Grocery store conveyor belt etiquette

Okay, what is the 'proper' ettiquette at the grocer when you have you stuff on the belt there where are you supposed to put that little bar separating your stuff from the next person. I mean, do you place the bar infront of your stuff or after your stuff?
I always get perplexed as I get dirty looks from people if I don't separate my stuff from the person infront of me, but the same goes for the people behind me. Or is there some sort of randomly assigned job? And I was choosen by the greater powers to place a bar before my groceries and after my groceries?
Back home its easy you place that bar after you place all your items on the band, but here I just don't know.

Be creative and place it on top of your stuff.

Good question...I often get looks for either putting stuff on too soon (or too late for that matter if there is someone huffing behind me) or for not using the little bar. Sometimes the bar is just too far up the holder to reach it. But it often amuses me that if there is no bar and quite a bit of space between two people's items the cashier just keeps grabbing away not even thinking that it could belong to the next person in line. I have seen people have to jump in several times to say 'Nein nein! Das ist nicht meine!!' They are like machines (and not the well-oiled kind either).

easy answer , put one bar in front of your stuff and one bar behind your stuff . problem solved

but why should I have to do both, I guess is also one of my questions?

Hmm, I've experienced something similar, but to tell you the truth, I guess it is easier to put two bars - one in front and one behind the stuff, than to create a whole discussion topic on the matter...

Imagine all the hungry kids, who could've eaten today if we didn't write these comments, thus saving the productivity of those at work randomly reading stuff on this website and saving the electricity by keeping thousands of computers around Munich on for a shorter period of time...

Oh, I guess I just contributed to the issue... Happy Australia Day, everyone. I am off to get another beer.

I does seem to be a bit of a problem here, so many people don't seem to grasp the simple idea that you put the bar behind your stuff. I usually put both down, but make a big fuss about reaching for the one that goes in front of my stuff, in the frankly futile hope that I can educate everybody into doing it properly. Of course somedays everybody does it perfectly and I think my oneman campaign is working, but then the next day...
Oh well I guess nobody wll ever be as perfect as me!!

LOL this reminded me of Jerry Seinfeld...could have been one of his episodes.

Behind. Unless I am at Metro that has big long wide belts and you are packing the stuff back into the cart while the cashier is still cashiering away after you had loaded up the belt all the way to the end and weren't there when the space to place the bar appeared. Then I put it in front and load up the belt all the way to the end and forget about the bar because I'm up front packing the stuff back into the cart while the cashier is still cashiering away ...
Much more important: What do you call the little bar? Limitation bar, dividing bar, territorial bar?

dividing bar, defo!

you have too much spare time

Well, its nice to know that I am not the only one with this query!

I usually put neither just to watch people go crazy over it. That is the last thing in the world that people will cross. I think its kind of funny.

I'll put the bar down in front of me and behind me, but if there's no one behind me at the time, I probably won't bother. This could be the situation often for you in the stores. If I can't see a bar, I put something up to try and make it clear that it's a new set of groceries, like a cucumber straight across or a line of yogurts. But it's not like it's a lot of work to do put a bar down twice.

Anyways, in most places, you are right up with the person in front of you. So whilst observing their nutrition habits, it's easy to put a hand down on the front of your groceries to show the cashier where the line stops.

I was just going to write this.

Hey Carm,

Don't be a puppet to other people's moods.
Do what you feel is best, while being nice, and be happy with that.
The system doesn't work here with the cashpoints, so why fight it?
Don't rush trying to compensate for this by rapidly pulling your stuff off and bagging it.
Take your time. You're the paying customer.

I thought this was about meeting girls in the check out line.

Yes indeed, because the title "Grocery store conveyor belt etiquette, Using the bar to separate your stuff from others" really gives that impression. Right you are.

You shouldn't worry about it, I think for a lot of people, it's just completely mechanical... Maybe you get these looks because you think too much about it.

From my experience (we also use these 'bars' in my country, and I don't think we have a specific name for them), I would say the protocol is:
-put a bar after the stuff of the person before you,
-then start puting your own stuff*,
-(optional, and only if there's someone behind you) place a bar behind your stuff.

You are expected to carry out the two first tasks. For the third, it's only if you want to be nice (you can even emphasize this by smiling at the person). In my country, people usually thank you for this, especially if the bar was out of their reach, but I can't remember it happening here...

(* if the bar is too far from you, then just put your stuff and place the bar when you get closer)

Doesn't really work, does it? If there's someone behind you and you place the bar after your groceries, then there's no need for that person to put the bar in front of theirs.

I guess that is my point, why do I have to put both bars down? And I was wondering if there is an etiquette like we have in Canada- we place the bar after your stuff is on the belt, and every one does that so there is no confusion.

@Carm
That's what I'm used to so I do it here as well, but I've noticed that very few people bother.

Of all the things in life to give a toss about, I have to admit this one is pretty low down my list.
For the record, I put it down in front of my stuff, and then I put another one down behind my stuff, and then I smile at the person behind me in the queue.
Unless I'm pre-menstrual, obv

I think it's pretty simple. You have to put a bar in front of your things if the other didn't. It is optional and polite to put one behind your stuff if someone is behind you. If you don't put a bar behind you, the person might think you are not particularly polite, but then it becomes their responsibility to put a bar in front of their things.

