Huh?

[EvilEmpryss]

That was the sound I made after this happened to me today. I'm standing in line at a very crowded grocery store, joking with the people behind me about people stepping out of line for "just one more thing". I feel a tap on my arm and turn around to find a little (I'm talking 4'10" tall, tops) old lady carrying a couple packages of hot dogs and a dollar bill. In a very accented voice she tells me I dropped the dollar. Sure enough, I had, so I thank her and look down to put it back in my purse.

That's when she cuts ahead of me and puts her hot dogs on the belt in front of my stuff!

I look back at the ladies I had been joking with, who saw the whole thing, and they're all standing there slack-jawed. No one was upset, just rather bemused at the whole situation. The little old lady turned her back to all of us and kept her eyes on the cashier until she had paid and was gone without another word.

I'm not sure how I should react, since the person was so... I don't know what to call her attitude. Blissfully ignorant? Self-entitled? Did she think I owed it to her to allow her ahead of me because she returned my lost dollar? I would have let her in anyway (after checking with the people behind me, of course), but it would have been nice if she had asked.

[Andara Bledin]

Oh, that's quite a level of self-importance she's attained.

The fact that she kept her eyes fixed away from you tells you that she knows precisely what she did and that she did it on purpose.

If you hadn't dropped the dollar, she'd have found some other distraction to give her a chance to cut in front of you.

The worst part is that with only one item, most people would likely have let her through ahead of them, anyway, and she didn't need to be a sneaky entitled old bat.

^-.-^

[slavetotheman]

Sure you weren't standing behind her the whole and just missed her down there?

[EvilEmpryss]

Sure you weren't standing behind her the whole and just missed her down there?

LOL!!! Maybe she's used to being overlooked? Maybe she thought I wouldn't notice?

@ Andara: Yeah, self-importance definitely fits. So does passive-aggressive. I don't know what she would have done if I'd challenged her, but by not looking at me she could pretend that everything was alright unless I said something.

[TheSHAD0W]

-(takes notes)-

That's great. It only costs $1 to get to the front of the line? Well worth the convenience fee!

[TruthHurts]

I had a similar thing happen at the bank a couple of weeks ago. There was a long line of people and only two windows open. This elderly lady comes in, sails past the line straight to one of the windows. She didn't acknowledge the line or act like anything was out of the ordinary.

I had the exact same "Huh?" reaction but didn't say anything.

[LillFilly]

If you had said anything I'm sure she would have gone into a rant about young people these days, no respect!

[bean]

This is one reason I actually enjoy working express.

We have 4 express registers, but 1 line for all of them. People will regularly sail past the (long) lines and walk up to a cashier. One supervisor calls me the "Express Police" because I don't hesitate to call people out on it.

One cashier was actually called the "Express Nazi" by a customer when she called someone out on it. .............. said cashier was Jewish. That went over badly.

[OfficeSlug]

People do that in express all the time.

They come in the WRONG WAY, in front of everyone in line, and put their stuff on the scanner (not the belt) and expect to be served.

And they'll stand there. Looking at me. As if I'm to ignore the other 4 people in line.


I wait until the last person in line when they entered has been served and THEN scan their stuff, not smiling. Because I don't find it amusing.

Don't get tricky with me, wrong-way-shopper.

[Green_Fairy]

i used to work in a cookie store with it's store front in a the local mall. no doors...just front. and apparently some people don't have the concept of forming lines cuz when it would get busy, people would just mass to the front. working there for 3 years, i got very good at remembering who walked up first. and people didn't care...i had to really argue with some people "no sir. you just walked up. they've been standing here for 10 minutes. i'll help you when it's your turn." and they'd gripe and complain. my boss...sucked. he was of the opinion that the customer was always right and we weren't. just weren't (one of the reasons i'm glad i'm no longer working there). so one day when i told a customer to chill and wait, my boss actually told me to help him before everyone else. i was sooo pissed!

[Peppergirl]

so one day when i told a customer to chill and wait, my boss actually told me to help him before everyone else. i was sooo pissed!

Now, see - if I had been one of the other customers in line and saw your boss kowtowing to the line-jumper, I'd have torn him a new one, AND applauded your effort in the process.

Seriously - that pisses me off! And it's a wonder he never had an angry mob of customers trying to lynch him, acting like that.

[Anthony K. S.]

one day when i told a customer to chill and wait, my boss actually told me to help him before everyone else

. . . Huh?

(There's no other word for it!)

Even by management logic, that makes NO sense.

The standard argument for giving in to sucky customers is the "profit and loss" one - "Even if the customer is wrong, it makes better business sense to give them what they want, so they continue spending money in your store."

For the record, I don't agree with that kind of thinking . . . But, in this case, not only was the customer wrong, but even by the "profit and loss" theory, it would have made more sense to have that one guy wait, rather than piss off all of the other customers on line.

. . . It just boggles the mind.