Queue Rage

Last week I was moved to a higher state of annoyance by people in queues.  It happens regularly but this incident took the biscuit. It took place at the Tesco on Knaresborough Road where I’d been to fill up with fuel and was in a bit of a hurry to get to a 6pm appointment.  As I went inside to pay there were only 3 people in front of me including a lady who had a huge basket of shopping so to speed things up I joined the other queue which contained a woman who only had some chocolate, a loaf of bread, and some milk – easy I thought, this will be quick!  Bollocks, the other woman who had the well-stacked basket was probably home and had her tea cooked and watched News at Ten before the pathetic arse of a woman at my till had found her Tesco Clubcard.

Picture the scene, the cashier becomes available, arse woman steps forward and places her 3 items in the basket, cashier scans them, cashier says “£3.58 please”.  All good so far.  She has her purse, opens it and gets her bank card out (now this in itself is bad enough and could be the subject of a whole separate rant but I’ll let it go today) and just as she is about to pop it into the card machine the cashier then starts of the chain of events which tipped things over the edge.  “Do you have a Tesco Clubcard”?  Now, I don’t know about you, but all my cards are in my wallet so that I can get them out when I need them but oh no, arse woman had hers somewhere else. At first I thought that somewhere else was behind the clock on the mantelpiece at home but she seemed convinced she had it in her bag somewhere.  She started to search the bag, out came a bottle of water, car keys, mobile phone, a book, several pens, 2 cereal bars and another purse.  Now, bear in mind that the purchase was £3.58, how desperate for Tesco Clubcard points must this woman have been?  I’ve no idea what one Clubcard point is worth but this woman clearly thought that the points from her £3.58 transaction was going to be life-changing and she was determined to hold up a queue of people to find her card.  She took out the other purse and searched through that, no Clubcard.  She then went back into the bag and it wasn’t there.  There then begun a search of the side-pockets of the bag at which point she turned to me and said “I know it’s here somewhere”.  Now this action alone made her fair game for a slap but the fact that she laughed made me want to reach for her bag and tip the contents on the floor and pour the milk she was trying to buy all over them.  Eventually she found the Tesco Clubcard and all was well.  Apart from my blood pressure

Why can’t people have their method of payment ready while they’re in the queue?  Is it a surprise to them that once they’ve got to the check out they’re going to have to pay for the goods?  For god’s sake, it’s not rocket science is it?