Queueing etiquette

Don’t you just hate it when someone stands too close to you in the queue at the supermarket? The feeling that they are trying to push you along when they know just as well as you do that you are trapped by the speed of the cashier and the people in front of you. Yet they still lean over you to get the shopping divider. Their trolley is too close to you and you are worried that it will catch your legs. It is a claustrophobic feeling.

There is an etiquette when it comes to queueing and they are breaking into it. Personal space should be given consideration. 

There are other things to think about, such as paying. This should be done as quickly as possible, anything else is discourteous to your fellow shoppers stuck behind you. You should not be waiting until all your shopping is in your bag before fumbling in your purse for a lost card. When did you realise that you were going to have to pay anyway?

What got me thinking about this was something that happened in the queue in Marks and Spencers. We were due to go to a funeral and had some time in between proceedings when people would need feeding. I’d gone to buy some sandwiches, quite a few as it happens, enough to feed a small gathering. As I was putting them onto the conveyor belt, by tipping them out, the man behind me said to me that that was a lot of sandwiches.

He was an old man and I may be one of the few people he would speak to that day. I muttered something along the lines of having to go to a funeral, none of which he needed to know but I was a bit put out. Why did he think he could comment on what I had in my basket? Why did it irk me so and why am I still thinking about it now? It wasn’t queueing etiquette.

Human social interaction is the strangest of things. What is said in innocence can be misconstrued. The same word from a stranger is different to that of a loved one. 

When I am in a queue, I keep my distance from the person in front, let someone pass if they only have a couple of items to buy, have my money ready when it is time to pay and never discuss the contents of the other person’s basket. What they buy is up to them. Not mentioning it is just good manners.