Stop saying sorry when you mean excuse me!

[AndreaMarvell]

These examples are only from yesterday and today. Why do so many people do this?

Sorry can I pass you please?
Sorry I just need to get the milk (at a break at a conference yesterday)
Sorry I need to open the door
Sorry I need to ask you a question
Sorry I need to get off the bus

Nobody had upset or inconvenienced anyone so they had nothing to be sorry about! When did this start? I have only noticed it in the last two or three years.

Just stop it! It's becoming the new "Can I get?"

It's easier to make 'sorry' sound more polite and to follow it up with what you are actually asking for. Plus if someone says excuse me in some circumstances it can just achieve the net result of them going ahead of you/pushing in. I was taking something off a shelf recently in a shop and someone did this. They basically said just the words 'excuse me' and I automatically moved, if they had added an explanation it would have been obvious they were failing to wait their turn.

I was snippy because it seems a pointless thread. @pigsDOfly .
We say sorry for everything. We're British.

The worst part of using sorry instead of excuse me is when someone says sorry as they push past me to reach something; or shoulder charge me out of their way in the street. They are apologising in advance, suggesting that they didn't do it by accident.

Its a way of getting someone's attention

"Sorry (pause) ... can I just squeeze past"

Often you dont even need the second part because once they've noticed you they take action.

And "sorry" is actually just a shortened form of "sorry to interrupt your conversation/thoughts/etc"