The rudeness of people in lines

Two incidents to relate:

  1. My mother and I were at Burlington Coat Factory, and their cashier system was highly unorganized. They had one of those dividers, and many people were in one line, but all of a sudden they said that line was for returns only, not purchases.

There was a lady behind us with many items. (We had a lot, but not as many as her.) As soon as she heard that we had to switch to the next ‘lane’, she rushed around and got in front of everyone where previously she had been last. She did not seem in any particular hurry; she just wanted to cut in front of us. Had she asked, we probably would have let her but she just ran.

  1. My parents, my brother and I went into Costco. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a warehouse where members can make bulk purchases for businesses and such, but it’s also frequented by families. They also have food there, pizza and wraps and such, which are very good (at least at the one we went to).

My brother and I got into line for berry smoothies. There was a lady in front of us, at the register, and a middle-aged guy behind us. While the lady was getting her money out of her purse to pay, she dropped a dime. I reached down, said “Ma’am, you dropped this” and gave it back. She thanked me and left.

Right after she thanked me, the guy behind me sighed. Really loud. A theatrical sigh. I turned around and he was glaring at me. For no reason other than I might have slowed the line down by maybe two milliseconds to give this lady her ten cents.

:smack:

I work in a retail store, and I regularly watch people shift from foot to foot and do the sigh, stare at the ceiling, glare at the cashier, sigh, look for any other employees in the area, then sigh again thing while waiting for the person(s) before them to be checked out.

Then they seem to have no problem taking forever to write a cheque, dig around their wallet/purse for a drivers license, make the cashier price check every item before deciding if they want it, change their mind at the last second and need stuff voided off by a manager, and generally take up as much time as possible just paying for their items.

It bugs me to absolutely no end.

I’m a cashier. It sucks.

Please, quit blaming me for every little stupid thing-from the fact that there aren’t enough cashiers, to the self-scans, for the prices, for the music you don’t like…sigh

And yes, I’m looking for another job. I’m NOT going into that right now!

i. When I’m queuing to pay for something I try to fill out the cheque while I wait. I think it would help if stores put up a display of the correct name the cheque should be made out to (which isn’t always obvious). At most places you need to ask the counter staff, or if there is a notice it’s so small you have to be standing at the counter to read it.

ii. When I’m queuing to renew my train season ticket and don’t need to travel at that time I usually ask the person behind me if they are travelling straight away and if they are I let them go ahead of me. They always seem grateful but I haven’t noticed it catching on.

BTW jinwicked I always thought you guys spelt it “check” not “cheque”?

Solution:

  1. You have to pay. While waiting in line, start preparing to pay. Find your checkbook. Make sure you have everything you need. Realize that though you may not be in a hurry, others often are.

  2. You are in a line that is taking a long time. In the scheme of things this is no big deal. Chill out. There is a set of occurences in life worthy of breaking your peace. Fortunately, this is not a member of that set.