Let's talk queue etiquette

[SpencerGarciaGideon]

I was in B&M the other day. We went to go pay for our stuff. There were 2 tills open. One had a queue with about 9 people in it. One had a queue with 2 people in it.

In my head, you go to the queue that has less people in. So I went to that one.
A lady at the end of the other queue (nowhere near the second person in my queue) said rather loudly but not directly to me " umm. I'm in the queue here"

I'm not a bitch so I turned to her and said " on you go, you were here before me" and she turned her nose up and said " no it's fine"

Granted we had 2 items and she had a basket full but I'd still have let her go first after her comment as I felt bad.

So would you have gone to the smaller queue? Or would you have waited at the end of the larger one and see if it eventually filtered out? Which it was not doing.

Was I being unreasonable?

I'd go to the shorter queue, but I don't know if me hating the environment of all shops is anything to do with that

Well there is clearly more to it because why would 7 people queue at a till when they could have gone to the other. One person I get but not seven.

The only logical thing I can think has happened here is that prior to your arrival, a second till was opened and people from the first queue were asked to move across. You might just have been unlucky as you probably wouldn't have known- any sane person joins the shortest queue on offer (unless you realise it's short for a reason- like the person who takes two hours to locate her payment card is at the front).

Either that or she is batshit. Queues in UK shops are one per till not one big queue for all the tills.

This is why there should be ONE queue which feeds into the two tills as each becomes free.

What I can’t understand is people staying in a long queue when another till opens and they haven’t put their stuff on the conveyor belt. Then looking judgingly at you when you get served before them.
Choose your queue, change if you want to, but the idea of challenging someone because of a choice you made is ridiculous.

Exactly what I was thinking. Nobody moved into the other queue so I thought perhaps it was closing or it was a cash only till but my DH went to investigate and neither were the case.

Agreed. It baffled me too.

Exactly. It really bugged me.

Exactly what I was thinking. Nobody moved into the other queue so I thought perhaps it was closing or it was a cash only till but my DH went to investigate and neither were the case
In this instance, I would have asked them if they wanted to go in front before going straight for it because again, it really doesn't make any sense that 7 people would either be clueless or wanting to stay to queue with a good reason.

My local b and m has one queue for 2 tills

If people don't know this and walk to the front, someone will point out the queue to them or sometimes it's the cashier

I don't know if it's official but certainly local practice

Yeah you're right. I probably should have. Hubby went first right enough so I'm blaming him lol

It's not normally a thing here. You just queue at whichever tills are open. If someone opens a new til while we're in the queue, I always suggest someone in front of me goes to it first though.

Fewer people. <runs away>

This!

There should always be one queue where at all possible, so that everyone gets served in the order they arrived, rather than having to guess which queue will move quicker etc

It's the fairest, simplest way - one queue which feeds the tills as each becomes vacant. Easy, polite, no guessing, no resentments!

I would have joined the shortest queue. If anyone challenged me I would ignore them. Theres not a lot they can do about it.