Thai's Cutting In Line

[FruitPudding]

On 1/23/2024 at 4:57 PM, JimTripper said:

Is this getting worse or am I just noticing it more?

 

Counted 3x so far today buying something or service oriented interactions where my transaction is already in process and someone (Thai) walks up, orders or requests while I'm standing there, and the person I'm with immediately serves them first and ignores me, sometimes with a drawn out conversation before they conclude, while I'm standing there waiting.

 

Is this disrespectful here in Thailand? I thought it was 🤷🏻‍♂️. Feels like a racist Thai first thing.

 

Respect? In Thailand?

[Yellowtail]

6 hours ago, JimTripper said:

You don't really gain anything by calling someone out. The damage is already done. It just prolongs the awkward interaction with someone you will likely never see again and probably don't want to know.

 

I suppose there is a small chance you could become friends with your neighbor or something, or help change society, or an apology or backoff makes things better. More power to you if you can twist things that way.

The more people that don't stand for it, the less it will happen. If no one does anything it get worse.  All it takes is a "sorry, I was next", and everyone else in the shop will support you. 

 

So just bend over for them and come whine on a chat board about how you are cheated. 

[uttradit]

On 1/23/2024 at 6:10 PM, Andre0720 said:

A few traits that are part of the culture in Thailand comes into play here.

 

First, Thais are very very selfish. The list of examples are just too numerous to make a list here now.

 

So this will make them just hijack the attention of a person, to affirm the selfishness.

 

Now the person whose attention has been hijacked, a salesperson perhaps, will automatically give his or her attention to the hijacker, because failure to do so would make the hijacker lose face. One heck of a no no here in Thai culture.

 

Then as foreigner, it is incumbent upon us to call out the hijack, since the Thai individual is more likely to take a bow, as he, or she, instinctively knows that foreigners are not part of this culture... And while doing so, they strangely still totally ignore the person that they are trying to sidestep...

 

Of course, for any foreigner, it is total lack of respect, total impoliteness.

 

Thais may never understand that....

Load of nonsense. I find most in shops to be polite.

[uttradit]

21 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

Give it time and it will...once you've been here more than a few minutes. 

I find people polite except on the roads.

[Yellowtail]

15 minutes ago, uttradit said:

I find people polite except on the roads.

And the roads (I think) are improving. 

 

 

[Andre0720]

8 hours ago, uttradit said:

Load of nonsense. I find most in shops to be polite.

Load of nonsense what you write...

Nobody said that most Thais are cutting in line.

It is just that there are just too many, such as I have never seen in my country anyway. And then someone else starting a post on this subject, so certainly not just a few Thais who do that. I had quite a few do that to me, to my greatest surprise.

I remember in Plakias Crete, a German saleslady told me that many Greek people did that also...

And again, not most of them, so you get to understand.

[xylophone]

Many times when I have been waiting in line at a checkout, with only one or two items, a Thai person has offered me to go in front of them to check out, esp when they have a load of items. Very civil I have to say.

[richard_smith237]

16 minutes ago, xylophone said:

Many times when I have been waiting in line at a checkout, with only one or two items, a Thai person has offered me to go in front of them to check out, esp when they have a load of items. Very civil I have to say.

 

Agreed...    while we are discussing the negative encounters, positive encounters must also be highlighted.... the very same as you describe above has also happened to me here.

Edited January 25 by richard_smith237

[NoshowJones]

22 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

They see that, and that's why they do it. 

 

No one is going to kick your ash for speaking up when they try to cut the line. 

That's very true, many times I have pulled people up for jumping in front of me and no one has ever complained, but then, I'm a big guy.

[stoner]

22 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

I just don't let these things worry me, I spend my energies on my happy family, a lesson I learned 75+ years ago from my parents, but  each to their own. 

 

just watching the movie blast from the past. nice quote from the main character...

 

good manners are just another way of showing other people that we have respect for them. 

[uttradit]

6 hours ago, Andre0720 said:

Load of nonsense what you write...

Nobody said that most Thais are cutting in line.

It is just that there are just too many, such as I have never seen in my country anyway. And then someone else starting a post on this subject, so certainly not just a few Thais who do that. I had quite a few do that to me, to my greatest surprise.

I remember in Plakias Crete, a German saleslady told me that many Greek people did that also...

And again, not most of them, so you get to understand.

Which shops do they cut in line?

[Andre0720]

9 hours ago, uttradit said:

Which shops do they cut in line?