Sometimes I put it in front, sometimes behind, sometimes both and sometimes neither.

If somebody (generally a non-German) puts the bar down behind his/her stuff they get a big smile and a thank-you while I start putting my stuff down. It's only fair. Then again, if the bar is too far away and they don't budge, there is nothing wrong with asking them to hand it to you. If they do, fine, big smile and thank you. If not, call Keydeck. He'll break their kneecaps for you while you put your stuff on the belt.

I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

Oh yeah - forgot that bit.
I don't generally ask them their nationality, though, so I've no idea whether it's Germans who do this or not.

Leave me out of it. The fact that there are differing opinions, concerns about etiquette, people saying what is right and wrong makes this all the more silly. Like the chap above who says, "I think it's pretty simple. You have to put a bar in front of your things if the other didn't.". Well fuck me but I must have missed that chapter in the Laws of Munich book that I read when I arrived here. Perhaps they've added a new chapter since then and I need to take a refresher course.

Here's the only response so far which makes any sense.


The plastic toblerone is there to serve as an indicator to the cashier as to where your groceries end and someone elses begin, or vice-versa. There is no etiquette as to who should put it where and when other than the fact that obsessing about it implies that maybe one has made a fundamental error and lodged it up their arse.

Build a barricade Lincoln-log style. Use all the bars front and back. Pull a gun and defy anyone to put anything on the belt till you're done.
Or do what you would expect from anyone else - clearly separate your stuff from the stuff in front and in back by putting down a bar on each side. Don't try to re-educate grown-ups. It doesn't work.

The cashiers in my local Spar know my shopping habits that well that I never get anyone else's stuff mixed in.
They knew when I split up with the former Herr Indoors as I stopped buying so much frozen creamed spinach and completely stopped with Nivea for Men. The day I put Dusch Das for Men in the trolley cheered them up no end. Bless.
Even when I have visitors gets noticed. My local butcher asks what I'm cooking when I buy certain cuts (he also noticed when I stopped buying the Wacholderschinken and goat's cheese so gave me free Regensburger to cheer me up).
To top that off I get a hallo in the street when I see them too. It is shite that Edeka has bought Spar, hope my store doesn't change

No!!! When did Edeka buy Spar? That completely passed me by.
I hope they're still going to do those nice posh soups at the Spar at RKP.

Sad news.
I've started seeing Mibell and Gut & Günstig in there already.
End of an era I tells ya

If someone won't put the damned bar down behind his or her shit, just start unloading yours onto the belt. They'll grab it pretty quickly while scowling at you and put it down before any more of your stufff can touch his stuff. Note that I'm writing about "stuff" and not "junk" because touching another shopper's junk is for the Adult Chat section.

Shoppers here are worse than small kids at the dinner table. "Oh noes!!11! It's touching!!1 I can't eat that anymore! It touched! NeeeeeiiiiinnnnnnN!!!11!1umschalteeins!" They won't be very friendly to you for doing it but they already weren't being very friendly in expecting exclusive use of the conveyor belt.

woof.

fooking heck, does it reeeaaalllyyy matter. carm, you must be bored shitless to ask this ;-))

since the checkouts (and the supermarkets generally) are so screwed up anyway, just do whatever the hecky flip you feel like and always smile sardonically.

Just look hard and act arrogant. Sneer at anyone who even so much tries to give you a bad look. Make that person feel ridiculous and small by acting as though they are insignificant. Simple.

yeah I pretty much do as Doggie says, or take the bar and place it down whilst shoving their stuff forwards a bit.


I guess I can understand the slight irritation factor, even if of course its a small thing on the grand scale of world events and irritants

In UK I would always put one after my stuff, makes sense really

So sensible, these rules. Make everything so ordered and uncomplicated until someone comes along who doesn't follow them and then it all goes wrong.

And when it all goes wrong...A THREAD! ANOTHER THREAD.

If there is going to be another thread, then there needs to be a divider!
[img]http://www.ipcpoly.com/Pict/SC_pop/SC-squgrocdiv.jpg[/img]

What Topsy said.

(I deleted the pre-menstrual bit, as it's kind of irrelevant)

I've never thought about this serious problem before. But now that I have...
What UrbanAngel said.

It's always worked for me so far.

It's sort of like asking if Santa sleeps with his beard above the blanket or underneath it, agreed. Doesn't matter as long as he gets a rest.

I only ever put down a maximum of one (1) bar. In front if there isnt one already, otherwise behind. Never both.

Here's my $0.02:

I don't like touching those bars. They are covered with germs and little bits of food and dirt from the conveyor. Not that I'm a germophobe but some of the bars look like they've been used to scrape shoes.

If the Germans society saves money by making you pay for plastic bags, and not bagging groceries for you, that's fine. I will save my sanity by carefully putting my belongings in bags, nicely separating squishables from poisons from packages of raw meat. Anyone behind me in line can just kiss it.

Which supermarkets do you buy your poisons in exactly?