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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Have you ever dumped an entire trolley of food at a till and walked out?

469 replies

sunnydaytoday0 · 07/10/2023 19:56

I was in a Lidl store today and a very long queue built up.. and it became apparent that another till was not going to be opened despite the queue getting longer and many of whom had a big trolley load of food. There are no self service tills.

I then saw a man walk to the front and dump his entire shopping on the conveyor belt of an adjacent till and stormed out.

I'm sure if there was more staff this would've been avoided so it wasn't the fault of the person on the till. I know there is pressure on supermarkets to cut costs, but is this now getting to a tipping point in terms of impacting on customer service? Or is it the case that if you go to a so called 'discounter' type shop then you just have to accept that the service levels will be bit lower which allows them to offer lower prices?

Have you ever dumped your shopping at a till and walked out? I thought if the guy wanted to walk out he could, he didn't actually need to go the effort of unloading it all on a belt in a dramatic fashion in front over the worker and then storm out.

OP posts:
Tiddlywinkly · 07/10/2023 21:01

I dumped a basket of clothing in Primark when I had to be somewhere soon and the card readers stopped working. I had no cash.

DH has only dumped a basket once, when I called to say things were progressing very quickly all of a sudden with my second labour after 2 days of night-only contractions.

justasking111 · 07/10/2023 21:02

This week mini ASDA. only one checkout the rest self service with dinky checkout shelf. I always do a big shop trolley full so unpack everything onto the conveyor belt on the one till and wait. The cigarette girl/customer services department notice and someone turns up. This week. The member of staff told me off saying that I had to ask permission to use the checkout. I nearly walked out.

WorriedMillie · 07/10/2023 21:03

I had to abandon my trolley half way round once, because I felt very sick and faint. Quickly went to customer services ok the way out and apologised, as I felt guilty- they were lovely and offered assistance (sainsburys)

Tanktanktank · 07/10/2023 21:04

Yes twice, both times in Morrisons, the first time because the checkout staff was very rude and I thought WTF and left, that was years ago. And a second time earlier this year when my shopping came to over ten pounds more than I’d added it up to in my head going round, turns out because I didn’t have a Morrisons card it wasn’t all the cheap prices on the shelf I was charged.

I hate blooming store cards, I’ve whittled them down to just a few because I can’t stand the weight of my handbag on my poorly shoulders. Thus I only shop in a few particular shops now. My mums purse is as big as a paperback book, it’s insane.

Blackandwhitemakesgrey · 07/10/2023 21:04

I remember doing it when I realised I was late to pick up my child from school. I wouldn't have been late if there had been enough checkouts open.

This thread has made me concerned that the chilled/frozen products in the abandoned trollies are put back on the shelves a long time after they were abandoned? Its one of the reasons I try to take goods from the back of the shelves when shopping.

I have walked out of clothes shops quite a few times when the cash desks have had long, slow queues. Zara deserving special mention for being a shop that doesn't care less about their customers.

DiscoBeat · 07/10/2023 21:04

I did once when I had a huge trolley full and no checkouts were open. I had to try to put it through the self checkout and it kept telling me to ask for assistance (security tags, needing to remove bags from the scale to add others, unrecognized items even though it knew what I had scanned, telling me to put it in the bagging area when I had, etc) I had help a few times but then I got the rage over it and the lack of a till and I just left it there.

EarringsandLipstick · 07/10/2023 21:04

Two tier pricing annoys me too

Why? If anyone is in danger of forgetting their card, just download the app.

People are nuts. It's a loyalty system. I don't do my primary shop in Tesco's but love the offers they have for Clubcard holders, genuinely good deals.

Parapapampam · 07/10/2023 21:06

Yes, in Waitrose, I'd used a self service zapper thing as I went round, mainly because I knew I was short of time and paying through the tills always takes forever. It decided to freeze after i'd nearly completed a huge trolley load, none of the three staff members I approached could help and the queues at both customer service and tills were huge. I had five minutes left before my parking disc ran out and couldn't risk getting a parking fine, so just shouted my apologies and abandoned my trolley next to customer services.

Andylippy1 · 07/10/2023 21:06

Yes and it was Lidl. I uploaded the shopping onto the conveyor belt, waited & waited & waited whilst till person faffed about with customers in front & issues with till. Gave up & walked out!

Createausername1970 · 07/10/2023 21:06

Tigertigertigertiger · 07/10/2023 20:56

You can't release your pound coin by pushing your trolley into another full trolley

You are quite right. I must have plugged the other trolley into mine to release my £1. I didn't take their £1.

TattiePants · 07/10/2023 21:06

I had to abandon a trolley full of food at the checkout when the power in the whole store went down. It was getting too close to school pickup and there were no signs of it coming back on. I wasn't the only one.

WhatAPalaverer · 07/10/2023 21:07

A lot of entitled arseholes on this thread.

MezzoSexual · 07/10/2023 21:08

Not a trolley but one or two items
@JMSA I don't see how it makes one an arsehole to do this?

Robinni · 07/10/2023 21:10

Yes! Walked out of tesco twice leaving trolleys - once as the queue was intolerable and I didn’t have time to wait, once as baby was going berserk.

