BwanaBob: actual question here, not an argument. Would you be okay with it if the guy who’s ordering for his office let you know that when you walked up behind him, so you could make a decision about whether to stick around? Because I see your point about that being a good thing to know.
I disagree. If 20 people happened to be there then nobody has done anything worng. If 20 people sent one guy to buy lunch same thing. If that guy decides that the best way to sort the money is to get seperate reciepts then that’s his call to make. Yes it’s a pain in the ass for someone behind him but sometimes thems the breaks.
As I said to BB, I can’t imagine it took that long to realize he was going to be a while. No need to wait for him just like you wouldn’t wait for 20 people.
If you wanted to be very bold you might even ask " I’m sorry but I’m pressed for time. May I get something really quick before you finish?"
That’s what I meant before by polite conversation among people we share space with.
good question. That would be considerate of the guy and being aware of people around him.
And when I went shopping this week I made a point of checking; at neither the Kroger nor the Harris Teeter were there any signs about a limit on the number of items. Different stores must have different policies.
This.
Turing-Shmuring – one can distinguish a sapient being from a mass of protoplasm that emits greenhouse gases and 310K blackbody radiation by the fact that the former understands the concept of “walk left, stand right” (or vice versa as per local traffic consensus).
Righto. I don’t get upset, for example, because someone is not capable of moving his wheelchair as quickly as I am capable of walking. “Rawr! Your disability makes me angry!” No. However, I would be mad if a disabled person was lost, and stopped in the middle of the subway door to check maps and timetables. Okay, if you don’t know where you’re going, roll your ass to the side, and figure it out on your own schedule. I will also think, of anyone, “Why on earth do you think it’s okay to bring your car to a near halt on the middle of a busy road because you don’t know where you are again?” The distinction, which has been beaten within an inch of its life, should be clear by now.
I would have to agree with you on that bunch. I can’t even imagine taking part in that - I’d be hauling my buddies off to the side to talk.
Pet peeve for me is when people realize they are in the wrong lane , usually the go straight lane at an intersection, and they want to turn. Rather than go straight and turn around they try to cut which is pretty damngerous. Or they block traffic while they wait for someone to let them in.
On a different note. When I worked at Sears we had a different kind of disabled asshole. A young man with a motorized wheel chair who would go way to fast down the aisles of the store making people literally jump out of his way, or he’d just bump them as he rushed by with no thought of “Excuse me”
One day he was going way to fast and when he tried to turn the corner his wheel chair tipped over and he spilled out onto the floor, at which point my cowrker stuck his fist in the air with a jubilant “Alright”
What a steaming pile of bullshit. You’re not even responding to what BwanaBob said.
The criticism of this guy is that instead of simply ordering food for 20 people, getting a receipt, and sorting out who owes what back at the office - an alternative I see zero criticism of here - he’s ordering three items for Person 1 and having the cashier ring it up, ordering two items for Person 2 and having the cashier ring it up, … , ordering three items for Person 20 and having the cashier ring it up.
IOW, instead of placing one big order of 50 or so items and moving to the side while it gets filled, which might clog things up a bit but not terribly, he really is acting like a line of 20 individual people all by himself.
He and his crew have been the ones to decide that they’re important enough to clog things up for a whole bunch of strangers in the MickeyD’s for all that additional time, just to avoid having to do some simple arithmetic back at the office.
They’re a bunch of self-important jerks. And you are one really stupid fuck.
You know, I picked up lunch at McDonald’s today. It was around 12:15 when I got there, and the place was PACKED.
And I looked around and realized what a bunch of self-important jerks they all were! Lots and lots of people in line, each one buying for only a couple of people. Some of them just buying for only themselves! Migod, taking up the casier’s time for just a single lousy order!
There was absolutely no reason they couldn’t have sorted themselves into groups of a dozen or so, and had one person handle the entire transaction. That person could order the 50 or so items, and step aside and wait. Sure, they’d have to do some arithmetic at a table later, and likely have to scrounge about for exact change, but how can that possibly matter?
The cashier would get to ME ME ME ME!!! faster, and that’s what is important, right? :rolleyes:
See I have a problem with this. Evidently you’re aware that your cart may pose a as an obstacle to other shoppers and yet sometimes you “may” leave the cart in the middle of the isle while you ponder over elbow macaroni or shells.
