In a supermarket earlier today I was queuing to pay. There was one woman in front of me in the queue already loading her items onto the checkout and I was waiting behind the marked line on the floor behind her.
The cashier shouted across to me "madam can you get behind that line please!" In a very officious tone and I said "I am behind the line". She then looked exasperated and said "you need to get behind the next line you're blocking the walkway!" It was early this morning and no one was trying to get past but I moved to the next line. The way the lines are on the floor is that they are in a "corridor" type space before the aisles start if you know what I mean? But I mean it begs the question of why they have lines on the floor if they don't want people to stand there. Anyway I didn't say anything else I just moved back to the next line but I was riled by her headmistress type tone.
As the customer in front was packing she gestured for me to move forwards and I put a divider on the conveyer belt as some of the previous customers items were still on there and I started loading on my shopping. The cashier then said "just load your shopping madam!" I was confused because that's exactly what I was doing, and thought she wanted me to stop so I asked "what? Carry on loading?" And she said "just load your shopping!" She then grabbed the divider from the checkout, slammed it down on the side and said "load your shopping without the divider, that's what I'm trying to tell you!" She was quite angry. At this point I snapped back "how am I supposed to know you don't want me to use a divider, if that's what you're trying to say you need to say don't use a divider!" She then harumphed and was silent.
I hate any kind of confrontation and the whole thing left me confused. I wanted to complain but then I was worried she would spin a different tale so I decided to leave it but it shook me TBH. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Should I complain?