"next in line' rant

[scroob]

Whenever I am at register and see a long line kinda snaking around, or the other side has thousands of people in line, I call "I can help the NEXT customer in line." I don't know if I'm speaking Taiwanese or something but nobody understands this concept. I'm not talking about when the next cust doesn't want to come over so they invite the cust after them to go. That's fine. I'm talking about when everyone BUT the next customer run to my line, when the next cust just walks over and is now last in line but too chicken to complain. Or when people from the end of a line sneak over to my side after the next customer. I ask for one person at a time to keep the integrity of the line. How can the people at the end of the line who have been waiting for a minute possibly think that they have the right to go over to my side before the next person who has been waiting 5 minutes or more?
On the other side of the coin, tell me in what circumstances is it EVER appropriate as a worker to skip completely over the obviously next customer to get to the person after them. I mean ASK if I am taken care of first, or ask if I need something. I am going to FLIP, and I am justified in this, if a worker EVER deliberately jumps over me in line again. I have a brief lunch break and the worker does not have the right to take the customer behind me when I have clearly been waiting longer than they have. I am there every frickin day how do they just jump right over me?
Egad that was longer than I thought it would be. Sorry

[flutes_and_fabric]

I hate opening up the second register. I always yell, "we're going to keep this ONE line, please DO NOT come over until I call." As soon as someone tries to sneak up I am so not afraid to point out that it's one line. This one woman annoyed me cause she snuck over, I told her it was one line. She went back, then snuck over again. I asked her to please wait until I called her over. Finally she was next and she came over before I called. I told her that I hadn't called next. She said "But I am next." I just put up the register closed sign and responded "I'm only backup, and the line at the cutting counter is now longer than the register line, so I need to close here and help there. If you had listened to instructions my CW would be waiting on you right now, but since you insisted on ignoring me she has now moved onto the next customer (who had a full cart )