Ok, better question. Makes me understand more also... hehe

 

Well after your question, I looked back to identify where this cutting-in happens.

 

It does not happen where people can assess how much time the customer will get from a store clerk. So does not happen in mini-marts for example, where everybody choose a line, where they assessed a reasonable time that they will have to spend in line. Exception is when another clerk will open another cash, then Thais will definitely try to obtain first access, ignoring other customers in front of them. But this seems always acceptable, as it is not an obvious sigh of impoliteness. But I would typically tell a person in front of me to go first, saying 'Khun yuu gawn', you were here before me. I do not think that Thais would do that.

Now in open markets, Thais selling clothes, for example, where people can start discussing about a piece of clothing with the seller, where the expected time is unclear, I have often being interrupted by a Thai, hijacking the attention of the seller.

I even discussed this with a seller that I have become friendly with, and she replied, 'yes, Thais are like that (in her type of service perhaps), and she even said that once, a Thai came to park his motorbike in-between two racks of her clothing that she displays for sale. Too few parking spaces left...

 

Once I got interrupted by a middle-aged lady, and when I confronted her about it, saying that I was not finished, she backed up a bit. And some 15 seconds later, she came back between me and the seller to try to hijack again the attention of the seller. In two different shops, the sellers turned back towards me and signified that her attention was for me. And they do not accept that... trying again.

And mainly Thai women in my experience, in these clothing stores...

[Yellowtail]

22 minutes ago, Andre0720 said:

Ok, better question. Makes me understand more also... hehe

 

Well after your question, I looked back to identify where this cutting-in happens.

 

It does not happen where people can assess how much time the customer will get from a store clerk. So does not happen in mini-marts for example, where everybody choose a line, where they assessed a reasonable time that they will have to spend in line. Exception is when another clerk will open another cash, then Thais will definitely try to obtain first access, ignoring other customers in front of them. But this seems always acceptable, as it is not an obvious sigh of impoliteness. But I would typically tell a person in front of me to go first, saying 'Khun yuu gawn', you were here before me. I do not think that Thais would do that.

Now in open markets, Thais selling clothes, for example, where people can start discussing about a piece of clothing with the seller, where the expected time is unclear, I have often being interrupted by a Thai, hijacking the attention of the seller.

I even discussed this with a seller that I have become friendly with, and she replied, 'yes, Thais are like that (in her type of service perhaps), and she even said that once, a Thai came to park his motorbike in-between two racks of her clothing that she displays for sale. Too few parking spaces left...

 

Once I got interrupted by a middle-aged lady, and when I confronted her about it, saying that I was not finished, she backed up a bit. And some 15 seconds later, she came back between me and the seller to try to hijack again the attention of the seller. In two different shops, the sellers turned back towards me and signified that her attention was for me. And they do not accept that... trying again.

And mainly Thai women in my experience, in these clothing stores...

If one is going on and on with a vendor about special order colors and whether or not the material in a fifty-Baht tee-shirt was sustainably sourced while at the same time trying to hammer them down to three for a hundred, I think butting in respectfully to pay for my fifty-Baht tee-shirt with my fifty-baht note is acceptable. 

[bbko]

On 1/24/2024 at 8:54 PM, Yellowtail said:

Not everywhere in every county. When I visit the US no one is cutting line in the places I go. 

Just cause you never see it, doesn't mean it never happens;

 

[JimTripper]

6 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

If one is going on and on with a vendor about special order colors and whether or not the material in a fifty-Baht tee-shirt was sustainably sourced while at the same time trying to hammer them down to three for a hundred, I think butting in respectfully to pay for my fifty-Baht tee-shirt with my fifty-baht note is acceptable. 

I do that occasionally when paying and if the vendor is real busy. I pass them the money with exact change without waiting for the usual acknowledgment.

 

The difference is that I don't do it when they are talking to another customer, only if they are busy working in general or too busy to serve in the usual manner. So I'm not cutting someone off who is there. It's between me and the vendor and there is no "triangle" there between three people.

[Andre0720]

25 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

If one is going on and on with a vendor about special order colors and whether or not the material in a fifty-Baht tee-shirt was sustainably sourced while at the same time trying to hammer them down to three for a hundred, I think butting in respectfully to pay for my fifty-Baht tee-shirt with my fifty-baht note is acceptable. 

Oh....

So you found an exception that would confirm the rule....

Much obliged....