Queuing etiquette.

For the first time in my life today I was accused of jumping a queue, but I don’t think I was or maybe I did ?
If you know Cardiff you might know the New York deli in the High St arcade. Anyway you queue at the counter and place your order with staff making up sandwiches ect. They take a couple of orders ahead but not the whole queue so if it’s busy there’s a wait before your order is taken. The waitress doubles up at the till and brings you the food. Soft drinks you take yourself out of the fridge before paying at the till. I was with my son and we had food, but before we left he saw in the fridge an American soft drink he’d heard if but never tried. I asked him if he wanted one, he said yes so I took one out of the fridge and ignoring the queue to order food stood by the till to pay for it.
A guy in the queue accused my of trying to jump the queue. I said why wait in the food queue to pay for a take out drink ? the waitress taking my money wouldn’t make him wait any longer, what was the problem ? He kept on so I asked the staff if I should wait in the queue, they said it was etiquette that I did. I wasn’t going to wait for ten minutes or more to put £2 on the counter so I put the drink back and left. There seemed to be a majority in there that felt I was wrong, and maybe I was but was I ?

You did exactly what I would do, though maybe just a nod/request to the rest of the queue beforehand might have been enough.

I would’ve got the attention of the server and just left £2 on the counter.

“Sorry, he wants a drink too]. Do you mind?”

Words to that effect would have prevented such trivia and your son would have had his soda pop.

Yeah I’d have just left it on the counter and walked out when the server mentioned etiquette.

Horse shit

Seems a bit uncharitable of people queuing to order if your lad was only buying a drink. I will generally invite someone through in front of me if they have only one or two items and I have a basket or trolley full. But alas, it seems an increasingly selfish and intolerant world nowadays.

You started a thread about this, hours after the fact?

Queueing is only a British thing(mostly) It’s a free for all most countries I’ve been in and no one bats an eye lid !

You started a thread about this, hours after the fact?

He’s been waiting in the posting queue 🙂

Been in a few hotel restaurants where guests like to form a queue for the live cooking stations, and stand right in front of the buffet offerings. The British tend to join the back of the queue , even though they just want stuff from the buffet.
I have learnt pushing into said queue ( politely of course), in these situations can save a lot of wasted time ( though can often wind up some of the older queue folk )

Queueing is only a British thing(mostly)

Maybe too much of a thing as this example shows. How many of you invite people with just a few articles in their hands to go in front of you when you’ve got a full trolly in the queue at the checkout? I do except for really old people who will probably take several minutes to pay by cheque.

A local game I like to observe or take part in is the race for the checkout when the queues in Lidl get ridiculous and they finally open another check out. people don’t know whether to stand their ground in the hope people in front will race for the new checkout or be one of those who gambles on doing better at the new checkout – the great unknown being how long it’ll take someone to finish their cigartte break and actually open the check out.

Your solution was perfect Taxi25, you even contributed to your son’s dental hygiene and general health by not buying him liquid poison in a tin.

I have absolutely no idea if you jumped the queue or not.

All I know is that life is too short to worry about such trivial things.

What is done, is done. Have a beer and smile.

not buying him liquid poison in a tin

Jesus wept

A recognised health issue in some countries to the point they are taxed like cigarettes.
http://sante.lefigaro.fr/article/attention-les-sodas-sont-des-bombes-nutritionnelles/
http://sante.lefigaro.fr/article/boire-du-soda-tous-les-jours-abime-les-arteres/

Google translate if you’re interested to the point of wanting to read the articles, Fuzzywuzzy.

I have lived here for 25 years and I will never understand British queuing etiquette. I have just decided not to care – what is the worst that can happen – a frosty stare ?

I don’t queue jump on purpose but if you don’t get it and there is no obvious reason/purpose for the invisible queue then what harm really?

It also cracks me up that the one place you could really do with an orderly queue (busy pubs) it is a free for all, but you politely observe the invisible “who got to the bus stop first” line, when there are five people standing around and 100 empty seats.

Collective insanity!!

P.S and if you have to queue – it aint a restaurant its a canteen

I had to wait at a café behind a couple of ladies who were still deciding what they wanted. All I wanted to do was order bacon eggs and beans for the boy. Would have been sat back down by the time they got to the till but no…..

Your solution was perfect Taxi25, you even contributed to your son’s dental hygiene and general health by not buying him liquid poison in a tin.

Alas I noticed said drink in the “International” food section of my local Sainsbury’s. 👍

I’d have probably assumed it would be ok just to pay for the drink too, would have taken somebody literally seconds to chuck it through the till and take the money without holding up anyones food orders.

All I know is that life is too short to worry about such trivial things

I also agree with this, I really cant understand why some people waste their lives on such trivial matters.

Which also includes taking the time to start a thread on the internet about it 😂

You could learn a good lesson from the film Frozen

How would building a snow man help?

Picture isn’t showing on my pc BTW.

I wanted to do was order bacon….

Bacon? That’s preserved poison you’re feeding your child.

I would have let you get the drink if I were at the front, however – you’re in a country where 90%+ of the populations considers using both lanes of a road where there is one of these signs to be ‘pushing in’…

I love the pub comment!
I think a lot of the confusion really is we are trying to emulate other cultures “establishments” and perhaps that “culture” bleeds over but its partly out of context and different for different people.

e.g. The whole “McDonalds” experience or a traditional Southern Italian resto … both are kinda fusion but differently for most people and we superimpose a greater/lesser amount both our own and the “establishments aimed at” cultures.