I also dumped an entire pile of clothes at an M&S counter during the pandemic because a staff member was spouting nonsense about them not needing to wear a mask because of screens…. I was like ok, that’s fine, but I don’t want to stand next to you or pay for items in your store if you’re going to go against company policy and gov guidance ta ta!

EarringsandLipstick · 07/10/2023 21:10

I remember doing it when I realised I was late to pick up my child from school. I wouldn't have been late if there had been enough checkouts open.

But you must have realised this ahead of time? At the point where you realised things were busy, why wouldn't you a) shorten your shop or b) ask them to hold it for you?

People have massive senses of entitlement (some people).

EarringsandLipstick · 07/10/2023 21:10

WhatAPalaverer · 07/10/2023 21:07

A lot of entitled arseholes on this thread.

For sure.

Blackandwhitemakesgrey · 07/10/2023 21:10

noname846 · 07/10/2023 20:59

I haven't worked in a supermarket, but wouldn't do it for similar reasons - the person who's got to replace it all probably has nothing to do with whatever caused the shopper to abandon their trolley, so why make their life difficult? I assume anything frozen would probably have to be binned, too, which is a waste.

Show quote history

I haven't worked in a supermarket but why is it soul destroying? Surely its just as soul destroying to sit at a cash desk or stock shelves?

Maybe its like working in an office and having to do some of the filing? That really is a soul destroying task.
As someone who dislikes grocery shopping, I can't imagine wheeling a trolley around returning products being any worse than wheeling a trolley around putting the products into it. At least you're getting paid for wheeling the trolley around?

HunterHearstHelmsley · 07/10/2023 21:10

A few years ago now, the queues for the manned tills were mega. There was queues for the self scan but not quite as bad. I'd queued for self scan, scanned and packed everything up and the machine went mental and wouldn't move on, or let me do anything. The assistant came over and said I'd need to use a manned till, but I wasn't queuing again and they wouldn't open a till and said I'd have to queue again, it would have been another half an hour at least.

There was quite a lot of perishables in my shop and the shop assistant was saying I couldn't leave as they couldn't sell the stock now. I'm not sure if she genuinely expected I was going to queue again or not.

Only other time was when I got ID'd for a bottle of wine in a massive shop. I was going to have to go elsewhere anyway, and I went to school with the checkout lady and she knew exactly how old I was.

Toothyfruity · 07/10/2023 21:11

I had a basket of food including a bottle of wine at a till in Lidl or Aldi, can't remember which. I was with a friend who was buying a basket of groceries with no alcohol. Totally separate groceries that we were paying for separately but we were in the queue and chatting to one another. Anyway because my friend had no ID they wouldn't sell me the wine! We were 25 years old so the whole thing was stupid so I abandoned the basket on the belt and left.

Fairospop22 · 07/10/2023 21:11

Yeah twice. Once in Tesco once in asda. The Tesco one I was at self serve checkout before the school run and kept on getting the error message about the bagging area so had to call the sales assistant several times and it took ages. Then I realised I was going to be late for the school run so I left it all in the bagging area that caused the issue on the first place

asda one I had bad news whilst and couldn’t think straight

WowOK · 07/10/2023 21:13

It sounds like the man in your post was having a tantrum and being a dick.

My husband abandoned his shopping once. He had a call saying his mum was in cardiac arrest. He had already put the shopping on the belt. He ran from the shops. He drove to his parents home. His mum died that day but he was there to hold his dad's hand.

NoWayNarc · 07/10/2023 21:13

This thread is just awful.

EarringsandLipstick · 07/10/2023 21:13

Then I realised I was going to be late for the school run so I left it all in the bagging area that caused the issue on the first place

Another one.

Did you speak to the assistant or explain to someone? I know it wasn't your fault but just to walk out...😳

Alexandra2001 · 07/10/2023 21:14

WhatAPalaverer · 07/10/2023 21:07

A lot of entitled arseholes on this thread.

Well, time is money, Tesco etc aren't charities & they make huge profits, 2bn most years!!! all pre tax profit!!

So if they want my custom, they have to open tills, so far never had to dump shoppin there but with Waitrose i have, i'll never shop there again, so bad were the queues.

nonumbersinthisname · 07/10/2023 21:15

1month · 07/10/2023 20:48

That’s ridiculous, it would have taken about 5mins to scan your shopping.

It’s annoying and I’ve had to do it myself before but it’s silly to just have spent all of that time shopping and not spend 5mins paying for it.

Show quote history

It takes far longer than that and the reason I know is that it happened to me last week - in ASDA, the scanner handset froze when trying to transfer to the till. Staff member was exceptionally rude and just pointed me at the self service tills when I asked for help.

As I had packed my shopping as I’d gone around the shop, I had to either unpack it all before scanning in order to put my bags on the till, or do what I eventually did which was to take it out and scan at the same time, then repack all of the shopping once I’d paid. It was a complete faff and the only reason I didn’t abandon it after the rude staff member turned her back on me was that the shopping was for my mum not me.

I worked on supermarket tills back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and we had to enter the prices manually. Back then if the queue was more than two people deep we pulled people off shelf stacking and opened up more tills. We installed extra temporary tills in December. Customers are bastards though and it gave me the incentive to study and get a job where I didn’t have to deal with members of the public ever again.