The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[Mrs Pingu]

It is toasty in here, except at floor level.  Unfortunately, this is where I usually keep my feet.  Bloody Laws of Thermodynamics

What you need, is a pair of BFO slippers anna footstool.

[mcshroom]

Or underfloor heating. Mrs P's suggestion may be cheaper

[hellymedic]

It is toasty in here, except at floor level.  Unfortunately, this is where I usually keep my feet.  Bloody Laws of Thermodynamics

Are you not of the age to Wear Slippers?

I see Mrs Pingu beat me to it...

[Mrs Pingu]

These might be slightly on the extreme slipper side http://www.needlesports.com/Catalogue/Technical-Clothing/Feet/Insulated-Booties

[Mr Larrington]

I have slippers, in fact two pairs.  Both of which fall off when I walk in them.  No space for a footstool as there is a coffee table laden with anbaric tqt in the way.  I am not one of those oddballs who keeps the remote controls on the other side of the room when the devices they operate are not in use.

[Basil]

Gah!  Back at work.   
They keep wanting me to do stuff I don’t particularly feel like doing just at the moment. 
Isn’t that harassment? 

 

[mrcharly-YHT]

It's a wee ceramic heater pressed against a bi-metallic strip which pushes the locking pin out.
And a curious ratchet-wheel with ramps on it which is rotated by a solenoid repeatedly prodding it which retracts the locking pin.
A most curious design.
Presumably to allow it to fail-open after removing power for a few minutes.

Fascinating!

Hmm - if the power failed during a boil wash, the door would remain locked until the contents had cooled down. Maybe that is the reason for the complex design?

[Mr Larrington]

You find yourself in the "Basket only" queue at the Horriblemarket.  Ahead of you is a punter who has the entire Tinies' Clothing department in his trolley.  Should you:

• Ignore this blatant transgression of horriblemarket etiquette in the hope that the bod at the till will Say Something, or
• Tut loudly, or
• Politely point out to the perp the error of his way, or
• Tolchock the perp about the gulliver with a frozen lasagne while shouting "What part of 'Basket Only' do you not understand, you massive imbecile?"

I am a BRITON and thus plumped for the first option.

[clarion]

And did they?

[Kim]

"Baskets only" queueueues are a work of Stan, and more reasonable horriblemarkets have deprecated them in favour of "n items or less" ("n items or fewer" being too much to hope for) so as not to discriminate against purchasers of small numbers of items who are unable to carry a basket.

[Basil]

 

"Baskets only" queueueues are a work of Stan, and more reasonable horriblemarkets have deprecated them in favour of "n items or less" ("n items or fewer" being too much to hope for) so as not to discriminate against purchasers of small numbers of items who are unable to carry a basket.

I've found it better not to use those tills anyway as the queue moves much slower than you expect.  The paying bit is what takes up most of the time.¹  The till bods are usually pretty good at their job and can clear a conveyor full in seconds.  It's the punters who do the faffing.
I'll always choose standing in line behind a couple of overflowing trolley loads over a queue of five people with four items each.

¹. Why do people only realise that they're going to need their purse/wallet when the till bod asks them for money?   Cue much rummaging in huge bottomless bags.

[Mrs Pingu]

Basil has it.

[Kim]

Yes, agreed.  Also, I've snoozed through enough lectures on queuing theory to know that the best queue to be in is probably the one you're already in, as you can't infer much about speed from queue length.

Why do people only realise that they're going to need their purse/wallet when the till bod asks them for money?

Usually because they're on the phone.

[Clare]

"Baskets only" queueueues are a work of Stan, and more reasonable horriblemarkets have deprecated them in favour of "n items or less" ("n items or fewer" being too much to hope for) so as not to discriminate against purchasers of small numbers of items who are unable to carry a basket.

Waitrose has 'n items or fewer'. You get a better class of posh in Waitrose.

[T42]

Yes, agreed.  Also, I've snoozed through enough lectures on queuing theory to know that the best queue to be in is probably the one you're already in, as you can't infer much about speed from queue length.

Corroboration: when you're sitting in traffic jam rated at 10 minutes by the GPS service, taking alternative it suggests will take you 20.

[rafletcher]

¹. Why do people only realise that they're going to need their purse/wallet when the till bod asks them for money?   Cue much rummaging in huge bottomless bags.

And then, and only then, do they hand over the wodge of coupons they're too lazy to sort and have no idea if they've bought the products referred to, and let the till operator go through the WHOLE lot grrrrrrrrr.

[Cudzoziemiec]

"Baskets only" queueueues are a work of Stan, and more reasonable horriblemarkets have deprecated them in favour of "n items or less" ("n items or fewer" being too much to hope for) so as not to discriminate against purchasers of small numbers of items who are unable to carry a basket.

