Southeners, do you always have to queue for everything?

Posted by Other_Exercise@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 19 comments

For context, I live oop north, near Leeds. It's currently a damp and grey day in the small town of Cobham, Surrey, where I'm visiting for reasons, and so far, there just seems to be people everywhere - and queues to match. For example, I queued at the post office, at the bakery, at another bakery, at the supermarket... Back up near Leeds, the town where I shop and do similar things has about 2.5 times more people than Cobham - but you rarely have to spend long waiting in line anywhere. There are simply rarely any lines. Is this theme of 'lots of people doing exactly the same thing as you at the same time' just a reality of living down South - or did I just pick a busy day?

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19 Comments

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primoristhegreat12@reddit

Yes of course we queue, we’re not savages down here!

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mantolwen@reddit

Of course there are queues at the Post Office. It's Christmas. Any other time of year it'll be dead.

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cmdrxander@reddit

My local post office in Bristol has a queue whenever I’ve been there. Minimum wait is about 10-15 minutes!

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Interesting-Buddy957@reddit

Problem with PO is that they provide so many services that are non post related

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Interesting-Buddy957@reddit

I remember when my local delivery office used to have one desk, and one member of staff. Used to have to queue for hours, snaking around the industrial estate to pick up parcel near christmas. Obviously with the advent of "Leave it anywhere" and more people being home, the queues are a lot less. They also have more staff, and more desks splitting up by post-code.

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Interesting-Buddy957@reddit

>It's currently a damp and grey day in the small town of Cobham, Surrey, where I'm visiting for reasons You were visiting a "friend" from Diamond Escorts?

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CraigTorso@reddit

Cobham is a small stockbroker belt commuter town It's the sort of place where families can afford to have wives that don't have to work I don't think it's a particularly good place to use as a guide to behaviour in the South

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DameKumquat@reddit

Can confirm. There's all the WAGs of Chelsea footballers, plenty of yummy mummies and ladies who lunch, and lots of retired people, all of whom will hit the local shops this time of year, especially at lunchtime when wfh-ers nip out too. I've never encountered much of a queue there. Excellent charity shops, though.

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CraigTorso@reddit

I hadn't thought of the bounties to be found in charity shops around those parts Hmm, 1 train there, I could possibly find my family some bling shit cheap

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DameKumquat@reddit

All my Le Creuset came from there. Always great kids toys, too.

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Underwritingking@reddit

Well I live in Otley, just north of Leeds, and I can tell you that I queue regularly in the post office, the supermarket, the bakers (if you go to the good one) and the butchers. I think you've just been lucky/unlucky

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caiaphas8@reddit

Which bakers is the good one?

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Underwritingking@reddit

Bondgate

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EvilTaffyapple@reddit

What the fuck are you on about? I live in Leeds and they queue out the door in Greggs and just about every bank that isn’t the SUPERDUPERMEGABANK on Park Row - any smaller branch is just rammed.

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grumpy-kunt@reddit

You must be rich, Beeston cash converters always has a queue lol.

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bg2meister@reddit

Yes, it's insane - and somehow much worse since Covid.

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Pale-Imagination-456@reddit

I think shops up north are generally much quieter.

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imminentmailing463@reddit

Not particularly. Sometimes there are queues sometimes there aren't. Rarely queue at the supermarket. Always at the bakery if it's morning or lunchtime. If not, there may be no queue. Last time I went to the post office I walked straight up to the counter. Other times there's queues. When I lived in London my local post office always had long queues, mostly people doing banking and bill related things. Very different demographics to the town I live in now.

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tmstms@reddit

Cobham? FFS come back now! I live in Cas. I think we probably do queue as much as Southerners (I lived in London for 20-25 years) but as good Yorkshire folk are always friendly to one another, one doesn't even remember if one has had to queue- it was just a nice chat with people who happened to need the same thing. The banks have been the cleverest with this one, though. There did use to be long queues for banks in Yorkshire, but by shutting them all, the queues have been abolished too.