Once I asked a cashier who did not manage the clients stepping on eachothers' toes and behaving like kids, she said they are not meant to police adults. Their apprentissage program tells them which competences and skill-sets they need to perfect, apparently this is not one of them and people should just be civil.

To be fair, she was young and his tone was aggressive. I have no qualms about the shop assistant. We were both ignoring the man as well as we could.

Tempted to agree here - if people are working a minimum wage role (ish - 4000-4400 a month here for the position!) then you can't really be expecting people to be going the extra mile, and putting themselves in the firing line, just because adults can't function like civil humans.

If another customer pees you off, you'll still come back to the store - if an employee pees you off, you're far more likely to look elsewhere in future.

Coop staff are not always the epitome of politeness so I don't think retaining customers is necessarily at the forefront of their minds when confronting problematic patrons.

I guess in this particular situation, from the cashier's perspective, the conflict had already been resolved so no need to get involved.

Can I assume on this sort of reasoning that Scrooge was in fact a Muslim??

You don't have to police anyone. There is nothing unusual about a shop assistant saying "I believe this lady was first" and getting on with the sale.

I worked in a shop on Saturdays and school holidays when I was at school and the business owner was insistent that we provided a decent customer service which included keeping your eye on who was next at a busy counter. I started there when I was 14 and worked there until I finished FE.

That kind of stuff isn't in an "apprentissage programme" because it can't be learnt. It just needs a decent wodge of common-sense. Seems, though, that perhaps it should be on the curriculum.

OK, if someone is openly aggressive and putting off the other customers, you have to deal with it differently but a common-or-garden queue jumper just pisses off the rest of your patiently-waiting clientele.

Ha ha! Nah, just an angry young man with a can of red bull and a fast black car.

That's our FAVORITE Christmas movie!

Tom

LOL! What does that even mean???? Is it blasphemy if I mention, while inside a church, the abuses inflicted upon non-believers, and even more so against women, by power-hungry, churchy people? How about the abuses of churchy people of one color vs churchy people a different color?

Then I can tell you that you will always find me blaspheming.

In this case the guy wasn't a queue jumper. He was just an impatient idiot. To use the Swiss term, a Tüpfelischiiser. His grudge was possibly legitimate but he undermined his own moral high ground by acting like a total jerk.

Fair enough.

When I visit someone else's place of worship, I prefer to show a bit of respect to my hosts.

even when visiting a shop selling Nazi memorabilia?

Isn't that the definition of a "pedant" rather than an "impatient idiot", although granted, sometimes they can be cut from the same cloth.

Why would I visit a shop selling Nazi memorabilia?

Taking sides in CH translates to policing. Even if we think it isn't policing just common sense.

I was a cashier at 16, never needed to micromanage customers, they were elderly, civil and kind, mostly. Quiet neighborhood, I was lucky. Except they forgot their shopping lists or glasses, I had to memorize it for them, since they always bought the same things.

I had a Denner cashier complain to me the other day about a customer who can't stand other customers and each time the cashier has to empty the belt just for her, so people do not stand too near. I bet it is comedy show to work in retail. And not just xmas time. An airhostess told me people turn into freaks when they fly. I guess xmas being so commercial these days, working in retail during xmas time must be crazy stressful. Cashiers just want to survive.

__________________
"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

It's a fussy perfectionist that gets on everyone's nerves with his comments and actions.

Cmon, he could do worse.

Crazy stressful and wonderfully lucrative.

I used to earn half my year's cash in the three weeks surrounding Christmas.

Mind, I also developed a lifelong hatred of George Michael during that time, so it wasn't all roses and crispy notes.

Is there a better fitting English equivalent?

(how is tupfellischiiser linked to botany????)

There is a hard to get chocolate that can treat the syndrome.