Common courtesy in check-out lines

[Sunny Side Up]

What does that mean to you? What do you think are the "unwritten rules" for courteous behavior while on line to pay for your purchases at a store?

Today I was at the check-out counter at Walgreens putting my items by the register to pay. It was mid-morning, the store wasn't busy, there were 2 people in line behind me. I had several of each of about 4 different things, about 20 items in all, most of which could be rung up as multiples. As I turned to take my purse out of the cart I heard the cashier say "Do you want cigarettes?". I was puzzled at that & was about to say "No thank you" when I turned and saw that the cashier was speaking to the man in line behind me. I guess she asked him that because he didn't have anything else in his hands.

Then the cashier asks me "Do you mind if I take him first?"

I was so surprised I didn't know what to say. I looked at this man but he didn't say anything. I admit I blew my chance to be gracious about it and just said a bit sarcastically "Oh yeah, sure! Now you can get smoking faster!"

After that man left with his carton of cigarettes, I told the cashier "I'm sorry, but I think that was a bit rude. If I had been waiting on line to buy one thing behind someone with 20, I would have just borne it with patience." The cashier apologized profusely, and I said that was okay, I wasn't mad, just a bit offended by that. I think that man was rude too, or at least impolite, not to have said "Oh no, ladies first, I can wait." My youngest son was there with me, and I'm trying to teach him & his brothers to be gentlemen, considerate of others and deferring to all women and older men. (I tell them that I myself should defer to women & men much older than me.)

I think there are times when you can & should offer to let others behind you go ahead in line. If you've got a cart-load of items and the person behind you has just a few, especially if that person behind you is someone you should defer to. And there are times when you might ask the person ahead of you to please let you go first, if you have an important deadline to meet and time is of the essence. Otherwise, you need to draw on your reserves of tolerance & patience, or use the opportunity to develop more of that character, or at least find a line with the most interesting magazines to read while you wait.

What do YOU think?

 

[MoSo]

The one that drives me nuts is when the lines are long at the store and a new line opens and the clerks don't even try to get the people who have already been waiting. If you are going to open up a new line, take the people already in line first!

 

[debilorrah]

That cashier was wrong. It is YOUR choice to let someone in front of you or not. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. If I am in a hurry, I don't.

 

[PotterWatch]

If you only had 20 or so items, there was no reason to have him go ahead of you. I will let people go ahead when I have a cartful and they only have a couple things, but if it's just a moderate amount, they have to wait patiently just like I did. Did someone have to go get the ciggaretts out of a case before she could ring it up or were they right there? Here, someone has to go get them and I probably wouldn't let them go ahead even if I have a bunch of stuff.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

I let the elderly go in front of me. Otherwise everyone else needs to wait in the line with me.

 

[Iowa Roo Mom]

Quote:
x2

I respect the elderly- unless they're spitting, kicking, clawing, or punching me

That tends to complicate things.

 

[Pupsnpullets]

My sister has think killer 'stink eye' which she uses to great effect when line jumping is attempted. She rarely has to say anything

Case in point last month she was in line in front of this disabled lady and the line was very slow. Anyway, a man with just one item tried to jump in front of the disabled lady. Didn't ask, just wedged himself in there. Well, he backed off awkwardly when he got the stink eye. Sister then helped the lady get her stuff onto the counter when their turn finally came. She said the lady was almost in tears and said nobody had ever offered to help her before

 

[Chicky Tocks]

I would have left my items on that counter and walked out of the store. I would then have called the manager. Not because I'm a mean and nasty, but because what she did was presumptious and rude. Now had I noticed the man behind me had one or two items and I had twenty, I would have offered to let him bump up myself, elderly or not. I believe in the rule of pay it forward.

As for a new line opening up and the last ones that have just entered the line you're in....when they about knock everyone down getting to the new one, that just RAWWWWRRRRR!

 

[ChickenToes]

The cashier was being rude. Kudos for saying something to her instead of just letting it go.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

That's what I mean by "common courtesy", these unwritten rules of polite conduct that everyone should know & follow. If a new line opens next to the long line you're standing in, it's rude to quickly wheel your cart out of the back of the line and race to be the first one in the new line, knocking a couple of elderly ladies and rolling over a few baby strollers in the process. Sometimes the cashier will call "Next in line!" and be attentive to serve the folks who have been waiting the longest. But realistically, often these cashiers simply are not paid enough to care, and are simply trying to make it through their day at work.

In my view, common courtesy should rule that when a new register opens next to a register with a long-standing line, that line then should feed into both registers, with the next-in-line going to whichever one of the two registers is next available. Once the last person in that long line is served, then two lines should form, one for each register. Or, the long line divides into two, with every-other customer going to each line.

But it is rude to race from the back of a long line to be the first at a new line. It is conceited to think that your time is more valuable than anyone else's, that you have less time to waste, that you shouldn't be bothered with waiting in line. If you don't like waiting in line you should realize that you are not alone in those feelings, you're not a special case unique among the human race.