Get in the damn queue!

[TakesallSortsofPotatoes]

Is anybody else irritated at people who stand miles away from the queue, so you think they're not in the queue? You either have to ask them if they're in the queue (if you're able to successfully get their attention), assume they're not, because why would they not be standing actually in it and walk past, or wait like an idiot behind them with a huge disjointed queue.

I'm also noticing loitering people blocking gateways, with no regards for anybody else who should need through. What are these people doing?

Anybody else want to partake in a rant at situations like this that irritate you?

Yes you absolutely are being ageist. Has it occured to you that you are fortunate to be in good health as an older person and many are not? That actually they may well need help with bagging and lifting? Christ, so much bile on here for the simple act of moving about in society.

Threads like this have a weird disconnect..on the one hand we all want to be able to go about our daily tasks as unimpeded by other people as possible but cannot seem to comprehend that for many, that means NOT been harassed and tutted at and barged and glared at. Someone upthread mentioned packing shopping before getting out purse...how can you pack quickly with a purse in one hand? Some people may not feel safe to leave it on the end of the till. I put a receipt away before I moved on yesterday because I needed to keep that one safe. It took seconds but no doubt on here it's the crime of the century. There are threads all the time about how everyone is so angry and rude these days...this one shows why 😕

@RhaenysRocks
There is always one🙄

I had a disabled parent so don't throw shade at me about that, I lived that life.
These women are perfectly fit and healthy, because they are elderly doesn't mean they are doddery.

But you found a post to have a go at, and done your own bile spreading.

Good for you.

Just to mention in case people are unaware but while many are funny obvious CF, reading some of these they might be disability related.

I have a brain condition and when theres a sudden change to environment I go temporarily blind and get vertigo. As a result I 'lag' and power down for a few seconds otherwise I would be a danger. It most commonly happens when going from a dark artificially lit indoor place to a bright natural light outdoor place (but can happen vice versa or also sometimes from pressure, heat, sound changes).

It only last for 10-20 seconds but its literally like the world spins and you lose your vision and sense of everything and are on the brink of passing out. It's not willful choice or to take time to just 'ponder' where to go when it happens and you have no control of when/where it happens (but at change points like doorways is obvious).

I always thought of all my symptoms that was one of the less weird and more common ones but now I'm wondering if it just doesn't happen to mumsnetters.

There's a big difference between people who stand chatting for 20 minutes with no awareness they are blocking the whole pavement/aisle/door and someone taking 10 seconds to adjust and regain themselves after nearly fainting.

I'm not old but am disabled, DH is my carer... I don't LOOK disabled. When I'm old I will still need as much assistance as now.

The biggest issue I have in life is everyone assumes I'm not disabled because I'm 'young' and have no obvious disability aids and judges me for not functioning 'normally'. I have brain damage, not as visible as a wheelchair or artificial hand but just as real.

I never understand this. HOW?

Queuing has a function, I know Americans regularly and loudly mock us for 'queuing' but then you can literally easily point out and back up that they literally queue for things exactly like us, in fact sometimes more so (shopping, cinema, gigs, get into clubs, the DMV, post office, bank etc... watch American films, TV shows or even their news footage you will see they do).

Every time I see someone mock us for queuing they literally do the same (because you have to for basic order and function) so what are we actually being mocked for? Are other places unaware they do this same basic daily function thing? Its not remotely uniquely British.

I think other nations do queue, but not as rabidly as we do.

I honestly don’t think I will. I do not get the mentality of some people. To stand still in a doorway and block it when you know people are likely to want to get past you is just ridiculous, so are the people who unnecessarily block aisles on trains so people cannot get past and get a seat so end up standing up for the whole duration of their hour long journey or those who stand 3 metres away from a queue. It’s the mentality of these sort of people I cannot get to grips with and it isn’t going to change as I get older

I don't really understand the objection to couples waiting in a queue together. Where's the other one supposed to go, and why should they? Much better to have them there where you can see them, than have one of them sneak into the queue at the last minute with a full trolley.
I need someone with me if I have significant quantities of groceries to pack, otherwise I take far too long about it. I'm not being deliberately slow or dithery, I promise, but I can only work with the limitations imposed by my disability. Which may not necessarily be apparent if all you can see is the back of my head.

They’re just numpties. There’s a lot of them about.

You have absolutely no way of knowing if they were fit and healthy or maybe, like my mum who had a stroke 15 years ago, looks perfectly fine but can lose coordination for a moment or take a few seconds to process the answer to "do you have the app" or find the right card. I'm not "throwing bile" at people just going about their daily lives, I'm pointing out the absolute lack of awareness and tolerance shown by some on this thread. I'm actually pretty surprised. I totally get the light-hearted "lack of spatial awareness" type comments but some have gone well beyond that.

Two sides to that. A lot of people stand so close they're virtually touching you or even nudging you to move forward, so the default reaction is to leave more space in front so you can move forward yourself away from them. Often there is no need to be virtually touching everyone else in a queue. It's not going to make the queue move faster.

