Let's all just stand in front of the cart lobby!

[One-Fang]

I generally also go for the quick, polite, but firm "excuse me". Especially in the supermarket. For some reason, outside of the supermarket, I favour the 'bump'. Especially if it's a group of teens. Dunno why that appeals so, it just does.

[pbmods]

those blue cabs are HEAVY (as are the dollies & the U-Boats with all the heavy boxes and shit on them), and once you get your momentum going with those things, you really don't want to stop until you reach your destination, because it's hard to get them started again.

Also rather hard to stop... which was more the problem for me

Of course, it's the freight train's fault for not being able to see around the corner and stop on a dime.... That actually became part of a joke that I would use on annoyed customers to make them a little more tolerable.

[Lace Neil Singer]

If I'm out of work, I favour the loud, firm "Excuse me!" following by the equally firm shoving my way thru the idiot blockage. I never get hassled for doing so as I'm a tall girl with big hips and bust, usually wearing massive boots.

[chainedbarista]

And don't even get me started on those humongous double-wide umbrellas! With morons attatched.

i feel your pain, justacashier; i had to deal with all sorts of stupid crap during my art school days.

carts seem to bring out the strange in some people; stealing your cart, with a complement of groceries inside (er, big clue, yes?? maybe not...), shoving you aside with their cart (or ramming your cart with theirs) without so much as an 'excuse me.'

much like liquor and big muscle cars, it seems that the cart creates the 'ten foot tall and bulletproof' status.

[XCashier]

That sounds like half the students on the college campus I used to attend. Lots of these knots of people would manage to find the narrowest (and busiest) walkways imagineable and just stand there, holding a conversation, and ignoring the people walking past.

Sounds like my old high school. A gaggle of students walking one way would meet their friends walking the other and just stop in the middle of the corridor and babble with them. Some of the braver students would just walk right slam into them, then with a mock-apologetic voice say, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you stop in the middle of the walkway!" You'd think the dummies would figure it out after it happened a few times, but none of them ever did...

[xshaq]

I had one SC ram the back of my ankle. It was too good to pass up. I fell to the floor rolling and yelling, holding my ankle... <evil grin>

[RichS]

The problem I have being blocked with carts is when going shopping.

My wife walks ahead with my 3 girls, and I follow with the cart - keeping my kids between me and my wife, making sure they don't wander off and get lost. I make sure to keep a little gap between my kids and the cart to not run over them.

Always I'll get cut off by someone going between my kids and my cart, usually a person with their own cart, like they can't see that we're a family and going the same place. It happens numerous times, no 'excuse me' or any warning. The worst is when a bunch of people do this - if they don't see me, the rest of my family keeps going, and I have to rush to catch up.

I've been fighting the urge to scream at them to get out of my way...

[Cyanocobalamin]

Quote:
And don't even get me started on those humongous double-wide umbrellas! With morons attatched.

Heh. I've lived in the Seattle area for 11 years. I'm localized now and don't need an umbrella!

Back on topic, just yesterday 2 customers saw 2 other people they knew and proceeded to block the checkout line entrance and have a high pitched, Pleasantville-type conversation: "Hiiiiiiiiiiii!!!" "How ARE you? It's been SOOOOO long!" to, erm, nudge them away....

[I_Hate_SCs]

Or, I'd get the wall o' morons coming up the sidewalk in the opposite direction not even moving to let me through. I'd practically have to jump over a fire hydrant, or parking meter. In cases such as those, I often won't say "excuse me" because I figure the blatant rudeness on their part doesn't warrant politeness on my part.

I HATE it when SCs walk side by side blocking both sides of the 'main aisle' in my store ... it happens a lot with soccer moms and the elderly . I know they see (and hear) me coming towards them with a flatbed 5 feet tall of plastic storage item boxes. One time it was so bad I had to bring the flatbed about 2 feet from the SC's body before they gasped and said "Oh, I see some people don't know how to get out of the way" to me, as if I was in their way.

Sorry for the slight post hack, but this goes right up there with the idiots who purposely go to the one spot in the aisle you need to go to (to stock stuff, etc) and refuse to move.

[One-Fang]

Rich, maybe they really can't see you're a family. I know I wouldn't. I'd see a woman with three girls, and behind them a single guy with a trolley. If I see a need to take that space, I will. If you look like you're moving into it, I won't, but if you're stationary or I need something from where that gap is, then I'll be moving.

It's only a supermarket, it's not that big. The kids won't get too far in front if you have to go around someone sometimes.