Been in a few hotel restaurants where guests like to form a queue for the live cooking stations, and stand right in front of the buffet offerings. The British tend to join the back of the queue , even though they just want stuff from the buffet.

Also at breakfast buffets, where they put the plates is the official start of the queue. People hate it if you lean through, pick up a plate and start at the opposite, empty end of the buffet and work your way ‘backwards’.

(One of my pet hates is the length of time it takes people to fill their plates at buffets.)

Also at breakfast buffets, where they put the plates is the official start of the queue. People hate it if you lean through, pick up a plate and start at the opposite, empty end of the buffet and work your way ‘backwards’.

(One of my pet hates is the length of time it takes people to fill their plates at buffets.)

at a wedding I went to this summer, using both sides of the buffet table clearly blew some peoples minds….

It staggers me that some people are in such a hurry that they can’t be inconvenienced for like five seconds, yet seemingly have all the time in the world to argue about it for ten minutes. It’s like drivers who will happily have a roadside argument with cyclists because they’ve had to slow down slightly for a moment.

As for pushing in,

If you’d only bought a drink then yes, technically you’ve pushed in, though as someone else said it’s a bit uncharitable for them not to just let you crack on. Probably polite to ask first though.

But you’d already queued up once, awaited your turn like everyone else and been served. You are, in effect, already at the front of the queue; it’s no different really from popping back to ask for ketchup or something. Maybe Captain Queuing didn’t realise this?

I had to wait at a café behind a couple of ladies who were still deciding what they wanted. All I wanted to do was order bacon eggs and beans for the boy. Would have been sat back down by the time they got to the till but no…..

I was in KFC several years ago. It was mobbed, queued all the way to the front door. Directly in front of me was a family or two with maybe half a dozen or more brattish young kids in tow. In the time it takes me to grow a beard they finally got to the till, then one of the mothers turned to the kids, “right, what do you all want?” Argh!

aaaah man – “use both lanes” kills me! The fact that people need to be told…..

Used to drive on a dual carriageway that went from two into one. It was designed with the intention that people would drive side by side until the end of the dual section and then take turns to merge. You wouldn’t believe the fights people got into.

 it’s no different really from popping back to ask for ketchup or something. Maybe Captain Queuing didn’t realise this?

Good point, perhaps he thought I’d grabbed my drink and was going to now try and order food. I did explain that wasn’t the case, but once he’d spoken up it was probably a case of not wanting to back down.
It was a completely minor thing, but as a thoughtful person I was concerned I might have been unintentionally rude.

I used one of those two lanes into one yesterday. The bloke in the 3008 on my left wasn’t happy and nearly piled into the car in front in his desperation not to let me in. I then used the right hand lane at the next set of lights and ended up 3 cars in front. I could see him in my rear-view mirror weaving in and out looking for an overtaking opportunity which never materialised. Some people need to chill.

I have lived here for 25 years and I will never understand British queuing etiquette

So how does it work in other countries? It’s not been my experience that only British people queue.

Do people literally barge through crowds up to the point of service? How does this work if everyone does it? There’d be constant fights Shirley…

Oh good god merging lanes. The British mentality sees it as queue jumping. God forbid you should try and filter as planned. I just automatically stay in the left lane now and let people from the right merge. Can’t be arsed with the utter bellendery of some people.

I had a situation not long ago, where the woman in front decided to straddle the lanes, to block cars on her right hand side from getting past.
Feeling particularly childish that day, I couldn’t resist driving up her left hand side, and not letting her back over . Oh how we chuckled as she was ranting and raving and blowing her horn 😂

the woman in front decided to straddle the lanes

Can’t really blame her for that. The signs said “use both lanes” and she was just following directions…

Can’t really blame her for that. The signs said “use both lanes” and she was just following directions…

Lolz 😂

Whoa there with this use this use both lanes malarkey.

I see that as the fall back position for when we’ve collectively **** it up. Whilst traffic is moving freely at a reasonable pace the perfect filter is done without dropping any speed. That needs distance so best done over over half a mile of so. It’s only when some numbnuts **** it up (normally by going up the right hand lane and pulling in a the last minute into a non existence gap causing everyone behind to brake) and we are all down to a crawl that its best to use both lanes and filter as the roads merge. But that much nuance is way too hard for your average dribbler so we **** it up again and again and again. It is quite literally one of those situations where we all have to travel at the speed of the slowest amongst us.

It’s almost like people are unfamiliar with the concept of zips, isn’t it.

pulling in a the last minute into a non existence gap

The problem there is people driving too close to each other.

There is no reason to create a tailback twice as long as it needs to be just because someone has arbitrarily decided that the point they move over is the point everyone else should.

How would building a snow man help?

Picture isn’t showing on my pc BTW.

You never know it might have chilled them all out a bit 😂

If you can’t see the picture just think of the main song from the film 😉

I didn’t say I don’t queue, I sometimes just don’t see the invisible ones. Like the man said, where nobody is at the counter paying but you should wait in the line for people to get their food, to give one example