To have been irrationally angry at the woman at the till?

[Humpfree]

I was in a shop today, I was waiting to pay for 3 items. A woman in front of me getting served. Whilst waiting I noticed one of my items was faulty so whilst woman in front was still being served I said to cashier “im just going to pop these on here (on the side, not the belt) whilst I pick up another one of these as this is faulty”. She smiled and said ok.

I made a point of doing a little run to make it obvious I was going to be quick. When I got back less than a minute later the woman that was behind me originally had started loading her full 2 baskets of stuff onto the belt. The woman in front was still being served so it’s not like I was holding up proceedings. She could see I only had 3 items 😡 anyway … onwards and upwards. - so I stood behind her whilst she unloaded all her stuff. When it came to paying for it - she stood there faffing on her phone for ages - even the cashier rolled her eyes. Eventually she paid with her phone and asked if it had worked. Cashier rolled her eyes again and said “nope, it’s been declined” … woman then starts faffing with her phone again. There is now a big line of people behind me. Cashier asks for assistance and to open another till, I then took my 3 items and jumped to the other till —- beep beep beep - paid - done.

As I walked out I passed the first till where woman had only just managed to pay and was sorting out her crap at the belt further holding the line up.

AIBU to have felt extreme irritation at this woman? Why would just jump in front of someone with only 3 items with 2 full baskets of crap? And then to not be ready to pay properly?!

Hormones may be playing a part in my reaction.

I was behind someone in a long queue who kept leaving the queue to go and get things she had forgotten leaving her trolley as a place marker...blooming annoying!

😂 The 'little run' would have gone over my head!

I would only ever leave a queue to dash to get another item if there was no one behind me.

The cashier sounds horribly rude.

And you sound irrationally angry for having chosen to leave the queue and calling her shopping ‘baskets full of crap’.

You made the mistake of not putting your two remaining items on the belt to bookmark your place in the queue.

Even if someone has left a few items on the conveyor belt to 'bookmark' their place; if I was behind them and they hadn't come back before the person in front of them had finished, I would shove their stuff behind mine and get myself served. I certainly would not wait for them to come back!

If you were in that much of a rush, why did you answer your phone, “quickly” or not? Did it ever occur to you while you were busy doing your confused codfish impression that this delay could have caused HER to miss HER train? You could have let the phone ring out and call whoever it was back once you were on the train.

Absolutely this. Anything else is rude and entitled. You basically left the queue and then pushed in. You can't reserve a space in a queue, it goes against the point of queuing, which is that you get served in the order of your fully finalized selection. Change your selection, then back of the queue.

OP - all this woman did “wrong” was not realise you were intending to come back. She probably wasn’t paying any attention to you; why should she? As far as she was concerned, you could have gone off because you’d realised you’d forgotten your purse, or you might simply have accepted that you’d have to leave the queue while you found the replacement item.

So her payment declined first time - that’s life sometimes. It’s not like she tried to give the cashier magic beans. And to top it all, you STILL got served before her anyway! Why are you making a fuss about nothing?

This

You took your items off the belt, she had every right to move up and start having her stuff scanned.
As for the cashier rolling her eyes because the payment being declined and you being shitty about it too, wow both such c you next Tuesdays! Let’s hope something like that doesn’t happen to you.

Honestly yabu. I would have left the two items and asked the person behind if they could just ‘watch my stuff’ for a minute, such and such item is broken and you will dash to get another. As for paying with the phone, issues do happen not to mention trying to pay with a watch! Next time it might be you.

If this sort of thing happens where I work, I generally save the transaction midway through with a code, ask the customer to wait for the new item and put other customers through in the meantime. If I’m delayed (and some customers can be incredibly disorganised) I’ll send the first customer, with her code, over to another till or desk to complete the purchase.

It sounds like the shop’s queue management systems need reviewing.

Why didn't you leave your stuff on the conveyer belt? Where was the "side" you left it on? If I'm at the till and the conveyer belt is empty, I'm putting my stuff on it, or I'll be holding up the people behind me. If I'm out shopping with someone else and I realise something has been forgotten or needs swapping, I'll ask the other person to do it. Otherwise, I'll either leave it or, if I've not loaded my shopping yet, I will get out of the queue with my stuff. It's not fair to hold up a queue for an indefinite length of time. You don't know why the woman was slow at packing, or having issues paying. You picked up an item and didn't check it properly and lost your place in the queue, it's easy done, but it's your doing.