Is Queuing Dead?

[T4tomo]

Some Wetherspoons pubs have signs up specifically telling people not to queue. I was chatting to some staff there once about it and they think its a hangover (lol) from the pandemic days, younger people <30 tend to do it more. So if your in a Wetherspoons and see a queue for the bar, ignore it and walk staight up to the bar.

Ah in bars its fine to stand at the bar in no order what so ever, but then its polite to when the bar-person asks "whose next" to point to the person who was there before you and say this lady / gent was next. This also guarantees you getting served next.

In a Spoon's just order on the App to your table - sorted!

When I worked in a pub, if it was busy I would serve the locals whilst also serving the tourists taking food orders etc. I knew what they wanted so just pulled them their pints along side doing other orders, and they would drop the right change onto the bar for me to sweep into the till.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I think it depends on where you live

around here people still queue as normal

I have the same experience in Liverpool etc

I did have a weird experience at a hotel in Scotland a couple of years ago when people started forming an orderly queue in the hotel bar
very weird!!!

 

[slowmotion]

The most shocking episode I ever experienced was being ruthlessly queue barged by a group of ten Irish nuns at a showing of the film Gandhi. Ever since, I've never felt quite the same about Christianity.

 

[oldwheels]

Mostly people here do queue but sometimes strangers do not understand the local system. In our bank people have come in and go straight to a teller position despite several waiting and the same in the coop. They soon get told by a chorus of shouts to wait their turn.
I admit to doing the same in Bank of Scotland in Oban once through ignorance of the system as nobody looked like they were waiting for a teller to be available.
I see the Calmac queue for the ferry and it is very orderly.
In Helensburgh many years ago anybody wearing obvious working clothes was allowed on to the buses first at the terminus as there were enormous queues and you would have to wait ages for a bus home.
I was a gardener at the time and learned this very quickly.

 

[Red17]

Round here it seems to depend what people are queuing for. For shops banks etc people seem happy to queue, but for busses/trams/trains it's a free for all to mob the doors and get on first.

 

[DRM]

Many years ago,on holiday in Gran Canaria, we were waiting for the coach to take us on an excursion, when it arrived all the Germans from the next door hotel pushed in and got on the coach thinking it was going into town, oh how we Brits laughed when the driver chucked them all off, they also used to put towels out on the sunbeds in our complex as it was brand new & far nicer than the dump next door, as you can guess the towels always were found in the pool the following morning

 

[tyred]

I got a telling off from the cashier in the post office a while back. I went in just after opening time. There wasn't a single other customer there, so I walked straight up to serving hatch and promptly got told off for not going around the queuing system around the labyrinth of ropes where I should have queued if there had been other people.

 

[welsh dragon]

People round here still queue. I must admit I don't like doing it anymore. I tend to use self service tills in the supermarkets now as I hate to queue.

 

[scragend]

In my experience it’s acid filled little old ladies that are the major offenders.

This reminds me of an incident many years ago when I was catching the bus home from school with my Dad. I can't remember why he was there on this one occasion but he was. He got on the bus first and paid, and I was right behind him. An old lady shoved in between us, said "wait" quite rudely to me and thrust her money to the driver. Not only that but she then said in all nice-little-old-lady-style to the driver "I'm just telling him to wait before he gets his ticket". The driver responded "Yeah you tell him love, make these young 'uns wait their turn".

My Dad heard all of this, turned round and politely but firmly said to the lady, "Actually he's with me, he was in front of you, you wait your turn". Then to the driver, "Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to judge".

Never forgotten it.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Ah in bars its fine to stand at the bar in no order what so ever, but then its polite to when the bar-person asks "whose next" to point to the person who was there before you and say this lady / gent was next. This also guarantees you getting served next.

In a Spoon's just order on the App to your table - sorted!

When I worked in a pub, if it was busy I would serve the locals whilst also serving the tourists taking food orders etc. I knew what they wanted so just pulled them their pints along side doing other orders, and they would drop the right change onto the bar for me to sweep into the till.

I love the 'Spoons app, wish more pubs had one. The only downside is they don't update the real ale choice very quickly if something is added or removed.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I got a telling off from the cashier in the post office a while back. I went in just after opening time. There wasn't a single other customer there, so I walked straight up to serving hatch and promptly got told off for not going around the queuing system around the labyrinth of ropes where I should have queued if there had been other people.

Daft teller

 

[Drago]

I got a telling off from the cashier in the post office a while back. I went in just after opening time. There wasn't a single other customer there, so I walked straight up to serving hatch and promptly got told off for not going around the queuing system around the labyrinth of ropes where I should have queued if there had been other people.

So you rolled down your balaclava, hefted your sawn-off, and dutifully went round the correct way?

 

[MontyVeda]

there's a dual queue system on my local Tesco Express; one for the manned checkout and one for the self checkout, but despite signage, this eludes most shoppers who form one big queue which is aiming for the self checkout. I do feel a little guilty jumping the big queue and going directly to the manned checkout... but if they can't read a sign, that's not my problem.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I got a telling off from the cashier in the post office a while back. I went in just after opening time. There wasn't a single other customer there, so I walked straight up to serving hatch and promptly got told off for not going around the queuing system around the labyrinth of ropes where I should have queued if there had been other people.

I get "looks" from my wife because I have an - apparently - annoying tendency to duck under the rope
or even unhook them - go through and hook them back up again
the annoyingly wait for her to pass me on her loop round and unhook another one and go through as she gets to the next hairpin bend

last time I did it at Manchester airport I caught the person on the check-in desk laughing at our antics

 

[Dogtrousers]

A Polish friend of mine told me about queues when she was young, in the communist times. If she was coming home from school and saw a queue, she'd join it. She wouldn't ask what it was for, she'd just join. Then one of her family would come and find her and take the place and wait for whatever it was. If it was attracting a queue it must be worth queuing for.