Every checkout queue is the wrong one!!

Anniemacca

Anyone else afflicted by this?

I cannot actually ever recall thinking - "!!!!!! - that looked like the speediest queue - and it was by a mile - suckerss!!!!"

It never works out that way for me.

Example earlier. Either side of me at least 3 people in the line with full baskets. I went to the "empty" checkout - The old duffer had about 3 things to scan and pack.

He didn't have any pyhiscal disabilities and wasn't that old - maybe 60!

I clocked a few 6 packs in his shopping that he eventually managed to pack. He still hadn't finished putting his last 3 items in bags and got told the total.

This muppet only went and put his card in the wrong way, not once, but 3 times!! Whilst he was waiting for that to be rectified he didn't have the semi brain to be packing the rest of his shopping.

I was watching these adjacent, initially much large queues, scanning their stuff and waltzing out - they had such smug looks!!

I realise I have only just joined this site so am not intending to alienate people - but aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarahahaggaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

I have no problem with the actual shopping bit - it is just trying to pay for it. Either through a "manned" lane that you would think would be quicker - or through a stupid machine where you still need to call someone over!!

IMO shoppers and the technology has actually made us go backwards and slowed things down.

I have no experiences of SS without it seizing up and saying "unexpected item in the bagging area. Please wait for assistance"!!

I expect it is just me that has had these problems... Oh well...:T

johnnyboyrebel

Anniemacca wrote: »

Anyone else afflicted by this?

I cannot actually ever recall thinking - "!!!!!! - that looked like the speediest queue - and it was by a mile - suckerss!!!!"

It never works out that way for me.

Example earlier. Either side of me at least 3 people in the line with full baskets. I went to the "empty" checkout - The old duffer had about 3 things to scan and pack.

He didn't have any pyhiscal disabilities and wasn't that old - maybe 60!

I clocked a few 6 packs in his shopping that he eventually managed to pack. He still hadn't finished putting his last 3 items in bags and got told the total.

This muppet only went and put his card in the wrong way, not once, but 3 times!! Whilst he was waiting for that to be rectified he didn't have the semi brain to be packing the rest of his shopping.

I was watching these adjacent, initially much large queues, scanning their stuff and waltzing out - they had such smug looks!!

I realise I have only just joined this site so am not intending to alienate people - but aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarahahaggaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

I have no problem with the actual shopping bit - it is just trying to pay for it. Either through a "manned" lane that you would think would be quicker - or through a stupid machine where you still need to call someone over!!

IMO shoppers and the technology has actually made us go backwards and slowed things down.

I have no experiences of SS without it seizing up and saying "unexpected item in the bagging area. Please wait for assistance"!!

I expect it is just me that has had these problems... Oh well...:T

Welcome to my world, these type of things rile me. The self service checkouts are awful!

Dave_C_2

It's not just you, this is perfectly normal checkout paranoia:)

What gets me is the rows and rows of checkouts that are never fully used, no matter how busy the store is.

Dave

vyle

You may find this illuminating:

Why the other line is likely to move faster - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Ri_HhziI0

scheming_gypsy

i have my own method. You find the fittest checkout girl (or bloke if that's what you're in to) and choose either her till or the one next to it, whichever is shortest. That way no matter how slow your queue is you've got something nice to look at.

trukdiver

What annoys me are the ones who wait till everything has been scanned before starting to pack. Then when they've finished packing, they look for their card as if they didn't know they would need it!

bcl999

trukdiver wrote: »

What annoys me are the ones who wait till everything has been scanned before starting to pack. Then when they've finished packing, they look for their card as if they didn't know they would need it!

Very true.

It was a friend who pointed out to me that it's very often the fairer sex who don't have their money ready to pay and start fishing about their handbags when all the their shopping has been scanned & packed. It's as if they don't expect to need to have their purse/money handy. A man, on the other hand, quite often has his wallet or notes out well before the cashier is finished and doesn't hold the queue up. I have made observations since and it's true.

NB I may always have my money ready but I'll also very likely have a handful of coupons to be scanned so don't join my queue.

Azari

vyle wrote: »

You may find this illuminating:

Why the other line is likely to move faster - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Ri_HhziI0

That's quite good but he misses out a very important point with respect to your perception of how long you have to wait:

Whenever you are in the slowest moving queue you will, obviously, spend more time experiencing being in the slowest queue. Conversely, if you are in the fastest moving queue you will, necessarily, spend less time experiencing that.

So if you queued four times and on two of those occasions waited 30 seconds and on the other two waited 3 minutes, you would spend one minute waiting in the fast queue and 6 minutes waiting in the slow queue.

So your experience of queueing would be that you'd spent six time longer in the slow moving queue. Which, unless you are aware of the effect described above will lead you to believe that you have more than your share of bad luck when selecting queues.

scheming_gypsy

bcl999 wrote: »

It was a friend who pointed out to me that it's very often the fairer sex who don't have their money ready to pay and start fishing about their handbags when all the their shopping has been scanned & packed. It's as if they don't expect to need to have their purse/money handy. A man, on the other hand, quite often has his wallet or notes out well before the cashier is finished and doesn't hold the queue up. I have made observations since and it's true.

They also stand at the bus stop complaining that it's later blah blah blah, and then when it does turn up they complain to the driver that he's late... Then they'll actually start scratting about at the bottom of their bag to find their money.

bratz81

bcl999 wrote: »

Very true.

It was a friend who pointed out to me that it's very often the fairer sex who don't have their money ready to pay and start fishing about their handbags when all the their shopping has been scanned & packed. It's as if they don't expect to need to have their purse/money handy. A man, on the other hand, quite often has his wallet or notes out well before the cashier is finished and doesn't hold the queue up. I have made observations since and it's true.

NB I may always have my money ready but I'll also very likely have a handful of coupons to be scanned so don't join my queue.

I'm a woman and I always have my purse out ready before the girl starts scanning so when she says the price I can just hand over the cash or put my card in.
always have my card out ready in the ATM queue, tickets ready in the cinema and for the bus and so on.

So it might be some women but not all of us!

vikingaero

I went to Morrisons today. Two guys together both using the self serve tills. One guys finishes first and waits for his mate. He leaves his stuff on the bagging area and remains in front of the machine. I get a dirty look when I ask him to move! :mad: Peenus