I thought starting a thread like this would be interesting - it’s something I’m genuinely curious about - i.e., whether or not people confront line-skippers.
This used to happen to me more when I was younger - when it did, I typically would get upset, and say something like, “I’m in line!”, and the person would back down. I have a deep voice, which I’m sure helped.
This rarely happens to me anymore. However, what has happened is that sometimes (not often) I’ve been in line & I can tell some tool is trying to “inch” their way in front of me. At that point, I’ll position myself and/or my shopping cart in such a way that there is no question that I am front of them in line. It’s funny how people try to be so sneaky - do they think I’m stupid enough to fall for this?!
My take on this is that potential line-cutters will size up the person they’re looking to cut in front of in order to judge (in their own mind) if that person will confront them about the line-cutting. If they’ve deemed that person won’t (or probably won’t) say anything, they’ll do it.
This almost never happens anymore, since I shop online a lot more than I used to, and can avoid lines that way. Unfortunately, it’s not practical to order perishable food online…
This is not the same thing - but, in the past, when I’m not in a hurry and have a lot of groceries - and if someone behind me in line only has a couple of items - I have let them ahead of me.
Oh, yes. Several years ago, an older woman was standing in line in front of me with a few things in her arms, and when it got to be time for her to be checked out, she called over her husband who was standing in a line with a completely full cart. I wasn’t having it. We had a full on confrontation right there, and finally a clerk came and took them away to another line. There was also a case when I was Christmas shopping and had been standing in line for a long, long time, not only behind slow customers, but then there was a woman doing a return and it took the clerk forever to clear her. I finally got to the front of the line, and another clerk came over with another customer and tried to put her in front of me. I put my foot down. And when the clerk who was waiting on the line I was in told me that she had to wait on the person coming in from out of the blue, I was on my last nerve, and I threw my purchases at her and walked out.
Also, just recently, standing in line at a movie theater, a woman came over from out of the blue and stood right next to me. There were people behind me. As I got called to the window, the woman tried to ease herself in front of me. I told her that she was not going to do that, and she also needed to go to the rear of the line behind the people behind me. Unfortunately, they were move forgiving than me, and told her she could go in front of them.
I volunteer in a concession stand. The school age kids who know this trick just really peeve me. They learned that somewhere.
What really gets me is the is the kid whose close to the front of the line and the vultures who swoop in and get him to place an order for them. The poor kid is overwhelmed and confused. If I see it happening I put my foot down and make that vulture wait forever. Sometimes authority goes to my head. I admit it.
:dubious: It’s a pretty impressive achievement to tell an anecdote about the appalling behavior of line-cutters where the line-cutter ends up looking more sympathetic than the narrator.
I’m against line-cutting/queue-jumping too, but a rather chilly “Excuse me sir/ma’am, I think the end of the line is back there” is about as ragey as I can manage to get in such circumstances. Throwing items at a salesclerk who’s just had a line-cutter handed to her by a fellow clerk or supervisor is what I’d consider a disproportionate response.
I’ve had good luck saying something, but I’ve got to say it right away (before I think about how they might take a swing at me, and before they get comfortable). I’m super nice and act like “Oh, sorry, you probably didn’t notice the big long line behind me…”
That gives them a choice: they can be revealed as a jerk to dozens of strangers… or they get to save face by going along with the “Just a Mistake” Scenario: “Oh, golly gosh, I must’ve spaced out. Sorry.”
To be honest, the “Just a Mistake” Scenario happened to me, as I wandered into line while looking at my phone. Only to look up, see that I’d walked into a gap in a line… with twenty people behind me. I immediately went into Sheepish Apology mode.
I’ve really only had this happen to me a couple of times, but the one that really made me mad was at an airport cafe. I wanted a cup of coffee before my flight, and was next in the queue to step up to the counter. I was not happy that the woman standing behind me decided to just jump in front of me, step up to the counter and place her order. As she was waiting for her coffee, I just moved forward, smiled at her, and said something along the lines of “It’s okay. You can get in front of me. Apparently, your time is more valuable than mine.” She didn’t say a word, but grabbed her order and hurried off.
There was no way I was going to let that slide. I really just had to say something.
So you are on the 4 lane highway and suddenly all cars are slowing down. There is obviously some traffic accident/problem up ahead. The correct move is to slide into one of the lines that you hope will move. And then you wait. It is not proper to keep switching lanes if one line seems to be moving faster. It is not proper to slide into the soon-to- be- vanishing lane that has emptied out as multiple lanes move into fewer lanes. You should not ever attempt to continue in the closing merge-from lane to pass slow rolling cars until you get to the obstruction and then nose your way into the line. Decent people realize everyone’s time is valuable and thus do not try to jockey position to shorten a fair wait.
Last April I started a thread about a similar thing that happened to me, and asked whether it constituted cutting in line. Some people insisted it did, and others insisted it didn’t.
The lane is there to be driven on, not to be looked at. If everyone’s time is valuable, the best way to honor that is to not push the backup farther down the road by pretending that the lane ends before it really does.
I see it occasionally. Sometimes people do it accidentally—for instance, there’s a produce market in Berkeley where the registers don’t line up very well with the aisles, and when there are long lines people can get confused. Every so often some jerk does it deliberately.
Then there was the time several years ago in a butcher shop. It was one of those places where you’re supposed to take a number to be waited on. I don’t remember the number I had, but let’s say it was 73. I waited my turn, and when an employee called out “73,” I stepped up for service. A customer behind me yelled out a much lower number, like 47. I gave him a puzzled look, and again he yelled, “47!” I asked where he had been when they called his number. He said, “I was out shopping somewhere else. You don’t expect me to waste my time waiting around here, do you?” I gave him a cold stare and said, “If you’re not here when they call your number, you lose your turn.” Fortunately, the employee didn’t try to serve him before me.
If there is ANY way under the sun that it could be a mistake, like a jenky line, old person, kid, special needs etc. I will say the line starts over there (pointing), and treat it like a total accident.
For those who brazenly survey the line and walk to the front, I say the same thing but very blunt (I’m a big guy/deep voice)
If that doesn’t work,
I say ," Didn’t your mother teach you how to wait your turn? Go to the back of the line."
90% will go to the back, if they don’t, others in the line will usually speak up, and that cover a few more %.
But some people are shameless…
Although I’m more likely to make the opposite mistake (standing behind someone who wasn’t actually in line), occasionally I have accidentally “cut the line”, particularly if the person at the end of the line was giving the person ahead of them ample personal space, and looking off to one side at something. There was also at least one occasion where I thought the line was flowing in the other direction, and mistook the front for the back. I’ve always been appropriately apologetic when my error is pointed out. I sincerely hope there haven’t been any times I’ve done it and not had someone point it out.
So I guess my vote is: Please do confront the line-cutter, but maybe keep it to a simple “Excuse me, I’m in line” rather than assuming they’re intentionally being an a-hole. Even if you think it was obvious, you might be surprised at my capacity to screw up basic social interactions.
