Supermarket Customers

Dear All,

Can anyone share with me if they have bother in supermarkets.What I find is people are unkind ,if I politely ask them to move so I can grab something, they either ignore take ages or give me lip!

I am a very polite gentle person who believes in kindness and good manners.Does anyone else find the same selfishness and any advice ti deal with.Even wearing my Lanyard makes little difference

  • you bet it blows me away when I meet someone lovely thanks so much

  • This is so true, I thought it was just me! Too many examples to note but safe to say I was polite and said please but some people are born ignorant. Sadly we live in a selfish society. However it does make meeting fellow polite people so much more special.

  • yes the conversation either on the mobile or to each other.I find it amazing that they would not say lets go and have a coffee or come to mine .I had one instance when people were chatting at 11 am on remembrance Sunday when there was 2 minutes silence !

  • so true I think some people forget the planet is shared by all of us with equal rights

  • I think it must be a very particular sort of person who thinks they have the right to block others in a shop, like they're on some kind of picket duty. When my children were teenagers and we'd go and visit my parents who lived in Eastbourne, we'd get on the bus to go to the sea front and my children would give up thier seats for elderly passengers and I'd be told what lovely well mannered children I had. On the way home, these elderly people would elbow my children out of the way to get on the bus first muttering about how they'd died in the blitz so as we could stand at bus stops. I think they must be the same sort of people who block supermarket aisles.

    The other sort that bug me are the "slow families", they take up the entire pavement like an ambulatory picket line and just dont' seem to think that others might need to pass them.

  • Yes TheCatWoman I used to do the internet shopping in Tescos and politely said excuse me please to two ladies who were blocking the aisle whilst having a chat and they were so offended, one of them actually said “we’re having a conversation?” as though that justified blocking the whole aisle. It’s so unnecessary I still don’t understand how they felt they were entitled to block everyone else because they were talking to each other and it’s been 15 years now. Those internet shopping trolleys have timers on there’s barely a second to spare

  • love it you sound like you have this to a tee thanks so much I agree if people see you are not getting to them it annoys

  • The funny thing is with these type of people is that they get annoyed when done to them !

    The real trick to this is to learn to stop caring about what they think. They lost the right to be respected when they did the disprespectful thing of becoming a road block.

    They realise they were caught and it is their resentment at this that makes them sigh - it merits no further response from us than a smug smile.

  • love it you see people with Autism we hate unfairness.The funny thing is with these type of people is that they get annoyed when done to them !

  • I am a very polite gentle person who believes in kindness and good manners.

    You are also a shopper with the same rights as them so have the right to ask them to move their lazy ass out the way and let you get on with your shopping.

    This sort of thing used to bother me until I realised that caring about it was about as effective as trying to solve a maths problem by chewing gum - the problem never got solved and I just ended up with a tired jaw. Finding the appropriate focus for your energies is important and these sort of situations in supermarkets are not worthy of more than TheCatWomans approach of politely telling them to get the heck out of the way and not giving a damn about their fussing.

    Maybe think of the interaction as a coin of energy banked for spending later on.

    Even wearing my Lanyard makes little difference

    I don't think many people even know what it signifies outside of the transport industry and even then they have a patchy understanding of what autism is about.

  • I find people ignoring me when saying excuse me. Also taking time to choose, grabbing the last one, one person serving and not opening another until later.

    Plus always say the total cost before scanning my membership card (I get member offers); also say just the one item. I noticed some customers moved the stock cages (they're not trained to do this); I asked a store worker to help. Annoying. The supermarket is supposed to have a refurbishment this year. 

  • thanks so much will try your advice glad it is not just me agree with everything you said

  • I find it's often older people stood in the middle of aisles with their shopping trollies blocking any way through, what I find the rudest are when they look around and are aware that there are people trying to get past them and ignore everyone. I use my mother/headmistress voice and say loudly, politely and firmly, 'Excuse me please'. They inevitably get in a huff, some have even said 'how rude!', if challanged I would ask why what I said was rude, I didn't swear, or push, and I said please. 

    I'd say don't back down, you have as much right to be there as them, stay calm if challenged and reflect back to them any rudeness they accuse you of. You can be polite, well mannered and kind, but you don't have to be a doormat.