Women: Please have your money ready
Why is it that when you are in a shop queing to pay, the woman in front of you only starts to look for her purse in her giant handbag after the poor shop assistant has asked for the money? It's almost as if they are thinking 'What? I have to pay? Ok hold on, it is in here somewhere'.

My tip is to begin the search maybe 30-60 seconds before you are required to hand over the cash to avoid the chagrin of the poor chaps behind you.
(Tom Jones's Mojo Hasn't had any since, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 12:22, 13 replies)

I make a point...
...of performing pantomime annoyance; staring daggers, flailing arms.

Yet they never notice!

Perhaps it isn't a shopping specific thing, perhaps they are merely oblivious in their idiocy - they don't see the tragic consequences of their mindless / selfish behaviour.
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 12:27, closed)

Hahahaha stereotypes FTW.
CF men not asking for directions, being afraid of commitment, being unable to multitask.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 12:28, closed)

As
far as I, a man, am concerned all those male stereotypes are probably true, but I'm not going to commit myself.
(Hippo_of_Doom, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 14:44, closed)

I am living proof that they are not.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 15:27, closed)

Surely the point of a stereotype
is that most people fit into them rather than everyone. I actually believe that most people do generally fit into their given stereotypes. Not all but most.
(Tom Jones's Mojo Hasn't had any since, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 15:33, closed)

You're probably right.
I've only ever regarded the employment of stereotypes as lazy thinking/expression.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 16:27, closed)

I don't ask for directions
because I can read a map.
(lolwhites, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 19:58, closed)

same applies at the sorting office...
you go with your little red card to pick up the parcel they tried to deliver while you were out... you get in the queue and notice the signs saying please have one of the following forms of ID ready... then you stand there not doing anything, shuffling forward with the queue and then start rummaging through your handbag for ID when its your turn, holding the queue up.

Not being sexist, but the last time I went to the sorting office everyone in front of me was a woman and every single one (there were 9 of them) did this... WHY!!!
( hygor gyrates with animatronic emptyness, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 12:48, closed)

Two Words
OYSTER CARD

Please take the card out of your hand bag BEFORE you get to the barrier.

Thank you
(Simple Simon, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 12:58, closed)

To which I would add
Do not repeatedly attempt to scan your Oyster card while it is still in your bag.
(lolwhites, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 20:07, closed)

It's the bag that's the problem
Why do women have these huge bags that contain everything?

Purse, make-up, mobile phone, make-up, Oyster Card, make-up and huge bunches of keys. No wonder they can never find anything.
(BearWithLittleBrain, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 13:23, closed)

this so fucking hard
and not only that, they then stand and put it all away in the same bag, thus stopping the poor fellow on the till from scanning and moving my stuff through. FUCK OFF away from the checkout with your purse so i can get my shopping done.
( Victor Meldrew, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 15:00, closed)

As someone who's worked in customer service, this.
It is usually women who do this, but sometimes it is men.

The reverse is usually exhibited by men, but sometimes by women: getting one's card/cash out immediately and then standing there rigidly, holding it out because I MIGHT ASK FOR IT AT ANY MOMENT, all while I bag and scan and do other cashier things that I would have thought were pretty clear indicators of not yet being at the money-taking stage.
( Bob Todd whee, Tue 5 Jan 2010, 16:56, closed)