I've found it better not to use those tills anyway as the queue moves much slower than you expect.  The paying bit is what takes up most of the time.¹  The till bods are usually pretty good at their job and can clear a conveyor full in seconds.  It's the punters who do the faffing.
I'll always choose standing in line behind a couple of overflowing trolley loads over a queue of five people with four items each.

¹. Why do people only realise that they're going to need their purse/wallet when the till bod asks them for money?   Cue much rummaging in huge bottomless bags.

That's entirely logical and is what I would expect as well - but is the opposite of my experience. It could be there are fewer basket-lane-abusers in Sainsbury's Clifton Down because, well, Clifton (though in fact it's more likely because so many shoppers there are students who tend to only have a basket anyway).

As for people who are unable to carry a basket, I think it would be reasonable to ignore their trolley on the grounds it only has 5 or 10 or whatever items.

What about the bleeping self-service tills though? The queues seem to move quickly, but you can guarantee something will break down or you'll have to wait for a member of staff to clear your purchase of devil juice, glue, paracetamol or razor blades.

[Kim]

I quite like the self-service tills, if I'm only buying a few items (basically, no more than two carrier bags worth) that won't require special authorisation and - critically - don't involve too many duplicates.

The barcode scanners on them seemed to be designed to be idiot-proof, so it appears to have a lengthy debounce timeout that hinders you scanning duplicate items.  Best approach it to alternate them with items that have a different code, otherwise you stand there waving it about like an idiot while the scanner ignores you.

But I know people who simply can't get the things to behave at all.  There's probably a quantum bogodynamics reason for this, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and blame Stan.

[mattc]

"Baskets only" queueueues are a work of Stan, and more reasonable horriblemarkets have deprecated them in favour of "n items or less" ("n items or fewer" being too much to hope for) so as not to discriminate against purchasers of small numbers of items who are unable to carry a basket.

As for people who are unable to carry a basket, I think it would be reasonable to ignore their trolley on the grounds it only has 5 or 10 or whatever items.

yup, works for us - quite common at our local. The 'culprit's usually use one of those mini-trolleyettes. Noone minds at all

[barakta]

The issue is who looks unable to carry a basket. If someone is elderly they may get benefit of the doubt, but young people with invisible disabilities get a lot of abuse for looking like they are abusing the system.  A friend of mine last night was aggressively asked to show "proof of disability" when she asked for the disability priority seat on a bus cos she can't stand without pain.  If the horridmarkets make the lane "X items or fewer" it doesn't matter how they're transported.

[mrcharly-YHT]

The issue is who looks unable to carry a basket. If someone is elderly they may get benefit of the doubt, but young people with invisible disabilities get a lot of abuse for looking like they are abusing the system.  A friend of mine last night was aggressively asked to show "proof of disability" when she asked for the disability priority seat on a bus cos she can't stand without pain. 

Walking sticks ftw

[Andrij]

Decided to step out for some fresh air and to clear my head.  A 45 minute walk was more than enough to remind me this world is full of people who shouldn't be allowed to breath, never mind breed.

[mcshroom]

The issue is who looks unable to carry a basket. If someone is elderly they may get benefit of the doubt, but young people with invisible disabilities get a lot of abuse for looking like they are abusing the system.  A friend of mine last night was aggressively asked to show "proof of disability" when she asked for the disability priority seat on a bus cos she can't stand without pain. 

Walking sticks ftw

People shouldn't need props (no pun intended) to be accepted as disabled. I remember getting a rude response from a ticket barrier assistant last July when I asked her to put my train ticket into the barrier. I couldn't do it as I had a broken right arm and it was uncomfortable to reach across with the left, but as my arm was pinned and not in a cast* she assumed I was just being lazy.

*Though it was in a figure-of-8 sling

[barakta]

Yeah and carrying a stick takes up a hand - which when you're already low on hand-fu is annoying - I owuld be using a trolley for upper limb reasons. I also have friends who have and use visible mobility aids accused of lying or using them as props.  Can't win when you "prop-play" the game and can't win when you don't/can't... And worse when you need a stick but the stick itself costs you in pain in hands etc.

I find it interesting who gets impatient with me over dexterity tasks and who is fine and it's not always clear whether they have noticed one or both of my hands. Sometimes people are actively helpful and will say "take your time" or smile which is nice.   I think noticing of my hands is very variable, my right hand passes as normal, my left really doesn't and some people are more observant than others.  I also don't have a sense of how slow/awkward I am compared to "normal" cos I have only ever been able to do things at my speed. Some tasks are different from others and I think my dexterity varies quite a bit too.

I think the people who have more experience of being around people with disabilities and impairments tend to be the ones who would do something like benefit of the doubt with McShroom's type of request and assume no one would be asking unless they needed it as the activation energy needed to ask is quite high.

[matthew]

The looks of confusion I generated getting onto the train with my bike and a walking stick will live long in my memory. Hopefully I won't have to refresh them in a while. *Crosses Fingers*