ok, so there are two scenarios involving etiquette and placement in a line about which i would like OOT's opinion.

1st. a person or group of people enter a coffee shop/fast food place/whatever type establishment in front of you. it is a relatively long walk to the counter to place your order. if this person or group of people are walking slowly, is it ok to pass them and attempt to arrive at the place where the store takes orders in front of them?

does the answer change if you have to make a concerted effort to pass them (like jog or dart between crowds of people)? does your answer change if you have to forcibly slow yourself down to keep behind the person/people in front of you?

2nd: you are on a long line that is moving slowly. is it ok to offer a person at some point ahead of you in the line money (or anything else of value) to exchange places with them? would you be bothered if someone else in your line did this?

(for disambiguation, i mean the other person stands where you are currently standing in the line and you take the other person's place)

1) Yes, but only if you don't need more than a brisk walk to do so. If you have to jog to pass them, they're walking fast enough.

2) No. You're not just inconviencing the guy you get in front of, there's other people in the line that are getting cut in front without any compensation.

edit: Just read the disambiguation. If that's the case, then sure, go for it.

wait, how is changing places with someone inconveniencing anyone else? anyone behind you is in the same position, and anyone between you still has one of you in front and one behind

also,
[x] awaiting henry17's response

1) is tricky. it really depends how obvious it is. if there's a mass of people (which there likely isn't in this case) i'd sneak around hurriedly. in this case i'd probably hang back begrudgingly. if anyone tries to go around you all then take immediate action.

2) i have never offered cash for anything like this. i have thought about it on planes to move seats. i don't really know how it would be received. most would probably be shocked and then take offense. of course some people will be happy to take your cash.

Also, I knew I had spelled inconveniencing really wrong, I just couldn't put my finger on it

you might be waiting for awhile

1. Only if they're walking slowly

2. Seems kinda rude to me in a "My time is more important and I have more money than you" type of way. I'd never do it. If someone offered it to me, I'd politely turn them down unless it was $100+.

1: OK to do

2: OK to do, but only if other person leaves spot.



Just my opinion.

In 1:, I'm using a gaggle of children with a couple parents walking in a McDonalds as an example.

Passing them also has the added benefit of not having to stand behind them while the parents try to sort out orders.

I pictured two women talking and being completely oblivious to their surroundings. I think passing is acceptable here.

wtf is it with New Yorkers waiting "on line" when the other 98% of the country waits "in line"

yeah. and what's the deal with airplane peanuts?

This is my new favorite word. Don't believe I've ever heard it before.

1) I think it's fine to pass them as long as you don't have to like dart through a group of people to do it. If you can get around them without having to look like a douche, I think its fine. It's even better when you consider that large groups generally get up to a counter, mingle between themselves, stare around, and are just in general incredibly slow at doing anything.

Darting ahead reminds me of this 5K I did about a month ago, where I saw this kid come sprinting across the finish line, narrowly avoiding a grandmother all so he could finish in like 158th place instead of 159 (out of ~180 ppl). It made me lol. Yea that half a second is going to make your 34:30 look that much better.

2) I think you would need a snaking line to make this feasible. In a straight line, you should not really have much contact with those in front of you, but if it snakes (like at an amusement park ride) you will. In this situation, there is no difference to those behind the person you would trade with, so if you could find someone to take your money then good game. I wouldn't do it, because I kind of like watching how self-absorbed and huffy people get about waiting, it's like they don't even realize the reason they are waiting is that there are other people in line who also wish they weren't there. I would probably accept for >$20, so find me in line.

1. Is fine if they are a group of people who are slow because they are indecisive or in the middle of a conversation or something. Not fine if it is an old lady with a walker.

2. This would seem pretty strange to me except in the few contexts where it is an accepted institution (e.g. lobbying groups in DC hire homeless people to stand in line for them to get seats to congressional committee meetings.) If I was in line and you did this, I wouldn't think it was unfair, but I would think you were a weirdo.

yeah, it seems like people are generally more amenable to the first scenario than the second one.

i thought of this bc if you stop to consider it, cutting in front of someone in the first example, even if it's their fault for walking really slow or being indecisive, is actively causing someone to have to wait longer to get their order (since one assumes they'll catch up to you before you've finished being served) while the second example has no impact on the waiting time of anyone else in the line (except for the person you've paid to switch places with you) but it seemed to me that the first scenario would be generally more acceptable.

while waiting on long lines (the DMV jumps to mind), i have strongly considered offering someone ahead of me money for their place in line and always chickened out bc i figured it would look really douchey and other people would illogically get upset with me. whereas i have walked past slow moving groups of people at starbucks or burrito places and ordered before them many times and i dont think ive ever heard any audible complaint or seen anyone giving me the evil eye.

Scenario 1: Purely a case-by-case basis, depending on the layout of the store/restaurant and ambiguous it is that you are cutting. If it's crowded, just sneak by and you should be OK. If there's no one in the place and you dart passed the people in front of you, it's completely bush league and you'll look like a douchebag.

Scenario 2: In most cases, I don't know why you'd ever want to do anything like this. Also, it seems a little rude.

both scenarios are perfectly acceptable unless you live in CA where it's illegal to hurt someone's feelings imo

And did you ever notice how black guys drive cars differently than white guys?

hahaha

oh man, the places we could go with this...

man, a couple weeks ago I was at Wendy's for lunch, and there was a group of about 4 people that obviously had gotten there just before me, after about a minute, 2 more of the same group come out of the bathroom and just walk right in front of me and join their group.

If I weren't wearing company clothing in the small area our company does all our business in (small independent telco) I would have flipped.

I think you are alright in both of these cases FWIW.

thought this thread would be about crack

#1 is fine as long as you don't have to run or make an ass of yourself darting around oter people. Or if it's an elderly/handicapped person I'll just walk slowly and wait.

#2 is totally fine, wtf @ anyone who says otherwise. I've never had this happen to me, but I sure wish people would offer me money to take my spot. If it costs me 10 minutes of time for $10, that's like making $60/hour. That's more than I make playing poker, so hells yeah.

Really? I think that's standard. As long as >50% of the group is already in line I don't get upset at this(assuming we aren't talking a group of 20 getting joined by 17 latecomers or w/e).


Also,

1 is fine so long if you aren't speeding up to cut, 2 isn't wrong but is creepy enough that I'd never do it.

On thursday I went to see Flogging Molly at Pier ##(13th st and hudson river). It was a free show and the line for beer was ridiculous, like 75-100 people and only two people serving cans of beer. Clearly you cant wait on that kind of line - you'd be hungover by the time you got served. So each time we needed a beer we would just parallel the lne and find a likely canidate two or three from getting served and offer them a free beer if they bought for us as well. No one declined, and no one else on line voiced any disaproval.

Beers were 5.00 and there was two of us so we each spent an extra 2.50 not to wait on line for~1/2 hour. Very easily the correct choice for anyone who has a job. I find it odd that we seemed to be the only people using this method.

Not a big wikipedia user?