I hate people who skip in line! They always give you the same excuse.

[BusBus]

Ooh line budging stories! I have a fistful right here...

-Me and Sig Other were at Walmart. It was on a weekend, so the lines were crazy. We patiently waited in line to pay for our one and only item when this older lady (not quite elderly, but getting close) comes up and asks if she can go ahead of us because she only has one item *insert sad face here*. There was quite the queue behind us, too. We told her that we only had one item too, so NO. So she cut behind us and no one said a thing.

-This ones takes the cake of line cutting stories. I was at a Disney Theme Park and we were waiting in a long line for a ride. A private tour group leader starts leading her group through the line! They cut and cut and cut and cut! By the time you got over the shock, they were three people ahead of you. Finally, one guy refused to allow them to pass. It was quite amusing seeing her trying to push by this guy (some entertainment for the line). Geez woman, get the fast track tickets next time.

[AFpheonix]

Most people are pretty good, probably because we try to keep our line moving as fast as possible (doesn't always happen that way, but hey, we give it a shot)

However, there was one night where it was just myself and the pharmacist, and he was kind of a slow pharmacist, so we were a little backed up. Crazy lady comes bombing up to the consultation window, past the line at the register, and waves her script under my nose. I was kind of sick that day, and I didn't have any time to go take any OTC relief type stuff (this was before you had to sacrifice your firstborn to get sudafed) and I had a really lovely sinus headache goin' on.
I looked at her, and told her somewhat snippily that she needed to join the rest of the line. She looked at me like I just ran over her puppy, and insisted that she just wanted to drop off her script. I told her to join the rest of the line. She wanted to know if she could drop it off in the drivethrough, I said certainly, if she wanted to wait in line out there (yes, I was being a bitch, I know. I repent)
I managed to wade through both the lines at the counter and the drivethrough until it was finally her turn. When I gave her the wait time (probably something like 45 minutes to an hour) and she freaked some more. "I had to wait to drop it off, and now I have to wait for it to get done?!"

Uhhh....yeah, lady, that's how it works.

So...she waited in store. With her hellspawn apparently playing a pickup match of soccer in the toy isle, from the sound of it. Idiot.

[greensinestro]

Not to be an elderly hater, but I tend to find the most people who budge are senior citizens.
I
I find a lot of old people who are normally very slow tend to speed right up when they want to get in line and their cart magically turns into a Nascar car and they can zip right on in front of you.

That's funny. I have noticed that quite a bit in stores also. However, I also notice with having kids, they are slow when you tell them to clean their rooms, or take out the garbage. Yet, they kick into high gear whenever the doorbell or the phone rings.

[skeptic53]

The Washington State Legislature is considering a bill to make it a traffic offense to cut into a line of cars waiting for a ferry. There have been numerous instances of "line rage" over this. If you've been waiting 2 hours, someone cuts in as the line starts to move, they get on the boat and you don't, you can imagine the emotions. During summer tourist season it is a real problem.

[digilight]

I freaken hate line cutters. Thankfully I rarely get to experience this problem, hmmm could it be my size, they can't pull the old I didn't see you there card (i'm 6'6" and not skinny either). Could it be because I can look mean as hell (although not as much now that I shaved off the goate). But they never seem to want to test me, maybe they think I eat stupid people for luch....

[notthecook]

My step mother was just telling us a story like this the other night.

Her & my dad were at Bob Evans, waiting to be seated. A bus load of senior citizens come in and *demand* to be seated right now, they have reservations.

The hostess told them that as soon as they seated them (dad/sm) they will seat the bus.

Oh no. That wasn't going to happen. They wanted to be seated RIGHT NOW and they don't have time to wait on these people in front of them ( remember, only 2 people in front of them).

My step mom got so fed up listening to this woman, she told the hostess that she would go somewhere else.

The normally quiet step mom, who is a nurse (caring, patient etc) turned around, looked that lady that was bitching dead in the eye and said "Stupid old people".

She felt bad after she said it, but she was just so mad at the time.

Really, would those two people have really made a difference when the old people were going to eat? Would those two meals have backed up their orders?

[HawaiianShirts]

It's even harder when there is no discernible line. Just a few days ago, one of my co-workers was in a car accident and was gong to be late for work, so we were short-staffed for about an hour. We had quite a few customers that day. Most of them were friendly enough, but one guy...

