'Excuse me, I'm not done!': Shopper gets even with impatient customer behind him, takes his sweet time, causing her to throw tantrum

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Sep 18, 2025 4:00 PM EDT

Do people not know how to behave in grocery stores anymore? No one is necessarily expecting kind-hearted gestures as they sift through a display of vegetables. No one is even expecting friendliness. You don't have to talk to me if we pass one another as we push our carts down the aisle. That being said, you do have to respect people's personal space, at the very least.

This author's story of an elderly woman who couldn't help but rush the other shoppers at checkout serves as yet another example of the lack of decorum that exists in our public spaces today. Whatever happened to minding your own business and waiting your turn like a normal person? It's hard not to blame this shift in civility on our increasingly isolated lifestyles. After all, so many folks maintain the majority of their social relationships through their phones and electronic devices. Behaving in public with strangers seems to be a lost art nowadays.

At the same time, a crucial component of this elderly woman's behavior, which also has shown signs of growth among folks of all generations in our contemporary culture, is entitlement. This woman wanted to pay for her groceries now and had no desire to wait like everyone else. In fact, she seemed to feel that she had earned the right to cut in line and throw a tantrum. Who knows if it's because of her age? As a matter of fact, it might not have anything to do with age at all. Some people are just like this. They walk into rooms like they own the place, and they lack any consideration for other people. I wish I could say this author's story exists in a vacuum, but I have dealt with people like this on public transit, in doctors' waiting rooms, and yes, at my own local grocery store. 

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  • "Start putting your groceries on the belt behind mine while I still have half a cart to unload? I hope you're not in a rush..."

    Two customers push a shopping cart full of fruit at a grocery store.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Elderly person at the supermarket pretended not to see that I was still unloading my cart and just started putting her stuff on the belt. I tell her "excuse me, I'm not done". She
    via Helpful_Hour1984
  • mutters something but doesn't remove her stuff, just pulls it back while the belt is moving. So I proceed to put the rest of my items one by one, slowly spreading them on the belt. The
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  • belt keeps moving and she has to keep pulling her items back. I make small talk with the cashier. I pay in cash (usually use card because it's faster, but I guess not today). I take my time
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  • bagging my groceries (can't have anything crushed in the bag, now, can I?). I make contact with the impatient elder as I leave and give her a little smile. She's fuming.
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  • I swear, boomers only have two speeds when shopping: snail- pace when they're blocking other people for no reason and lighting-fast when they're ready to be served and they don't happen to be the first in line. Toddlers are more self-aware.
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  • A older woman with glasses looks at the camera with a serious face.
    via Philip White

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Lopsided-Bench-1... 4h ago Had that happen ten or so years ago. The younger entitled princes was forcefully putting things on the belt, things I would use myself, so I let them get mixed with mine and paid for them all.
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  • All of a sudden she's yelling that I stole HER groceries. I said, NO, everything here is mine and I paid for them. The cashier backed me up.
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  • nightcana 4h ago . Something similar happened to me at Aldi once. They have a super long conveyor belt and when i walked ip it was completely empty, so i had my overflowing trolley
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  • halfway down the belt while i was loading groceries onto the front half of the belt. At the Aldi's here the server will stop and wait until you completely finish unloading
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  • all of your groceries from the trolley, and absolutely will not start scanning until you get to the other end to start reloading your trolley.
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  • Well, a boomer rocks up, slaps down a divider about halfway along the belt and starts unloading her trolley while mine is still 3/4 full.
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  • Absolutely no way are all of my groceries going to fit on only half the belt. But hey, ive got all the time in the world today. Ive got nowhere else to be love. So i just
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  • stand there next to my trolley and stare at this woman. After emptying her own trolley, she finally notices both the server and myself have not been moving that whole time, and
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  • looks me in the face. I just said "you must s kat puzzles. This sh ain't gonna fit." She looked at 'my' half of the belt that was already completely chockers, then at my not even close to empty trolley
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  • and had the audacity to ask if she could "just go first" since all of her groceries were already on the belt. Na Karen. Id be finished by now
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  • if you werent such a self centred a h le. I simply said "no" and continued to stare at her. She then had the further audacity to look surprised at being denied.
    via Helpful_Hour1984

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Tags

customer service supermarket karen-customer petty revenge entitled customers petty entitled people karma entitled entitled people grocery store
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