They don’t stay in sight, they often disappear into the bowels of the market.
I’m sure customs vary.
I’ve had that happen often, and almost always they have forgotten to pick one item from their list and got back into the store to pick it up. As long as the line is long enough and so there is enough time, this is totally tolerable.
I concur.
Exactly.
Except Doc said he watched her sit down. He knew exactly where she was. He was just salty that he didn’t also decide to sit down when he could have and punished the woman for his own mistake.
I’ve been on lines where there is a bench nearby and older people will just step out to sit down and wait until their spot gets closer to the front. Because I’m not a sociopath, I don’t kick them out when they come back.
I am not trying to be hostile or difficult- but can you give some examples?
Re The Line At The DMV
Yes, I do expect other people to know that if you leave the line withoiut good reason and without asking, it is not a safe assumption that you will be let back in. I have understood that rule since kindergarten. It has been the same rule in every state I have lived in or visited. The many Soviet immigrants in my old neighborhood often did not know English. They did know and follow the rules about waiting in line.
Based on her accent, the woman was originally from Haiti. Haitian immigrants are a group I have not had a whole lot of interaction with. She was the first one I ever saw just leave a line and then expect to be let back in. If anybody can present evidence that the customs regarding waiting in line in Haiti are different, please do.
I assume you are also referring to my claims of cultural appropriation. I expect people to have a basic understanding of any part of another culture or religion before practicing it. This is definitely not just me.
The only religions I do not treat with respect are the Church Of Scientology and Jews For Jesus. COS is an evil organization. I don’t care if some of their beliefs are ‘weird’. I care that the organization is abusive and dangerous. There is a group called The Free Zone which believes in thetans and e-meters and such, but wants to operate without all the fees and rigid command structure. I wish them good luck. The founder of J4J claimed to have a very Jewish name and to have been born and raised Jewish. The name was fictional. He was born a Southern Baptist. The group routinely lies in its promotiona materials. They are known to prey on Soviet immigrants who have no money, no support system and no knowledge of Judaism. Lying and predatory? If you want to convert people to Christianity, you should start by being honest about it.
On Preview-
That is not correct. There were plenty of other seats. I could have left the line and sat down. I would have needed to ask the ten or so people behind me if that was alright with them and if I would be allowed back in line first.
The woman did not ask anything. She just left the line and sat down.
She was not an older woman. Again, if she had any special need to sit down, it was not showing after over an hour of standing in line.
I’m no sociopath. I also did not kick anybody out. She gave up her place in line when she left the line for no apparent reason, and without asking anybody first. The two women behind me would not let her in front of them either. Were they sociopaths?
In the interest of fairness, I can understand why someone might be unhappy to see someone from outside their culture take something they consider sacred and start using it for their own. If I was a Native American, I’d probably be at least mildly annoyed by New Age enthusiast who adopted elements of my religion. Partly that annoyance would stem from the long history of people trying to destroy my culture in the past.
And there you go. You overthought something (shocker!) and she got to do what you wanted to do.
Help for next time, you don’t need to ask every single person behind you, just tell the one directly behind you that you need to sit down. It’s extremely simple.
When was the last time you stood in line at the supermarket for four hours?
Also Doc, it’s odd, at least to me, that you talk about how visible your pain was, while she wasn’t in any visible pain. You’re making sure to state that she doesn’t appear to be in pain, from which the implication seems to be that she could be in pain and just not making a fuss about it.
That line of thinking is seems very close to people accusing others of using handicap spots when they ‘obviously don’t need it’.
IMO it’s about time to split the last ~100 posts off into a dedicated thread pitting @DocCathode.
Hint kid. The whole world, or even the whole SDMB, is not about you and your desire need to respond to everything said that involves you.
Try that shit in my NJ neighborhood after a four hour wait in line and the supermarket will be calling 911.
After seeing what’s happened year after year on Black Friday this notion that you can just leave and reenter a line at your whim without repercussions is beyond laughable.
Word. The mini-rants threads have become Doc’s personal blogs. Not every post needs to be 10,000 words.
I think you were being a jerk here, based on your own explanation of what happened. Not the end of the world. But you made someone else’s day worse, for no good reason, and with no real benefit to yourself or anyone else. I think you should reconsider what made you act this way.
I disagree. Technically, you will likely be able to physically get back in line if you ask only the person directly behind you. You will also likely experience at least verbal hostility from everybody else behind that person.
When it became clear that I was not going to let her in front of me, she tried to stand directly behind me. The two women directly behind me immediately spoke in loud, angry voices and expressed hostility.
I would have to double check my post. But IIRC, at this time we had been standing for a little under two hours. I am reasonably sure she was from Haiti. The two women directly behind me were from Philly. I have noo idea where anybody else was from as I didn’t really get to hear them speak. I just know that nobody else sat down.
