Why do they do it?

Thanks Baggs 😊

It was a total ‘mare in the supermarket today. If you wanted to use the manned tills, there were massive queues. If, as I did, you opted for self checkout, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

I only spent about £30 but was told I needed the assistant five times! Twice for it to accept my bags, once to allow me to buy potatoes once for paracetamol and once to remove a security tag.

There was one young assistant to about ten checkouts. Everyone seemed to need assistance with something (I was watching while I waited for him to come to me). One person had to have her entire scan & shop purchases rescanned, others needed age verification, others seemed to have random things come up, like my potato purchase.

Fast it was not. 🤷‍♀️

Baggs, I'm pushy and impatient - that's why I have it delivered. I'm human, not a saint.

I remember one Christmas supermarket food shop - with three whining kids in tow, crowds, long queues, some empty shelves, irritating music etc. - utterly dead on my feet and worried sick about the bank balance.

That day, yes, I lost it and screamed at the person in front 'For God's sake, wake up and get on with it - I haven't got all day!'

Who knows if this elderly lady is well .
Maybe shopping and interacting with people is the highlight of her week .
I'm often behind someone at the supermarket in one hell of a muddle .

On one occasion , a lady tried to pay for her shopping with a cheque .
I paid for her shop on my debit card .

Last year , after holding up the queue for a very long time another lady was really confused about getting home with her shopping .

I had to find out where she lived , get a taxi , take her home and explain to the warden that she needs help .
Only the warden wasn't there .
I explained to a helper .
With some detective work - I managed to double check on the lady to make sure that it didn't happen again .

I have just remembered that a while ago I drove a frail and quietly confused lady in front of me at the supermarket home. Took her indoors and unpacked her shopping. Made us both a cup of tea and phoned her daughter before I left.
I am probably her age now, still managing ok thank goodness, but know things can change.
Be kind 🧒

What if the person who is next in line in the queue is not in the best of health. I am receiving chemo therapy for lung cancer and can be a bit wobbly on my feet at times. I was shopping with my daughter in a local supermarket when the person in front of us took an age to pack and then pay for her shopping. She made it worse by presenting money off coupons singly to the cashier, instead of giving them all to her to sort out.
My daughter was mortified, but |I approached this lady, she looked to be about my age, 78, and told her that she had taken so long at the check out that I had started to feel quite unwell and that a bit of thought for the people waiting would not be amiss.
Not all disability or illness are apparent, and I think that people who take such a long time are basically selfish. In my mind it's the same as being habitually late " You can wait, because my life is more important than yours"
Some of you might think that I should get someone else to do my shopping or get it delivered, but I'm trying hard to live my life as best I can and to do the things that I used to take for granted before.

Some towns are designated as “dementia friendly” around here. As my Mum’s dementia worsened she got very confused about handling money, checking change etc. and I didn’t want to do it all for her as it felt like I was taking away her last little bit of independence.

One day we were at a till and she just handed me her purse and said “just do it for me please.” And from then on I did.

Sometimes when she was in a muddle she would apologise to the assistant and I could have cried when a lovely woman replied “take as long as you like my darling, no hurry.” 😢

Hetty58

Baggs, I'm pushy and impatient - that's why I have it delivered. I'm human, not a saint.

I remember one Christmas supermarket food shop - with three whining kids in tow, crowds, long queues, some empty shelves, irritating music etc. - utterly dead on my feet and worried sick about the bank balance.

That day, yes, I lost it and screamed at the person in front 'For God's sake, wake up and get on with it - I haven't got all day!'

Kudos to you, Hetty, for recognising a weakness and dealing with it for the benefit of yourself and others 👌

Pushiness can be a strength too of course. All depends on the circumstances.

Hetty58

Baggs, I'm pushy and impatient - that's why I have it delivered. I'm human, not a saint.

I remember one Christmas supermarket food shop - with three whining kids in tow, crowds, long queues, some empty shelves, irritating music etc. - utterly dead on my feet and worried sick about the bank balance.

That day, yes, I lost it and screamed at the person in front 'For God's sake, wake up and get on with it - I haven't got all day!'

Ah, that’s where we’re all going wrong! All we need to do is scream at the person in front of us and magically, everything will speed up to fast-forward speed.

In fact, I think supermarkets should employ people to go round screaming at slow customers, it would improve customer service no end and also create job!

Problem solved.

Does anyone who thinks it’s ok to pull others up for being slow think about the longer term effect that rudeness would have on the person on the receiving end? It would ruin their day take their confidence for that day, week or forever. Make them feel small and stupid and possibly stop them going out again.
Havnt we had posters upset about rudeness which usually gets pages of support from grans.