I was helping a couple find a computer. Or, to be more precise, we had already found them a computer, I had put it onto a cart, and I was going through the little bit of paperwork we have. A nice older gentlemen stepped up beside me, put two fingers on my shoulder to get my attention, and said, "When you're finished with them, I have a few questions." Then he stepped quietly away and stood patiently waiting. A couple of girls then came in (probably in the later years of college) looking totally lost. They made eye-contact with me, and I gave them the one-finger "I'll be with you in just a moment" gesture with a smile. One of them nodded, and they got themselves interested in a laptop with a webcam.

Almost done with the paperwork, the couple I'm helping has one more question before they go. But before they can ask it, some guy walks into the department, glances around, then walks right up to me and says, "I need to buy a laptop."

Me: All right, sir. I'll help you with that just as soon as I can.
SC: No, I need it now. I'm in a hurry.
Me: There are some people who were here before you, sir. I need to help them first, then I'll be with you. It shouldn't be more than about ten minutes.
SC: That's too long. I'm in a hurry. I need a laptop now.
Me: You'll just have to wait. I'm going to finish with this couple, then these other customers have some questions. Then I will help you.
SC: That's not good enough! I demand...
Me: THESE people have been courteous and patient. YOU have not. YOU can either go battle traffic for twenty minutes and get your laptop at our competitor down the street, or you can stand here for ten minutes and wait for me or one of my co-workers to assist you.

And at that, I went on to help my customers. The SC got mad and left, but he came back an hour later and bought from Alan, my co-worker, avoiding eye-contact with me in the process.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I've had people try to get their order pushed to the front of the cue at Kinkos many, many times. People down here don't do much line breaking, but SC in Kinko's will demand that you do their order first.

It's a lot easier to suck when you don't have to look someone in the eye to do it, don't you know.

They will whine and cry and complain about how much of a hurry they are in.

Newflash, Sunshine: everyone in Kinko's in in a hurry. All the customers are in a hurry. The employees are in a hurry. The lady cleaning the head is in a hurry. The tech fixing the copier is in a hurry. The guy out back towing your car away is in a hurry.

Hell, the homeless guy sneaking out with shoplifted candy in his pockets? That guy is in a hurry, too! So don't even come in here saying you are in a hurry. Because you know what?

Duh!

I used to tell people, "Okay. You go around and ask all those folks over there waiting for their order if they'll wait for your stuff to be done first, and I'll be happy to push your stuff to the front."

Needless to say, nobody ever took me up on it.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

To give you a little background, my youngest daughter is a sea creature fanatic. Her life ambition is to become a marine mammal Vet in a zoo. She also has an IQ in the lower 190's.

We were on vacation in a major southern US city and had taken her to the aquarium. She found a coloring book of seals and sea lions that she wanted to buy with her own money. She goes and gets in line to check out. At the time she was about 12 years old, but was only 4' 5" tall and very tiny built, but very independent. I step back to where I can see her, but let her have her independence. This woman gets in line behind her. There are two people in front of her. When it got to be her turn the woman behind her pushed her down and stepped up to the cashier. I step behind her and ask her if it made her feel any better to push a young lady down to get infront of her. My oldest runs out to tell her Dad what was going on. My youngest got up, told the woman that she was there first, hands the cashier her coloring book, checks out and we go out to her Dad. He asks me what happened just as the woman walks out and tells her husband that some lunitic woman was in there yelling at her. My husband turns and tells her husband that she had just pushed dxown a child to get in front of her in line. You should have seen the look on the husbands face.

[Andara Bledin]

People can be incredibly rude to young teens and kids in line.

Sometimes it's just the SCs, but other times it's the clerks, too.

My cousin is exactly 6 months older than I am, but by the time I hit 1 year old, I had outgrown her. She's just a small person.

Anyway, she was at a store when she was 14 and when she got the the front of the line, the clerk glanced at her and then started trying to help the woman standing behind her. Thankfully, the woman was decent and pointed out that my cousin was next in line, but I've had friends tell other stories where the person behind them would happily take their place.

