Sheep. They're All Sheep.

[EvilEmpryss]

It's been ages since I've had anything happen worth posting, but the other day the SCs were rather ranty at my local warehouse store.

The place was bustling and all of the registers were open (which was a pleasant surprise, really). I've only got two items and I have my son carrying them since I'm hobbling about on my cane. So I aim for the shortest line I see and get ready to wait. Looking around, I see that at the farthest end of the registers are three in a row: A has a long line, C has a long line, but B is wide open! The lines for A and C are just going right past it! Like sheep lined up to go into their pens, they're just following the cart in front of them oblivious to all else.

Well, not seeing a closed sign on the belt, I toddle over to make sure the register's open, leaving my son in the other line, just in case the cashier hadn't had the chance to shut down yet. Nope, he says he's open, so I wave my son over.

That's when the sheep start bleating and hilarity ensues.

Apparently, in the mind of the entitlement whore brand of Sucky Customer, being *close* to a shorter line means you are entitled to jump into it, even if you didn't realize it was shorter until someone else moves into it. An EW in Lane C yelps when she realizes I'm calling my son over to check out and starts insisting that since she was the next one in the next lane over, *she* should be going ahead of me -- even though she's already started unloading a huge cart full of groceries onto the other register's belt! A man behind her in Lane C (with only one thing to purchase) gets behind me, and since my son hasn't quite reached me yet I waved him ahead of me. A man in Lane A sees this and darts out of his line and tries to shove his way past me with his cart just as my son arrives with our items. If I hadn't put my cane out and braced myself, he would have knocked me down and run my son over. He doesn't complain, but he does scowl at me.

So while waiting for the guy ahead of me to finish and then get through my own purchase, the old man behind me kept trying to nudge my kids with his cart, trying to get them to move out of his way so he could get past them (please note, my kids were on the people side of the register, not the cart side, so he had NO reason getting his cart anywhere near them). Old Man backed off once I told him firmly not to touch my kids with his cart again; I didn't even need to threaten, but he was getting looks from the cashier for trying to bully a handicapped woman and her well-behaved little kids, so maybe he felt public opinion wasn't on his side.

All this time, the EW in the other lane keeps protesting loudly how I cut into the line, taking her place, all while the cashier in her lane is completing her purchase. Oh yes, and I should be ashamed of myself, not letting the old man ahead of me.

Yeah, how about no.

[Sapphire Silk]

Oh, he did NOT try and bump into the two nicest, sweetest kids on gods green earth*.

I'm surprised you kept your cool. And I'm glad I wasn't with you.





*Ok, I'm prejudiced, even if they're not technically related. Wanna make something of it?

[EvilEmpryss]

Actually, neither of them were paying any attention to what the other people were saying. Totally oblivious while trying to figure out what they wanted to get on the way home for dinner. They didn't even realize the guy was being rude until I said something about it.

Made them look that much nicer that they didn't go off on him, too.

[MoonCat]

Yes, people are like robots, aren't they?

I encountered something similar in the bank once. I was in kind of a daze myself, just really tired and not paying attention, so I did a really stupid thing.

There was a line of several people and three ATM's. Two of the machines were in use. One was not. And people were standing there staring like dullards, nobody moving. So I went closer to look, thinking the machine not being used must have something wrong with it. Nope. It was flashing its usual bank promos, ready to use. Not one person made a move out of line, so, being half-asleep, I started toward it, and immediately all the sheep woke up and started bleating about how I was cutting ahead of them. I backed off, realizing I really shouldn't have gone ahead, and my only excuse is that the sight of them all standing there staring blankly at an available ATM confused my tired brain. I still don't know why nobody made a move to use it until I turned up.

[protege]

Reminds me of the antics I usually see after a Pens game. Rather than deal with the stupidity in the Consol parking lots, I'll park a few blocks away at Duquesne University. They have a huge garage which is open all night. Coming out, they'll have two gate attendants directing traffic. Most of the time, the one on the right is backed up. Mostly because people are lazy, but also because if you use that one, you can turn right onto the main street, and GTFO. However, if you use the left gate, you can cut through Duquesne's campus. You end up on the same street, but two blocks the other way--before the campus. If you, like me, live in the South Hills, you can then head out through the tunnels under the campus, across the river,and you're golden. 99% of the traffic doesn't go that way

[cindybubbles]

I had a situation in the ladies washroom. It's huge one in the Eaton Centre's Urban Eatery. There usually isn't a line, but there was a long one when I came to pee. Once it was near my turn, I noticed that the back stalls were available, but no one was using them. I told the woman ahead of me of this, but she didn't notice.

Then came my turn. I walked over to the back stall and used it. When I came out, the line VANISHED. As in, it was GONE!

I think that the women thought that the stalls were occupied back there, but changed their minds when I went in.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I had a situation in the ladies washroom.

