to think that supermarket etiquette works like this

[franklymydear]

in a busy supermarket like Sainsburys on a saturday, you finish shopping and join a horribly long queue.

Suddenly you remember something which happens to be in the next aisle along, so you leave your trolley in the queue and dash to get said item.

When you come back you expect your trolley to be in the same place and not to have been moved to the side and an old bloke with a basket in front of you starting to unload his basket.

Shopping etiquette says you wait your turn right even if the owner of the trolley in front is not there for a couple of minutes.

However the op wasn't in that situation, as he had already pushed in, so tough titty wait your turn.

God I'd always let a little basket / couple of items go ahead of a full trolley

Loving the Tom Bombadil imagery! LOL!

I think supermarkets turn people competitive and miserable!

If someone in front of my said "Oh, I've forgotten X, can I just pop and get it?" I would of course let them
If someone in front of me just popped to get one thing, I'd let them back in.
If I came across an abandoned trolley, I would move it to one side.

That is proper supermarket etiquette. If you leave the queue, you lose your place except for the goodwill of others in the queue. If they arrive after you've left, tough - that's the risk you take.

yes if someone says can i pop and get..yes
abandon trolly tough titty.you are off your trolley to think otherwise

Why is eeryone in such a rush? Where do you need to be that an extra 5 mins makes you so damn angry?

I often wonder why people get so annoyed at queing and waiting, is your time so precious its worth the stress?

I say chillax ladies, let the old dude be, whats the feckin difference?

LOL at the difference between 10% and 50% of the conveyor belt being free! Maybe supermarkets ABU by not marking it out with little lines

If you forget, your mistake, your penalty. Go around again after you've paid and packed. No-one ever bothering doesn't mean it's not still correct etiquette. People waiting for you is still at their discretion.

Go round again

Here in Oz, not only do the check out staff pack your bags, if you forget something they will send a floater to get it for you!

"he was a rude, grey-haired man who thought he was more important than other people"

But the same could be said of you...(Ok, maybe not grey haired man etc) but YOU seem to think that you are more important, as you decided to leave your trolley, unattended!

If he was not there before you went off, he had NO idea that the trolley wasn't just left there!

YANBU, I dont think he was wrong to go infront but when you came back he should have said 'sorry ill go behind you', you could have then said 'no dont worry about it its fine you go first'. that would have ben polite.

What annoys me is when its busy and people push passed you in the aisles and not say excuse me, when move to the side to let people pass and they dont say thankyou and people that leave their trollies in the middle of the bloody aisle to look at something or get something. People are Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo rude sometimes.

only rude person in this scenario was the op. perfectly reasonable to go ahead of an someone who ahs run off to get more shopping if space opens up which it had.

YABU

The only thing we have established here is that there IS NO Supermarket Etiquette.

IME if you treat fellow shopes and the checkout op as human beings and say "I've got to go back for Alpen, can you keep an eye on my trolley" people are really happy to do that. I would even say "you go first if I'm not back in time"

Just walking away - you take your chances. Trolleys get abandoned all the time. You might have just noticed you'd forgotten your wallet for all they knew.

Have you thought of downgrading your supermarket? Morrisons' are really friendly and Co-op will probably have somebody you know on the checkout or in the queue!

Shopes? Shoppers!