It would be awfully nice of you just get into the habit of stopping to the left or the right of the isle.
If you have a hard time seeing the logic. Try this ,I assume you drove to the grocery story on a two lane road. Did you drive down the middle of the road on your way to the grocery store ? Not likely that would not only be dangerous but inconsiderate.
Why not just pretend the grocery store is like city roads and stick to one side of the isle or the other. If it helps you , you can make beeping and brake sounds. Even take corners at high speed while squealing. Do this to help you get into the groove of things.
Thank you so much for thinking of others.
I had a run in with a lady in a grocery store who did just that. I waited behind her cart in the middle of the isle. I said " Excuse me?"
She turned around looked at me and my cart and turned back to what she was looking at. I waited for 5 seconds while talking myself out of pushing her cart out of the way with mine, because that would be rude. I walked around took her cart and gave it a shove out of the way.
She flipped out I ignored her and moved on.
I’ve been a SDMB member for 9 years. I visit, and watch a lot of contentious threads. In all that time, I do not believe I have ever seen a straw man as big as you created Starving. That’s quite a feat.
I find it humorous that the OP is actually 180 degrees off. It stuns me that some people think that it is just fine to waste other people’s time. I thought the lack of such a simple grace would be met with apologies. After all it is just plain rude and thoughtless to do this.
To try to put the blame on the person that has to wait because of their inconsideration and oblivion to their environment blows me away.
To me it’s the same as the old saw;
“Your right to swing your fists ends where my nose begins”.
You have every right to dawdle, take your time, write out a great american novel on your check, drink half your latte while contemplating what obscure form of currency you want to exchange for it, etcetera…right up until you start inconveniencing other people. Then it stops being about your rights and starts being about the social contract.
This is especially so given that he and others have totally glossed over why BB posted his anedote. It was not that he should never have to wait in line behind 20 other customers or endure having to see the cashier ring up 20 orders ahead of his.
His point, I believe, was that he had no way of knowing that many orders would be placed and thereforce could not make a decision about whether he wanted to wait there, move to another line or leave and, I agree with him, thought Clueless von Goferson (or the cashier) should have said something so that he could choose.
Now there’s a straw man for you.
You’re saying that my punching you in the nose is comparable in some significant way to me being in your way (let’s even assume for the sake of argument that I am doing something inconsiderate like leaving my grocery cart in the middle of the aisle).
You do, in fact, have a right to not be punched in the nose.
You don’t, in fact, have the same kind of right to go from point A to point B in a straight line if someone is in your way.
I will re-iterate my original point from the OP: you don’t have the right to dictate how other people move or don’t move in public places. Yes, some people are clueless and do stupid or even willfully inconsiderate things. Those actions are stupid and possibly rude. Those actions may affect your desire or your need to move more quickly.
But those actions do not affect your rights. Desires and needs are not the same things as rights.
Nothing anyone has said in this thread has yet persuaded me that those actions do affect their rights. As far as I can remember, without re-reading the entire thread, no-one has even really addressed this idea.
Roddy
That’s because it’s got nothing to do with “Rights” and everything to do with “Not being a wanker”.
Cue rock beat.
You gotta fight…for your right…to be…a WANKER!
Bolding mine. Social contract. Do you really want to defend your strawman with yet another strawman?
I was going to say inconsiderate, but wanker works. Works very well.
Some days I am utterly convinced that some people are just brainless morons who don’t know jack about logic and argument, but they’ve heard a term, think it means something other than what it really means, have seen a couple of other people throw around the term, so they think if they throw it around, it will actually amount to a rebuttal.
Read Chimera’s post to which mine was a response.
The whole point of “your right to swing your fist stops where my nose begins” is that my nose is the point where my rights (not to be punched in the nose) supersede your right to swing your fist. His analogy is that anyone’s right to dawdle is superseded by someone else’s “right” to - well, I don’t know what exactly, right not to be inconvenienced? Right to get somewhere in a hurry? Hence my remarks about how no-one has such a right.
Social contract? To what, not get in your way? Yes, life would be a lot better if everyone were more considerate and no-one acted like a jerk. That applies to the hurried impatient as well as to the clueless and stupid. I wish there were fewer of both types.
Roddy