Mrs. IA had a similar experience in the women's room once. There was a line, but no one was using the handicapped stall. So she used it, and got fussed at. She had to point out that "reserved for handicapped only" meant parking spaces, not bathroom stalls.

[EvilEmpryss]

I agree, "handicap accessible" isn't the same as "reserved for handicapped individuals." Being handicapped, I can say I don't care if people use that stall when there's no one else around, or no one obviously needing it in line. When I am using my walker, though, it's the only one I can fit in, so I do feel a bit miffed when it comes open and I still have to wait for able-bodied people to go ahead of me. It's not fair to me, since they are queuing up to share four or more stalls and the *only* one *I* can use is the handicapped stall. Now if there are more than one handicapped person in the line, I feel it's proper etiquette for the handicapped individuals to form their own line for that stall.

I don't make a fuss about it, and I've had ladies nice enough to wave me ahead when they see my predicament, but yeah, if there's a line and no one's using that big stall, it's fair game.

[Chromatix]

Customers at my local megasuperhypermarket tend to disproportionately come out of a small grouping of aisles, due to the peculiar arrangement of wares. From that position, it is very much possible to miss checkout lanes that are open, have (almost) nobody queueing to use them, but are masked by a combination of pillars and longer queues at nearby checkouts.

It's a brand-new, purpose-built building, so I don't know why the pillar spacing wasn't matched to the checkout spacing. It's the same with most railway carriages and airline seats these days. But I digress.

Anyway, I've started to pay extra attention to the possibility of these shortcuts to getting home, and it often pays off.

[Sapphire Silk]

Mrs. IA had a similar experience in the women's room once. There was a line, but no one was using the handicapped stall. So she used it, and got fussed at. She had to point out that "reserved for handicapped only" meant parking spaces, not bathroom stalls.

When I was in Korea, no one used the handicapped stalls unless they were handicapped. It's the culture over there.

Of course, they also use squat toilets in many facilities (to flush, you use a foot pedal).

[Chromatix]

Tonight, I once again encountered a large collection of sheeple waiting at the pedestrian crossing immediately opposite the metro station.

There were well over a dozen people waiting.

Not one of them had thought to investigate the call button on a nearby pole, which was emitting rhythmic "tick" noises to guide the blind to it, and whose "active" light is repeated on four other buttons which are clearly visible from anywhere near the crossing.

I pressed the button. Immediately, the traffic lights began to change. Five seconds later, the crossing's green men lit up.

[Blue Ginger]

After spending 3 years in Ireland and the UK with their obsession with queues, I saw the sheep thing a lot.

I'm sure I jumped queues without even realising there was a queue.

Classic example: There are no fees for using another banks atms in the UK. So there are 3 in a row, 2 for Bank A and 1 for Bank B, plus one of Bank B's on the other side of the wide corridor. Everyone (10 people) is lined up for Bank A's, 2 neat rows directly in front of them. No one was using Banks B's ATM. So the NAFA* that I am walk up to use Bank B's. Cue everyone bitching at me for jumping the queues.

So I walked to the other side of the wide corridor and used Bank B's other atm. When I looked back, no one from the queues had moved and Bank B's atm was still not being used.

Can anyone say 'BBAAAAAA!!'?

* = Not Another Fucking Aussie.

[icmedia]

Maybe it's from my time spent ordering at bars, or my point of view that "Ignorance does not deserve coddling," but if I see an opening at a counter/ATM/bar/etc., and nobody else is attempting to use it, too bad for them.

I take the open spot, and if someone who was waiting in a line for a DIFFERENT area/register or whatever pipes up, I ignore them. They had their chance....or, as my mother always said, "You snooze, you lose."

[Dadeo]

At a small airport in the Caribbean, the kind you board from the tarmac. About 80 people on the flight. I've got a camera crew and some equipment too fragile to check so we wait til the last shuttle so we're not holding people up with stowing our equipment. When we get to the plane there's a huge lineup to board and it's moving verrrry slowly. I see that the rear ramp is down and there's two attendants just standing there, so I gather up my guys and walk over... and right up on to the plane. I don't think anyone else noticed us and our mass of equipment because noone else came up after us.

[smileyeagle1021]

I see this all the time at the Summit Sierra shopping center in Reno. I have before seen lines 10 cars deep of people waiting to turn out on Virginia street that are waiting to be able to turn into the far lane so they can do a u-turn at the light, and then also cause problems at the light because so many of the are u-turning. I on the other hand exit onto Mount Rose Highway, there is a lovely traffic light with a sensor that will initiate the light change as soon as you start to approach, so if I need onto Virginia Street, I simply turn left onto Mount Rose, and then left onto Virginia, and wave at the people still waiting to get out from before I even started as I go past... I especially love the ones who are heading to the freeway, because throughout the center's parking, there are signs directing you to the Mount Rose Highway exit to get back to the freeway (seriously, the entrance to the freeway is like 100 yards from that exit), but no, they know that they got off at the Virginia Street exit, so they must get back to the same entrance.