimate that their response to my saying something might be similarly unpredictable, and so I would probably just let them get on with it for what is a relatively trivial issue.

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70isaLimitNotaTarget · 09/05/2021 20:56

I find the distancing with Covid has meant my shopping is not tampered with by the person behind .
The number of times the belt was full and I obviously still had items in my trollley , some prat comes up behind and started unloading theirs .
I have shoved it back with the divider and said " You can see I haven't finished yet "

Worst was an older man (I'm mid 50s so no spring chicken myself) who was trying to take my shopping out with a
Do.You.Need.Any.Help.With.Your.Shopping like he was talking to a 4yo and carefully enunciating .
I said "No I'd like you to leave my shopping the hell alone"

The endearment of CuntyChops didn't leave my mouth but it was hovering there !

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HildegardNightingale · 09/05/2021 21:21

I would have chopped his hands off with a machete if he did that to my shopping!!

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Ginuwine · 09/05/2021 21:41

@bellabride

I had to google "connard": don't remember learning THAT in my 1978 "O" level French

Hehe I personally prefer cursing in French than any other language

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AppleKatie · 09/05/2021 21:50

Well this thread has been a French education.

Merci Madams!

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Isittimeformynapyet · 09/05/2021 21:54

Even if I saw someone put a multipack of crisps on the conveyor belt in front of 2.5kg of potatoes I would NOT GET INVOLVED!

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MrMucker · 09/05/2021 22:13

If you stand your items on the conveyor rather than lie them down then a smaller surface area of the product is in contact with the belt, and therefore it minimises surface to surface transmission of the virus. That conveyor belt has carried hundreds and hundreds of things which have been handled over a short space of time.
Additionally if they are standing up when passing through checkout, then the cashier needs to handle them with less contact, resulting in less contact transmission altogether at the point of you picking them up (again with ease) to pack away. To exemplify, imagine a box of cereal lying on it's front. It is virtually impossible to pick it up with one hand. But standing up, you just grab the top.
So whilst you defer to your preferred science by disinfecting your groceries when home, your preferred science ought to have also compelled you to stand them up in the first place.

Yeah, I know, he touched them which kind of sullies the principle, but that aside, I just thought I'd offer up some science as he seems like a very nice man, rather than knock him down in reactive Mumsnetty outrage.

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JingsMahBucket · 09/05/2021 22:14

@LapinR0se you can just say “STOP!” in English and he would’ve understood it easily enough. After that, I would’ve proceeded in a mix of English and French: “What the fuck?? Ne touches pas ma bouffe monsieur!”

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Brigante9 · 09/05/2021 22:15

Ne touché pas à ma putain de nourriture, connard

That's what you need to say

God, I love that word. I would have added ‘Faites pas chier’ cos I also love that, plus ‘Faut pas toucher’ very strongly. Regardless of how polite people are round there, what he did was not polite and I would have let him know, in the strongest possible terms. I might have physically blocked him, too, just for added reinforcement.

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Lou98 · 09/05/2021 22:22

Definitely a strange thing for him to do and I probably wouldn't have been able to hide on my face how strange I thought it was!

However, I think feeling like you now had to go home and wash everything was also OTT - loads of other people probably touched those in the shop before you did.
Unless you would have washed it all anyway (in which case it's irrelevant to your OP) then you are unreasonable for that.

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Honeyroar · 09/05/2021 22:26

Definitely don’t say merci!

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LoveFall · 09/05/2021 22:32

It's the commenting that would really annoy me. It has happened to me a few times where someone watches you put each item up and feels the need to comment. Once I bought some "low fat" coffee creamer and you would think I was committing a sacrilege.

And never touch another's shopping. Rude rude rude.

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