At an airport when people start a queue before boarding is announced. Then there are those who jump into the business class queue (confession, we fly business class long haul so relevant), a member of ground staff checks their boarding pass and lo and behold, they’re not flying business class so they’re asked to leave the queue and they huff like a child whose toys have been taken away. Or those who have boarding group 3 or whatever on their pass but as soon as boarding group 1 is announced, they join the queue and those who faff about so much when they board, standing in the aisle, taking their stuff out of their cabin bag, taking their coat off etc all without any awareness that there’s plenty of people trying to get to their seat.

People at the supermarket queue who place their empty trolley behind them because they’ve already got all their shopping on the conveyor belt. Their trolley is in the way of you being able to put your shopping on the belt. One an occasion this happened to me, I might have accidentally slightly shoved their trolley into them, said ‘oh sorry but could you please move your trolley so I can put my shopping on the belt?’ They huffed but moved but not after giving me the evil eye because I’ve dare to be behind them.

At an airport when people start a queue before boarding is announced. Then there are those who jump into the business class queue (confession, we fly business class long haul so relevant), a member of ground staff checks their boarding pass and lo and behold, they’re not flying business class so they’re asked to leave the queue and they huff like a child whose toys have been taken away. Or those who have boarding group 3 or whatever on their pass but as soon as boarding group 1 is announced, they join the queue and those who faff about so much when they board, standing in the aisle, taking their stuff out of their cabin bag, taking their coat off etc all without any awareness that there’s plenty of people trying to get to their seat.

Recently flew from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. I was amazed that people actually waited for their group to be called before boarding. Made boarding much less stressful.

We always wait for our group to be called if we’re in economy, we have our luggage on board, we have boarding passes, the plane isn’t leaving without us but some people can’t seem to grasp that.

There are people who do this at check in as well, they go into the business class check in queue but they’re not in business class, I think they don’t realise that ground staff will sometimes go along the queue to check your ticket.

Oh and at security, the passengers who don’t remove belts, take electronic items out of their bag, don’t empty their pockets of loose change and generally faff about so much they hold up the queue and when their stuff has gone through the scanner, they take so long removing their bags and other stuff from their trays, they hold up the queue again and your trays are in a queue, which delays the people behind you.

Hopefully now that some airports have these new scanners where you don’t have to remove liquids and electronic items, this will speed up the process and make it easier for the less frequent flyer.

You'd hate me. We play 'Queue Chicken' 😂 Whoever buckles and moves up first loses.

Drivers who have the space of like 3 cars in front of them winds me up!!

People standing on the pavement at zebra crossings … who don’t want to cross! So they kit see the black and white stripes???

The people who get off the escalator and stop dead to work out where they want to go next. I mean how are you meant to also stop if the escalator is carrying you up/down? Go and work it out somewhere else you idiots!

There’s a special place in hell for these people…

Honestly my pet hate is people who say things like what's the rush? Why don't you just leave earlier? Well sometimes people can't! I have to run out the door at work at 5 to catch the 5.15 train that gets me into the local station at 5.45 where I then have to run to pick up my children from after school club. If I miss that train then it's a 30 minute wait for the next one, meaning I'm 15 minutes late to collect. They officially start calling all your emergency contacts at 6.10 and I'm not sure how soon after that they call social services. So no sorry I can't just leave earlier and I genuinely don't have time to just dawdle behind you pavement blockers!

At the pool I go to there's this weird man that sometimes takes up the medium lane for himself (we have a slow, medium and fast lane) but he DOESNT BLOODY SWIM IN IT. he actually just walks slowly sideways like a crab. I've seen him quite a few times as well. WTF is that about??

It is called being thoughtless and living in a dream world, a problem I've noticed is more of an issue in SE England. Social isolation during the pandemic has greatly eroded people's self awareness in combination with the rise of the smart-phone-dumb-user who by law must spend 95% of their waking moments gawping at their screen and it is everyone elses responsibility to get out of their way.

Yes, people stopping to put things away/sort something out or chat in the middle of
somewhwre, a doorway, hallway, gate, shop, till or whatever. If you want to do that fine, but move to the side 🤦🏼‍♀️

also people having a lovely chat to shop keepers/till operators when the queue is huge!! Now is not the time!

I don't have a problem with dawdlers. I have a big problem with dawdlers who don't have any spatial awareness and block everyone else from going about their business, when they could just easily move to one side! Get out of the bloody way if you're going to dawdle. How hard can it be to walk on one side of the pavement instead of the middle? How hard can it be to walk a few steps when you come to the end of the escalator or go through a doorway? How hard can it be to let others ahead of you in the shop queue who are only buying 1 or 2 items whereas you've got two dozen items and want to chat to the till staff? How hard can it be to avoid the busiest time of the day, i.e. lunchtime, when you've got all day, but workers have maybe less than half an hour to get and eat their lunch after they've walked/driven to the shops from their workplace? A bit of consideration goes a long way, whatever you're going through. Why make life harder and more miserable for others?

"also people having a lovely chat to shop keepers/till operators when the queue is huge!! Now is not the time!"
OMG yes this. I get elderly people are often lonely and they need to be able to chat to the person in the shop. But why make it at lunchtime? When everyone else is on the clock and the post office queue is getting longer and longer behind them.