Past retirement going on kindergarten age, are we?

[Pixilated]

Some time ago I was in line at Cheap Green Supermarket. Ahead of me were two elderly women, who were tut-tutting at the slowness of the line. One peeled off and went to the next line. She kept saying, "You should move too! I bet I get through before you do!"

As luck would have it, she did. Soooooo ... she comes running back to her associate (under the circumstances, I'm not sure she'd want to be called a 'friend' anymore, LOL), and proceeds to shake her finger at her: "I KNEW I'D GET THROUGH FIRST! SEE, YOU SHOULD'VE MOVED! I GOT THROUGH FIRST! I GOT THROUGH FIRST!!" Lather, rinse, repeat. More than once.

Her friend stood there with a politely frozen smile on her face, obviously belonging to the generation that was taught you don't deck acquaintances in public ...

Those of us within hearing distance felt quite sorry for the woman still stuck in line. I think more than one of us was contemplating whacking the 80-going-on-6 woman with some frozen food item just to get her to STFU.

[SuperDan]

Once while cashiering back in my grocery days (I wasn't a cashier, my title was "utility clerk" which translates to janitor, cart-getter, light maintenance, and general errand bitch) I had something out of my control hold up my line for a while. I don't remember what it was--I know it wasn't something I could just suspend the order and work on other people for, and it wasn't a matter of waiting for change or anything like that where I theoretically could have made a mental note and had the customer wait to the side while I helped the next person. It had to either be my machine rebooted (took forever) or one of the stretches of time where the store got tired of WIC orders mis-processed and insisted a CSM personally watch over every single WIC order (which btw, I was apparently quicker at and more accurate at than many actual cashiers, so on many of these stretches I got away with verbal reminders of what to check for over the phone than a CSM babysitter visiting my lane). Whatever it was, I couldn't work around it and it caused a multi-minute delay (real-life time, not just SC time).

Anyway, impatient asshat throws a bitch fit over things taking so long. I explain and apologize, but he continues to bitch, and eventually moves to another line. There were I think two people between him and the customer being helped.

Yes, I took great pleasure at looking up at him just beginning to be served as I wished the customer who was behind him in my line a good day. (Despite not being a regular cashier, I was generally in the top six for both speed and accuracy in months that I had any register time.)