Slow clueless people holding up queues

[AuntyMargeAuntyFlora]

What is it with these people?

My latest experience was at a walk-in centre. Only two women ahead of me in the queue to book in. Goodness knows what they were doing, most of it seemed to be standing there looking at each other before saying a few quiet words to the receptionist who had to keep explaining the same things to them (that they had missed their appointment and needed to go immediately to another hospital if they wanted to see x department). Then they'd stare at each other again. Occasionally one would half-heartedly search in a bag or look at their phone. Absolutely no sense of urgency at all, and apparently oblivious (despite glancing in our direction several times) to the massive queue gradually building up behind them. By the time the queue had almost reached the door, another member of staff was called to come and help book everyone else in, and these two women were still slowly doing nothing.

I don't mind if someone has genuinely got a difficult query/situation that takes ages to unpick, or if they are perhaps elderly/overwhelmed/etc and these things take longer. But its usually these people who are first to apologise for holding up the queue or even suggest others go ahead!

What I'm talking about is the entitled people who don't seem to register that other people exist, and who ponder and confer at a snail's pace, oblivious to any sense of urgency of the queue building up. I can imagine someone coming in with a serious injury, and these two women glancing over periodically as the person bleeds everywhere and slowly collapses, as they carry on with their inane time wasting non-query...

I dunno whenever I have paid to go through fasttrack I have always breezed through. If I didn't then I wouldn't bother to pay it.

I have noticed sometimes you can't actually pay for it, presumably because it is booked up and they want to maintain service levels.

Maybe they have some sort of pleb detector for when non payers are diverted and downgrade the service :)

Smellyshelley
surely that would just cause more confusion? Especially if you have a trolley!!!!!!

As someone with learning difficulties 'imbecile' means fool or stupid, while derogatory in general it has nothing to do with disability... the fact you linked the two says a lot about your thought process though.

My retired parents go shopping for the big shop at 2pm every Sunday as that's what they have always done. They then spend the next few days moaning about how busy it is and how they wish it was quieter. Any protests from me about why not go on a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon instead are met with "I'm sure It's just as busy then!"

@housethatbuiltme

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbecile

Thinking about my mums nearest Asda where she always did her shopping, she started to struggle when she started to lose her health and there’s no way she’d cope with it now. It’s all self scan with two staffed tills that always have massive queues. It’s large, noisy and very busy. No place for anyone that isn’t able bodied, sharp elbowed and comfortable using technology. Staff are overworked and stressed and as consequence are often rude and abrupt if you need help (eg self scan comes up for a “quality check“). I hate it but have perfected using self scan and can whiz round and out again, using headphones to block out the noise on a bad day, before mum would have got down the first aisle.

I’ve no idea how you’d cope with it if you weren’t prepared tbh.

Because retired people don't time their lives around other people. Why should they?

Me too! I just wish it was an actual replica "carpet bag" I'm always on the look out online 😍

I too am at a loss at "faffers" & while I do understand what people are saying "maybe it's their only human interaction that day" harsh as this sounds but why is that to the detriment of everyone else? Although that actually makes me feel like a shit person so now I'm late AND guilt ridden!

Bag rummagers at tills or waiting until they're actually on public transport gives me no such guilt though

You can quantitatively disprove this idiocy by doing a google search on your local store, then clicking through the days on the store info tab to find the least busy times.

For example my local Asda shows 50% the traffic at peak time on a Tuesday compared to the same time on Sunday.

Friday is marginally less popular than Saturdays and Sundays. Tuesdays and Wednesdays after 9pm very quiet.

We used to joke about my mum (she would have been my age at the time - mid 40s) whinging about other people in the supermarket with trolleys! As if she should be the only one allowed a trolley! or in there at all ideally 🤣🤣

My pet peeve too and it's really dangerous.😦

In addition to that, people who stand and chatter to their mates at the entrance/exit door of a building, completely oblivious that others may need to enter/exit the building too, and have to push past them to get in. Also oblivious to the fact that these doors could be fire exits.🙄

Unfortunately retail staff (and others) are not empowered or supported enough to ask the slow people to wait whilst they serve those who are not.

I agree with OP.

I used to say the same at foreign airport car hire desks. There'd be a huge queue and people would each take 10-15 minutes at the desk. That's for something that we'd be stood at the desk for 2/3 minutes for. I could never understand just what took them so long.

Same with hotel receptions. Give them your name, they give you the keys. What's so hard about it? Yet only last week, stood in a queue behind about 4 or 5 people and took best part of half an hour to check in.

