Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with abandon

Grocery store line etiquette

marble — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 05:08:39 -0800

Grocery store line etiquette - when someone abandons their cart to go get an additional item, do they forfeit their place in line? I was in the store the other day, and in all the "lots of items" checkout lanes there were several people with their baskets jam-packed full of groceries. I hate the store and wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I spied a lane where there was an abandoned cart (with nothing behind it), and figuring that it was fair to go in front of this person, sort of put my cart in a merging position between that cart and the one in front.

Well, the bitch came back, and I sort of made an effort to see if she was cool with the situation, and she absolutely insisted she was entitled to her former place in line, and I should get the fuck out of the way, basically. (No, no outright insults or curses were exchanged). I got rather pissed off (so was she at this point), and though I yielded and headed for another checkout line (because basically I am a wuss), I made a few snotty comments to her as I left.

I did say that since she had abandoned her cart, she should lose her place, but she wasn't buying it. Was I in the right, or was she? There was no one behind her for her to sort of clear it with before she ran off.

In the future in such a situation, I think I'd just move the person's cart back and put myself straight in line, thus putting the onus on them to make a big issue of going around me to "reclaim" their spot, and I'd probably stand up for my position more, since I think it would be more defensible. I wouldn't do this if there were people behind me though, and I'm unable to articulate why exactly.

And I must say I did get some smug satisfaction after I found a much shorter line later on, so I got out of there before she did. HA! So it worked out after all, but I'm curious about the general principle just the same.

If it makes any difference, she came back with eggs, which I know are on the farthest side of the store, so she was gone quite a while - this wasn't just a quick dash or something.

I've been workin' in the dairy, all the livelong day

daninnj — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 17:48:59 -0800

Why are shopping carts abandoned? Why do people leave unrelated stuff in random aisles? I have worked in the dairy department of a supermarket for the past two years. Sometimes, there would be abandoned carts in my aisle, with some items in it. Not a lot, just a little. In fact, there were two in my aisle today, one there for eight hours and one there for six (I left and they were still there.) Why do people abandon carts?

Also, why do we get random stuff thrown in different places? For example, I find people leave meat by the butter, fruit by the cheese, face cleaning products, etc etc. I can understand people leaving deli (a different department) cheese by our cheese, but two unrelated products together?

Since I'm the last aisle in the store, money's probably a factor ("forgot my wallet, can't buy stuff" or "don't have enough for the meat, and I need butter") but this stuff happens so often that they must be some other reason. It also happens in all the other store's aisles.

How to abandon a vehicle

chef_boyardee — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 19:46:09 -0800

What's a smart way to get rid of a vehicle in the US? Short story is I'm 1000 miles from home in Denver with a 10-year old high-mileage vehicle that might have a cracked engine block (probably not, but I want to prepare for the worst). If it comes to that, I figure abandoning it is dumb since towing & disposal bills could come around later to bite me. So should I tow to a junkyard? And will they pay me, or will I pay them? And do I have to have the title sent up here to get any of this done? Obviously I'd want to be on the plane home ASAP.