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...

Mummy prammy entitlement. Very annoying.

See I don't actually think it's "entitlement" in most cases. I don't think anyone is holding everyone else up just to be a dick. It's a lack of self awareness. But please try and make the effort people!!

We need a fast & slow lane for everything.

Ha, yes. And just when you think they're done, they produce another card and start all over again.

This would be great for other reasons, but the women I referred to in my OP would no doubt completely ignore the lane system.

I can't think many people like standing in queues. It always amazes me so many retired people go shopping at lunch time when the people with jobs are in a hurry to buy their lunches ect. Why can't the retired crowd go down the shops when they shops aren't busy?

I’m nowhere near retired and refuse to usually go anywhere at lunchtime because of how busy it is and the many clueless and lack of awareness people who seem to not know how to queue, not know when it is best to strike up a conversation with shop staff (crowded and busy time is not it), not smoke outside busy doorways, not know how to not walk in the middle of a narrow pavement and get annoyed when you ask them politely if you can get past often more than once (same with people in shops) or people reaching over you (with no excuse or pardon me) when you’re standing on the far side, leaving ample space for them not to do so because they expect you to move instead of them who appeared seconds after you to go in the space provided. I will also add the people who feel the need to stand so close that you can about feel their breath on your neck and when you move away, they move with you especially when you’re taking money out. Why stand so close?!?!

In IKEA the other week, I queued for a hot breakfast, it was quite busy. Only to be held up by the couple in front of me, who got to the front then decided to chat about what they wanted to eat. They'd had 10 minutes to decide this and it's only a small selection, aided by the electronic display of photos. Some folk are just clueless.

I have also always found faffing and indecision really annoying. I have tried to remind myself to be a bit more patient with others, and that I don't know what's going on with them, since the day that someone called me a 'stupid cunt' for missing the lights changing. It was a really annoying thing for me to have done - they were roadworks traffic lights and took ages to change and now we'd all missed green. I totally understand why he was cross (if not his use of language). I was on my way back from a hospital appointment where I'd been told I'd miscarried.

Waiting in the doctors surgery for my DC's jabs. Huge queue. Someone walks to the front of it, saying they are just checking in, so basically queue jumps. Receptionist then decides to checks them in, resulting in lots of cross people in the queue. Receptionist ends up checking in all these people, whilst the two at the front are cross because they are no longer being served.

The check in machines were broken, which didn't help, but the unnecessary chaos made me so cross.

I got stuck behind a group of people who decided to stop and chat in a shop exit. I couldn't go round them and there were other people behind me. I loudly said "Yo! Excuse me!" And they were all surprised. One lady even turned to me and told me I should have said "beep, beep."
I have also been known to loudly say excuse me to shop aisle chatters.

I agree it is enfuriating op (see also people who sit staring into nothing while in a queue to scan their shopping then wait until they've been told the amount to faff around in their bag for their purse and then on their phone for the app to scan for loyalty points - why not get that stuff to hand before you even start queuing?)

But I also think it should be up to the staff member to manage stuff like that. In your case once she'd told them once she should have called the next person over. It doesn't have to be rude just "as I've said you need to xxx. Theres nothing I can do to help you further, I need to help the next person now."

This really pisses me off too. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who doesn't have to ask the cashier/server a thousand questions about what I'm buying. It doesn't matter which shop/cafe/coffee shop I'm queueing in,it's always the same. Ditto people getting on buses. They've been stood waiting for 10 minutes but wait until they're actually getting on the bus to look for their bus pass. I admit I'm not the quickest person in the world due to various health issues/disabilities,but I do try my best not to hold up queues faffing around looking for my purse or travel pass.

I live in a village with a fancy little bakery. V popular with people outside of the village. My biggest frustration is....
You queue alongside the counter, so essentially are standing next to all the cakes and bakes while waiting to order.

The amount of times I've been stood behind someone at the till, only then having a look and deciding what they want?!

Decide while you're in the queue and then when you get to the till, order and move aside!!!!

So annoying!

Yes, M&S is the worst, including the tills in their grocery dept. Always full of a kind of older woman who is buying stuff not only for herself, but for her sister or the woman next door, and has to pay cash separately for it all. I don't like self-service in big supermarkets, but I love it in M&S. Gamechanger.

Perhaps there needs to be simpler, clearer regulations. And a lot less of them.
This would help us all and require less queuing and manpower.
Failing that maybe we all need more patience 😊

Or people could read the 500 very clear signs and engage their brain before they get to the front, rather than gormlessly waiting until they get there to start faffing around

Well, I was prepared when I went to my local branch of Boots today where all the tills are automated. These tills don't phase me, but sometimes the store assistants do. Today didn't disappoint😞

Firstly I scanned two boxes of paracetamol - the till then asked for a human to authorise this. The assistant duly authorised that, no problem.
Secondly I scanned something else with a security tag on it - again the same store assistant came over to authorise the item.
Lastly, I had a paper coupon to use at the end - the machine won't scan coupons until you get to the end of the basket. Normally it isn't a problem, they scan and you just drop it in the box. But today, the computer said 'no' so I had to bother the store assistant yet again. He didn't look happy this time, I got an eye-roll and a sigh. In return he had the death stare from me, as I was getting fed up too. 🙄
It got sorted in the end, but honestly this transaction would have been completed quicker at a manned till, had there been one. Not only does this cause frustration for the customer but also the growing queue of people waiting to use these self-serve tills that can be frustratingly slow to use, with constant requests for staff authorisations throughout the scanning process.

I genuinely felt sorry for those people in the queue and the staff who were run off their feet authorising products on these tills (I wasn't the only one).
I have emailed Boots about this earlier today as it's off-putting for some customers and it's beginning to be a turn off for me too.🙁

That’s awful, what a bitch! Did anyone pull her up on it? Glad you were all alright but you shouldn’t have had to go through it in the first place.

I remember when I was about 4 months pregnant with DC1, DP and I were in supermarket at the checkouts and there was a woman at the checkout behind me who decided to squeeze herself between her trolley and me and I got rammed right up against my conveyor belt. DP did shout to her that I was pregnant but she was oblivious. My checkout lady did ask if I was alright but the woman who did it couldn’t have given a shit.

Well it's more likely they do remember, but realise there doesn't need to be a drama about it lol 🙄

I have had to physically push people out of the way at the top of escalators

I always manage to get stuck behind idiots like these!

I've done this numerous times. Some people are just sooooo thoughtless. They think the world revolves around them only😒

Yes, absolutely. I do have times when I feel like a nuisance to society, although having said that I don't think I personally have ever held up queue of people. I would be mortified if I did, and far from feeling that I'm entitled, I feel worthless. Like a snail crawling along the ground waiting to be crushed. I have finally accepted CBT for my PTSD but it took a long time for me to even reach that stage.

I should add that you would be very unlikely to find me in a queue of people anyway due to my agoraphobia. I haven't set foot in a supermarket in almost four years. I honestly don't know how you can say I am "entitled" when you don't know me. I feel the complete opposite - worthless.

This with bells on.

I’ve lost count of how many people who clearly do not have to rush have told me to stop rushing as their lives are sooooo much more relaxed now that they no longer rush. Well I bet Barbara but I still have to work and commute and have limited time for my lunch etc. Please feel free to share your ideas with my employer/mortgage provider as they’re of no use to me whatsoever.

And please stop bloody FAFFING!