^-.-^

[BusyBee]

Thankfully I've never had it happen to me when I'm a customer. I'd probably stand there and quietly fume if it did.

I don't know if I'm just extra good or something but 99% of the time I see and remember who got up to the counter in what order anyway. So when the occasional person(s) try to jump in front, I deal with it by blithely ignoring them, going to the person who was next, and serving them... And just get to the jumpers when it is actually their turn. So far I haven't had anyone get whiny about it. Guess I'm just lucky?

[Imogene]

Crap... reminded myself of the night I went to Wendy's with a friend and his mate. Friend & mate get their order through, and I was behind them and off to the side, waiting. Friend & mate move off to the side to wait, cashier takes Giggling teenage girls behind me.
I get a look on my face that I was told looked like "My puppy had been crushed", and say, "Hey!"
Giggling teenage girls step back, cashier takes my five second order, I move off to the side.
Geez. I'm not exactly invisible, thank you very much.

[iradney]

Ugh, that happened to me a couple days ago. Popped off to Woolworths to get lunch, standing in the queue. There's 2 cashiers (it wasn't at the lunch time rush, for some reason I'd been rostered for a 10 am lunch :cries, and the one cashier is busy with a large order. So I stand patiently and wait my turn. Next thing I know, this chick PUSHES past all of us (there were about 4 ppl in the line), gets a small packet of something from the lady with the large order, and stands behind her like she's going to go next!
At this point, I get a little ticked and I say "Hey lady! There's a queue over here for a reason!"
The stupid wench looks over at me, indicates to the small packet the woman (presumably her mother) gave her and said "This is mine" and didn't move.
Now, if she had asked nicely if she could jump, I might have let it go. But no. She wasn't there when I joined the line, and as far as I'm concerned no-one else can hold your place for you.

So I respond with "So what? You weren't here when we got in the line, and giving something to your mom to hold for you while you finish your shopping does NOT hold a place for you in the line! Get back in the queue!"
The wench ignores me, and the cashier finishes up with her mom, and then starts to serve LineJumper!

Now I must admit, this wasn't one of my finest moments. I got to the same cashier when she was done with LineJumper, turned to LJ, looked her dead in the eye and said "Queue jumping BITCH!" and then finished my transaction. *feels ashamed*

[Andara Bledin]

I talk crap to people who jump in lines all the time.

When I'm at amusement parks, I don't put up with it at all. Most parks have signs up that if you get caught jumping, you get thrown out, so anytime someone tries it, I inform them that I will be getting someone in security for it. I've yet to have them not leave and go to the back of the line. (I've been told I look intimidating. I just don't see it)

Back in high school, I went for a month to one school that didn't have much resembling lines for the snack shack that sold stuff for the morning break. Nobody ever got past me, not even the people on the football team. I'm not that big, but I'm tenacious, and I'm not going to let someone just push past me because they happen to have more body mass. Some of the looks I got were amusing, though. They'd come up behind, just pushing themselves forward, then get to my spot and get stopped by an elbow. And pushing the elbow just made me shift my body in front of them. I usually got shoved into the person in front of me (nobody really noticed, it was that chaotic) at that point.

It was kind of fun to feel the idiot fuming behind me, impatient to get to the front faster and totally unable to move past me without going the long way around. Like he was the only one in the mob that was in a hurry.

^-.-^

[spoiled_princess]

UGH People!! Didn't we learn to stand in line and wait our turn in KINDERGARDEN?! Honestly, my 4 yr old nephew has more manners than 99 % of 'adults.'

A few months ago, I HAD to go to the Social Security Admin office to re-apply for my kids' cards (that's another story in itself of WHY I had to do so) and when I got there, there's probably 10 people in front of me. EVERYONE HAD to take a #, and wait their turn. My kids and I had been there for about 30 mins when this older lady comes in, looks around at us SITTING and WAITING, and walks right up to one of the windows and huffs and sighs until she's acknowledged by the girl behind the counter. Now, my son, who's 13, said "Who does she think she is? SHE CAN'T DO THAT!!" I just laughed...I'm not telling him he's wrong. Turns out, the lady had to get a # also, she even got 2 #'s, trying to go faster, then she sat down for about 5 minutes, huffed, and walked out. Too bad, lady-ya gotta wait just like everyone else!!