Somehow, by the time we got to the checkout line, it got a little crowded. An older gentleman got in line behind me. He only had a few things, so I let him go ahead. Then two more people came up behind me. They also had much less than I did, but I was thinking, "Okay, where do I draw the line? If I let everyone who has less in their cart ahead of me, I could be here for an hour!" So I just let the one person ahead and tried not to make eye contact with the other people. I felt bad about it, but thought I did my part by letting at least one person ahead of me.
We loaded up the car with our groceries and then headed over to Big Lots, which is right beside Aldi. Big Lots is another fun store that has a little bit of everything as well as some deals! The Christmas decorations were out, so my heart was just fluttering!
We stuck to the list and picked up the couple things we needed. We got into line and there was only one woman in front of us. However, it was taking a long time because she had a coupon on her phone, but it didn't have a bar code, so the cashier didn't know how to scan it and had to call for back up. The back up called for MORE back up (this was a very serious coupon issue) and another cashier came up and opened a new lane for us to go into. This whole process maybe only lasted three minutes.
"I can take the next customer," the new cashier said.
Well, Paul and I were the next customers, but there was a woman behind us. The woman looked like she could be anywhere between 30-40 years old. She had the same amount of items as us.
You can see where this is going, right?
Even though Paul and I were the next customers, this woman walked right over to the new line that opened and plopped her things on the counter.
Aw yes she did.
Does she not know the rules of society? You are supposed to let the next person in line go! You don't rush over and try to be first if you weren't next in line!
There were many things I wanted to say to the woman. They ranged from the polite....
"Excuse me, we were next."
....to the snarky...
"Would you like to come to my school and practice lining up with the kindergarteners?"
I ended up not saying anything because I wanted to take the high road.
Of course as Paul and I were walking out, we bitched about the woman (she was out of earshot) and loaded our items into the car.
I only had one more stop. The liquor store! It is right beside Big Lots. Yes, we have an Aldi, Big Lots, and liquor store less than 2 miles from our house and they are right beside each other. I know you are very, very jealous of our prime location!
Nothing notable happened in line at the liquor store except the guys behind me REEKED of pot!
Any interesting "line etiquette" stories you would like to share?
Along with this I will add that people need to know the rules of the road. ( this is something that has been bothering me lately as I have to make a right hand turn to pull into school each day. Everyone knows that people who have aa right hand turn have the right away but some reason there are always people in front of me that want to stop and let every car that is turning left go first ( even though they don't have the right away). Ok, I know this is a rant and probably off topic but your line story reminded me of it!
ReplyDeleteYou are always welcome to rant in my comments!
DeleteAfter all, rants can trigger more rants. :)
DeleteLOL I just walked out and cut up strawberries for my oatmeal giggling after reading this post. If you are ever planning on using that line up with your kindergarten class with someone, please give me advanced notice so I can fly down and witness! So many times things similar to this happen to me and I keep thinking of how I would handle it in class. Sometimes I stop myself from putting on my stern teacher face....okay sometimes this happens with Matt.
ReplyDeleteI get in trouble for using my teacher voice at home, too! I think the men just need to suck it up. It goes along with being married to a teacher. ;)
DeleteI promise to let you know if I use the kindergarten line. You may have to drive me to the hospital after I get punched in the face!
Ugh, I hate when that happens. Jerks.
ReplyDeleteI thought you would at least enjoy the Seinfeld reference! :)
DeleteIt seriously drives me nuts when people don't follow basic societal etiquette rules! One that really bugs me is when you're in the right lane at a red light and someone needs to cut in. When the light is red, it's fine to let people in. But I hate when someone slows down to let a car enter the right lane from a parking lot or something when the light is green! That's not how it works!
ReplyDeleteI get more road rage than I should. This would bother me too, especially if it was a busy intersection and I was in a hurry! That being said... when someone lets me in, I jump at the chance and try to hurry so as not to hold people up. But I am sure some people get mad.
DeleteSo last week, one of my dads who brought his baby in for her checkup told me that he was signalling to turn into a space in the lot at my clinic when a mom pulled in ahead of him. She and her teenager got out of the car and he said something. She apologized, saying they had an appointment. Well, so did he...and he had a baby, and a carrier, and a diaper bag...
ReplyDeleteYep, those are our patients. Isn't that amazing?
I would be too ashamed to pull into someone's spot that was signalling whether they had a baby or not. It's just rude! I think we sometimes forget that there are PEOPLE in the cars.
DeleteDepending on what kind of mood I was in, I might have actually said something. One time, this happened to me and I didn't say anything but I had this disgusted look on my face and when the woman turned around she saw me and was like "oh whoops you were next, huh" but you could tell it was just to cover up her rudeness. My response: "yep, and you saw me." She walked away.
ReplyDeleteOoh I can feel your iciness toward that woman just by your comment. Glad you said that to her!
DeleteYou had me at "rant". Gawd, I am such a sucker for the drama.
ReplyDeleteThis bugs me too, although it's gotten to the point where if someone is behind me I just expect that they're going to make a beeline for it and give up. I think people assume this is a free for all and when they say "next customer", apparently some people think that means "closest customer."
I was just thinking about this yesterday when I was driving on the interstate and people consistently wouldn't let other people get over, even though the person trying to get over had their turn signal on and was way ahead so there's no way they didn't see that the person needed to get over.
Gee, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were more important than the rest of us. My bad.
I love rants too! :)
DeleteI should probably just act like you and expect people to rush in front when it's not their turn. Then maybe I could laugh about it and just be like, "yup, I called that!"
UGHHHHHHH! I cannot stand it when people do stuff like this. It makes me so angry and brings up so many questions:
ReplyDelete- were you raised by pandas?
- did you not go to elementary school and learn basic etiquette?
- do you have any friends? and if so, how do they put up with your rudeness?
>:(
Haha raised by pandas!! At least pandas are cute. :)
Delete