To be baffled by buyers who won't pay till they have put ALL their shopping into bags at the supermarket checkout? When there's a queue waiting behind them?

[tigermoth]

I am always baffled when people with lots of shopping pack everything first and pay last at supermarket checkouts.

Why are some people totally oblivious to holding up the queue. Is it due to absent mindedness? selfishness? Or some logical reason?

It really slows things down for all those waiting behind them. AIBU to find it annoying?

Tigermoth, I think you need to take a deep breath. I suppose you haven't signed up to the slow food movement, are one of those people who gets on the train before other people get off. Carm down and slow down smell the coffee and the flowers maybe you need to get out of town for a while.
Sorry, after spending 80-90 squids I'm going to check I've got everything. AND sometimes I'm going to have apolite conversation with the check out staff so Ha

but starbear, lingering by a supermarket checkout does not equal better quality of life for me, with all due respect

Tigermoth - I am with you on this one. It just takes a bit of co-ordinaion and consideration.

Mind you I am very impatient, so I try not to hurry others up uneccessarily either.

Some people take fecking ges to pay and then start chit chatting to the person on the till - completely oblivious to all those waiting in the queue!

The other thing that annoys me is when people daydream at taffic lights. So when the light turns to green, there is a 45 second delay while dosey diver in front wake up, thinks "doh?" and then puts car into gear......eventually crawling off

hey man, less wound-up by small things is a better quality of life

Hey guys dont swaet the small stuff hay?

Try Holland !! Lived there for 6 months. Only one brand of supermarket - the infamous "Albert Hein". Filthy dirty, limited stock bizarrely packaged - e.g. carrots individually shrink wrapped like cucumbers, much of it out of date. Huge amounts of meat, cake and liquorice and flap all of anything else.

Then the ordeal of the till - the mardiest women EVER - who hurled the shopping down the counter at breakneck speed whilst fixing you with a real evil eye before just holding out their hand for the cash. Not a word spoken. If you said anything they would just point to the total on the till with a bored expression. You could barely get it all into the trolley, never mind pack any of it, and the carrier bags were 10 euros a piece.

When I got home to England and went to Sainsbury's in Central London I actually welled up at the variety on offer, the happy people and the chatty staff. .

OMG, Snippety, I survived 3 years of that behaviour in NL with "£$%^& Albert Heijn! I think shopping-hurling is an Olympic sport there! Also the conveyor belts are so short you could never get all your shopping on so they would start scanning it through while you were still unloading it and would merrily fling eggs, bread, washing powder, milk all down on top of each other! Add to the mix the 3 and 1 year old I was shopping with at the beginning of our stay and my misery was complete. It is one of the things which I remember most clearly of all the things which made me miserable when we lived there!

I don't like to rush my packing. Its costs a fortune and I want to get it home safely. If you stand behind me, I won't notice you tutting, because I am carefully packing tins, then heavy veg and frozen goods, then boxes, then fresh meat, then chilled items, them lighter veg and bakery things on the top. I won't be made to rush.......I might even repack if you rush me.

If you pay while you're packing, then the next person's stuff comes through and mixes up with your stuff, and then they try to shove you out of the way with their trolley. (I'm sure this has been said already.)

I agree with the OP when I am the one waiting behind a slow coach but when I am the one packing I do pack first then pay. Otherwise I get in a tizzy and forget my card or something and feel rushed. Having said that if I feel I am holding people up I do say sorry or try to say something nice and chatty to lighten the atmosphere such as 'I love your jumper, where did you get it' that calms them down and turns a negative situation into a positive, always works even if the jumper mings!!!

I do mostly do self-scan though so don't have to queue up at all or even encounter another human being.

The supermarket experience in Hungary leaves something to be desired. Especially at the Spar, I would always get the mardiest woman on the checkout who would just point at the total then hold her hand out and what really made me regardless of whether I was holding my hand out for the change she would always slap it on the checkout, she was very rude.

Now here in the Philippines it is lovely. There is never a queue, they always open one up if people are waiting, then a man comes and puts all your shopping on the belt for you, and in an orderly manner. Then another man packs it at the end, again in an orderly manner so fruit is in one freezer stuff in another etc. Then the packing man takes your trolley out to your car and puts it all the boot for you, so so simple

Oh forgot the whole point of AIBU. I always pay mid packing here because someone else is doing it, but they never start scanning until you are finished.

In England I wait until I have finished packing, and hate chatty check out people

YABU
I always pay at the end
If my stuff isn't packed I'm not done and I don't want your stuff coming down the conveyor belt while I'm packing
Take a deep breath and wait

All of you who never pay till your stuff is packed, don't you feel a bit guilty, on busy days, for holding up the queue?

If I know there is a queue behind me, I start packing once my stuff begins to roll off the scanner, then, if the cashier has finished scanning and has the total, I stop packing and pay. Then I move my remaining shopping to one side of the counter (if there is room) so the space is free for the next shopper.

I expect the cashier to deal with the next customer as soon as I have paid my bill. I don't think it's rude if they do this while I am still packing. It doesn't bother me as long as I can pack my stuff ok.

It's a win win situation isn't it? I get to leave as soon as possible and the next customer gets served as soon as possible.

If I sensed the person behind me was getting impatient, I'd hurry up as much as I could. Why deliberately slow down for no practical reason? I don't want to be hanging around a supermarket checkout just to wind up the person behind me. Isn't that cutting off your nose to spite your face?

it looks like most MNers should join this campaign

the man in the photo is sitting in the town i used to live in[homesick emoticon]

ther are some supermarker processes that get on my nerves, but whether one packs then pays or packs pays packs or any other combination....i can't actually see how it can be quicker or slower, the shopping needs packing, and paying for, so i dont think the order matters.

now why is is so cramped around the fruit and veg at tesco. why do people leave their trolly in the middle of the aisle

why isn't there an ipod plug in on the trolly?

I can't quite see what hanging around a supermarket checkout has to do with enhancing your quality of life. I would rather slow down when I am doing something pleasant, like eating a meal so I can taste the food better.

why is everyone in such a rush?

life is stressful enough

how does it make it slower? surely the order doesn't matter - the food must be packed. whether they say "that's £56.56 please" and at that moment they pay and then continue to pack.

or whether they continue to pack and then pay

there is no time saving.

Someone has got to invent soon a trolley bag which scans the food as you fill it up, then when you get to the till the cashier takes the reading from the trolley and takes your payment.

You then take the trolley bag to your car and put the whole lot in. No more unloading and loading, scanning, or any other palaver.

Dragons Den, here I come.