Just had car serviced this morning. 3 people in front of us at 9am handing in keys. Finally got out at 9.30 - I handed the keys over, the receptionist gave us the form to sign, pointing out the cost and the scope of the service - 2 minutes tops. Heaven knows what the people in front were wanting! Same when we picked up at lunchtime. She gave us the bill, we gave her the card, all done in 2 minutes, yet again, we were stood waiting for 15-20 minutes for just 2 people in front.

But yes, airports are the worst. Get your sodding boarding passes ready when you're in the queue at the gate, don't start looking for them when you reach the front. Same with security, passport control, etc. Why don't people get prepared? It's not as if it's a surprise to be asked for your passport at passport control.

If they give me funny looks, I just give them the 'death stare'. That shuts them up 😁

woken up after our afternoon nap have we?

No waiting for my teenagers to get back from school, Im not retired. Pensioners spend their whole lives working, when they retire they finally get the chance to do what they want, when they want. When I retire I certainly won't be avoiding shops at certain times just to avoid workers who want to buy lunch, if they find it that inconvenient they should take pack up.

Regular scenario at the busiest time in my local shop: Long queue already, person gets to only till open who then proceeds top up cards, buy a vape assistant spends ages looking for, wants this and that scratch cards, wants to then get them to check last weeks lottery tickets, and then ultimately their card never works so we stand there while they go outside and use the atm. All the time they are absolutely oblivious to others waiting.

I agree to some extent - you can go to the library and join U3A etc but I force myself to be patient now if I use a (wo)manned till as the people who use them want the interaction and I can use the self-service till most of the time.

That's the problem if you want to buy an age-restricted item and the queues at the tills are really long. I don't use the self-service tills in those scenarios as I always have to hang around for ages waiting for someone to come along and approve the sale, so I prefer to use the cigarette counter, but it sadly has a lottery ticket machine so you can be there for ages too. So it's easier to buy wine online in bulk!

Same goes for petrol stations with lottery ticket machines. I wish they'd have a separate till for petrol if they won't have pay at pump.

Not everyone who goes out in their lunch hour is needing to buy lunch, they may have other errands to run. And why on earth as a retired person would you want to go somewhere when it's busy when you can go when it's quiet. That makes no sense at all.

B&Q used to have a discount scheme for the over 65s on Wednesdays, the supermarkets should operate something similar in my view.

The view that people lack tolerance could equally be seen as other people lacking consideration and thought for others. Why stand in the way of an escalator? Why not be ready to pay after standing in a queue? Or have your belongings ready at airport security? Or be aware that a huge line is building up behind you and not care? The fact that these people would already have queued themselves would have given them plenty of time to prepare.

It could just as easily be said that these people are being selfish and ignoring the fact that other people have limited time - I can’t help feeling that some people just want to virtue signal how “#kind” they are by opposing the OP on what is meant to be a funny rant. After all, it’s not like she said “. . . . so I always carry a knitting needle to stab them all with” !!!

I wish they'd have a separate till for petrol if they won't have pay at pump

there’s a petrol station near me that’s also a mini mart and it has a couple of self scan tills where you can pay for your petrol or pay for goods. As well as the usual staffed till. Works well, very quick to pay on the self scan.

That was really my point - I don't understand why the retired people actually want to go down the shops when they are at there busiest - when I have the choice thats absolutely what I'll try and avoid

Yesterday it was the gaggle of women with prams and small children that were blocking our drive. Literally - completely blocking it, some nearly on the road, some inside our gate, wall to wall essentially.

I had been to the shop to pick up some essentials for my DH* and needed to drop them off before rushing off elsewhere. Couldn't pull in so just parked beside the drive and he came out to get stuff. They all just stood there blocking his way giving him looks like "WTF - you're interrupting us!!" To his credit he gave them his best leer and very gruffly said "heeellllloooo laaaadiessss!"

*(it was his birthday so I was being nice for a change)

"The view that people lack tolerance could equally be seen as other people lacking consideration and thought for others. Why stand in the way of an escalator? Why not be ready to pay after standing in a queue? Or have your belongings ready at airport security? Or be aware that a huge line is building up behind you and not care?"

Exactly this. It's bloody rude. Just because you have all the time in the world, we're not all so lucky. And no it doesn't mean that I think I'm more important than you, like a PP said, but my time obviously is.

I do think a lot of retired people especially forget what it's like to have no bloody spare time at all to do anything. My in-laws will huff and tell me what a busy week they've had if they've had friends round once, been to a dinner party and been to the doctor's in a week. But that is literally all they've had to fit in. They'll have spent the rest of the time at home gardening, or walking the dog, watch TV etc. It's like they can't remember what it's like to work, whilst running around after young kids, doing school runs and hobbies as well as those things.