Queue-jumping

Image courtesy: Pixabay

The post A Page from the Past by SG reminded me of an incident at a small neighbourhood store near my home. But before that, let me give you some context.

In India, while in big department stores customers queue up while checking out, in smaller shops, where customers ask an employee to get them what they want, there is no queue system.

The pandemic brought in some change, and customers queued up keeping some distance between one another. But then if there are just two or three people, they stand one beside the other, trying to get the attention of the storekeeper and be done with the shopping as soon as possible.   

So, when a new customer comes, the shopkeeper would ask him what he wants, even while the other customers are being attended to. Thus, some people, who have many items to be bought, end up being overtaken by customers who have just one or two articles to be purchased.

ONE VIEW

If you are wondering why the shopkeeper is allowing some people to jump the queue, he has a reason: why should someone who has just one item to be purchased be forced to wait until everyone who came before him (who probably might have many items in the purchase list) finished their shopping? 

Also, the shopkeeper risks losing such customers, who have just a single item to be bought; they might just move to another shop.

THE OTHER VIEW

How much ever logical that sounds, I remember my father, who was a stickler for discipline, hating this system. Even if he had just one item to be purchased, he would refuse to be attended to before people who came before him were. 

I have seen shopkeepers, finding that very odd. But then, that's how my father was, and because of this what he called "an unfair" system, he used to avoid such stores or shop at off-peak hours or go to a bigger department store where there is a queue system.

My father too had a reason, which we would understand if we are the ones who had to wait for a long time to go through our shopping because we were overtaken by a few others who came later. 

A bit of that trait has rubbed off on me as well. I get irritated when others jump the queue, or they are allowed to jump the queue. And, I feel guilty when I am allowed to jump the queue.

MULTITASKING AT ITS BEST

Recently, at home, we ran out of tea leaves. So, on my way back from the morning walk, I was at one of those smaller neighbourhood shops.

The shopkeeper, as usual, asked me what I wanted. But there was one other person already making some purchase. So, I told the shopkeeper to finish whatever he was doing. 

But then, he told me that the customer had four or five items and it would take some time. I said it's okay. Then the shopkeeper asked me again what I wanted. 

It didn't make sense anymore not to tell him what I wanted, or I should have left the shop. So I told him I needed a packet of tea leaves. And even while he was getting something for the other gentleman, he got me my packet. Multitasking at its best.

Though I felt bad about this queue-jumping, I sort of consoled myself that the person ahead of me didn't suffer any delay, since the shopkeeper was quite efficient, serving us both simultaneously.