Anyone who wishes to go through the checkouts at top speed for whatever reason, and I can understand the reasons will be valid, should go through the self-service checkouts. There are more and more of them now.

silverlining48

Does anyone who thinks it’s ok to pull others up for being slow think about the longer term effect that rudeness would have on the person on the receiving end? It would ruin their day take their confidence for that day, week or forever. Make them feel small and stupid and possibly stop them going out again.
Havnt we had posters upset about rudeness which usually gets pages of support from grans.

I agree. I hate to see people fiddling with their watches, rolling their eyes and huffing and puffing behind an older person who is doing their best.

Now I don’t have my Mum, if I’m in that position waiting my turn I just feel grateful that I can spend a minute or two doing nothing and just zoning out and doing some breathing exercises.
How often do we get the chance to just do nothing for a few minutes?

Not that long ago I was very quick with packing my shopping at the till. In fact I was often waiting for the cashier to scan the next item.

Now though I have developed a bit of arthritis in my hands which, although fortunately not painful, it has made my fingers a bit stiff which has slowed me down a bit. Especially I’ve noticed, when I’m trying to extract my credit card from my purse.

There are however plenty of folk who are a lot slower than me, but I just accept that they are doing their best.
I’m not usually in a tearing hurry anyway!

I never mind waiting even more so as I get older. I also help myself with packing by putting all my goods on the belt in a certain order, store cupboard, fridge, freezer, fruit and veg, toiletries/cleaning and lastly misc. I put any coupons through individually as quickly as I can.

A lot of you are making excuses for this lady. Perhaps she's ill, elderly, lonely etc?
No. I have seen her before around the village and at the shops. She's just one of those people who faffs about and doesn't care who is behind her. Listening to her chat to the staff there is nothing wrong with her. She is well dressed, about my age and doesn't care. My friend is like this too which is why I never shop with her. The last time I went to Lidl with her she examined everything in the middle aisle,looked at all the offers and half an hour later she bought 2 items.
I like to shop and run!

Do you know she isn’t lonely and doesn’t have dementia? These things affect even the well-dressed.

Some of us may be like that woman one day! Thankfully for today I am able and still have all my faculties intact but that could change any time! It's a case of patience and kindness needed. What's the rush?
There is so little tolerance in our culture for older people. Actually it's quite shameful when I see how older people are treated with huge respect in other countries.

I was once the person who thoroughly annoyed the person behind me at the till, and I was only in my early twenties at the time.

My one year old was sitting in the trolley seat.
The customer in front of me was still being served, so in order to get my goods onto the counter as space became available on it, I had to put the trolley behind me instead of in front of me.
I managed to get everything on the belt just as the assistant was ready to begin checking my things through so, trolley still behind me, I started packing straight away.
As my last item went went through, I turned for my trolley, but it had gone - the impatient b*****d behind me had moved it and my baby away, out of my sight between our till and the next. The man didn't give me time to say anything before he started having a go at me for apparently holding him up by leaving it in his way so that he "couldn't get served".

There were several things about that incident that really upset me. Firstly, he could have easily got his few items on the counter without having to abduct my child. Secondly, up until that point I had done everything possible to get through the transaction as quickly as possible, and as I hadn't even had time to pay yet (because of him!), it wasn't even his 'turn', yet as he was claiming. Thirdly, not one person in that queue, not even the cashier, said a word. With hindsight, I should have kicked up a big fuss, accused him of child abduction and refused to pay until the matter was resolved in some way - in other words, I should have really made him have to wait to be served, but I wouldn't say boo to a goose back the.

I left that shop in tears, and how he made me feel has stayed with me.
And that is one reason why I will never be nasty enough to say something at checkout that might cause someone else feel like that just for being a bit slower or less organized than I would like.

kircubbin2000

A lot of you are making excuses for this lady. Perhaps she's ill, elderly, lonely etc?
No. I have seen her before around the village and at the shops. She's just one of those people who faffs about and doesn't care who is behind her. Listening to her chat to the staff there is nothing wrong with her. She is well dressed, about my age and doesn't care. My friend is like this too which is why I never shop with her. The last time I went to Lidl with her she examined everything in the middle aisle,looked at all the offers and half an hour later she bought 2 items.
I like to shop and run!

I'm just hoping it isn't me 😲

Oh no, you probably wouldn't think I was well-dressed. Phew!!

Listening to her chat to the staff there is nothing wrong with her. She is well dressed, about my age and doesn't care. My friend is like this too which is why I never shop with her. The last time I went to Lidl with her she examined everything in the middle aisle,looked at all the offers and half an hour later she bought 2 items.
I like to shop and run !
Good job we are all different but what we all have in common is the ability to exercise tolerance for others, and patience too.

Ooh, I like the central aisle in Lidl.
And Greek week, Italian week etc.

Lots to look at.

Aisle of wonder!

I've never come out with just two items 😁

Unbelievable... do those of you that are so impatient never give a thought to "there but for the grace of God go I?"