Various people have insisted that she needed to sit down, and that I should have known that. One person suggested that she could have been recovering from spinal surgery, but because all scars would have been hidden I would never know. She may actually have had a need to sit down. I cannot say for sure that she didn’t. I can say for sure that she was not showing any obvious signs of it.
If you have handicapped plates or that thing you hang from the rearview mirror, I for one will just assume you have a legal right to park there and go on about my business. If you suddenly leave a line, and there is no obvious reason, it is your responsibility to epxlain why you are leaving the line and to be sure that you will be let back in.
The first few sentences are matters of opinion.
I didn’t make her day worse. She did that when she left the line for no obvious reason and without being sure she would be let back in.
There was real benefit to me. Had I let her back in, I would have experienced at least verbal hostility from at least the two women directly behind me.
I know exactly why I acted this way. Again, she got out of line- before I could stop her- for no apparent reason and without asking if she would be let back in. She then tried to get in front of me again, also without explanation of any kind. It was not until I physically blocked her way that she stopped. She then tried to get directly behind me. Again, she did not attempt any explanation. The two women behind me would not let her in either.
On Preview
Sorry about that. I have been going through a lot lately. I will seriously and honestly work on posting only mini rants in those threads.
These two quotes stand out to me.
Here’s a plausible explanation: the woman was having some sort of dizzy spell, or otherwise something going on that meant she needed to sit down immediately. But she doesn’t speak English, or isn’t confident enough in her English to explain to the people around her. Or maybe she’s intimidated by the dude behind her, or maybe the dizzy spell struck quickly enough that she had to sit down right then. In any case, she sat down without speaking.
When she felt better, she tried to return to her space in line, and was flabbergasted that anyone would deny this. After all, it was a slow line, and her leaving it for a spell didn’t hurt anyone, and her returning to line didn’t hurt anyone.
This behavior on your part is far more unethical than Smapti’s weird pseudoKabbalah behavior. His ritual doesn’t hurt anyone. Your behavior significantly inconvenienced someone.
Also, the “physically blocked” part? Are you a large dude? If so, using that to your advantage to get your way in a conflict with someone smaller is super uncool. If it was that important to you, you should have been the one to go to security.
It is possible she had dizzy spell. Again, there were no obvious signs of one. If she had a dizzy spell and suddenly needed to sit down, she should have used Google Translate or something similar to explain things when she go back. She did not.
Again, she inconvienced herself. She never explained why she left the line to sit down. She just did. I was trying to communicate with her on Google Transate on my own phone when she walked over to the security guard.
Sorry, I keep forgetting not everybody read the original thread. When I saw that she had left the line and sat down, I was wondering why and what I should do. When the two women behind me spoke up, I decided that they were right. I moved forward a few steps to close the space she had left.
When she attempted to get back in front of me, I started wth a polite tone of voice. Since she just kept trying to get back in. I gradually got somewhat louder and sterner. I had my granny cart with me as I was running errands after the DMV. Eventually, being careful to make it clear that I was blocking her way but not threatening her with physcial harm, I held my collapsed granny cart horizontally, forming a physical barrier between her and any space in front of me. She understood at that point.
I don’t think I’m a big guy. I generally seem odd and clumsy rather than physically imposing.
That would have required my getting out of line. Again, I had brought up Google Translate and was attempting to communicate with her when she finally left to speak to the security guard.
NOTE-
Before anybody suggests that the two women behind me were mean, generally angry or generally rude people, at one point I accidentally knocked over my granny cart. It nearly hit one of them when it fell. I apologized loudly, immediately and repeatedly. They made it clear that it was not a big deal, tand hey undertsood it was an accident. They then said that they could see I was in pain and having problems moving. Did I need one of them to pick up the cart for me?
Was that reply meant for me?
the fuck it is. She needed to sit down. You saw that she was sitting down. Even if she didn’t explicitly tell you she was resting and that she’d be back, it was pretty clear when she tried to get back in line.
I feel like, for a few minutes, you thought you were a little bit closer to the front of the line and got upset that it’s no longer the case. It’s like pocketing a $20 bill that you saw someone drop and then feigning ignorance when they turn around and ask if you saw a $20 bill they think they dropped.
So it sounds like the women behind you saw you were in pain and were understanding. Guess you should have asked them if you could go sit down.
Bingo! Who gives a fuck that she walked away and didn’t say anything? You knew she was there originally and had been waiting hours. You knew it was her spot. It’s not like she was some rando that walked up and claimed to have been there 30 mins before. You were being a dick, plain and simple, because you thought you gained a spot and were angry she did what you wanted to do.
These days, all the little fascists feel empowered to enforce their own petty rules. Order must be maintained!
Because when someone is dizzy, they should look up how to translate this to tell the people behind them, while not passing out.
Oh boy. No. She didn’t block herself. She didn’t put out the granny cart. Fuck this “she made me do this!” nonsense. You did those things.
You are not covering yourself in glory here. Your actions were unethical.