Close Topic Options

Trinidad - Standing In A Line

Trinidad - Standing In A Line

Standing in a line in Trinidad can be a laborious experience. The smells, the way everyone wants to 'jam' together, the constant mumblings, people yelling on their cel phones as though they are in their own home and of course the best - the insane ones. Let me jump to the insane ones since the others are self-explanatory.

I was standing in a line today, what an experience. I was buying some groceries and looked for the shortest line - it ended up being the longest line. Two women are buying ahead of me using one shopping cart so I decide to join in this line with the belief the wait will be short. The first strange thing I noticed was the way the cart was positioned - it was as though it was being used to keep people away from her and her food items. In other words, she did not pull it forward so more people could join the line.

Suddenly one of the women does something odd - she leaves her cart with groceries half full and then stands watching the amount of money the cashier is ringing up. It seems they used one cart to shop for two sets of groceries - does that make sense? I mean there are plenty of carts at the supermarket. She goes back to her cart and keeps taking each food item out one by one after checking the total on the cashier's machine and then coming back for one item and so forth. It was taking so long that the lady packing groceries actually came to the line where I was standing and asked the woman if she was cashing all the groceries in her cart. The woman nodded and then she took them all out.

There are loads of stories I can tellm but I will save it for now.

Line In Standing Trinidad

Oh the one I hate the most is when they get closer and closer to you...my goodness, give me some space to breathe! They seem to want to be all over you and you need to endure the painful process of smelling their body odors.

Trinidad - Standing In A Line Caribbean / Tobago & Trinidad

What about the ones who have only one item and expect to jump ahead everyone?

I remember my hubby and I were shopping in Tru Valu and we found a line that had about four people ahead of us. We stood patiently and a skinny woman came up to us and politely asked, if she could go before us since she had only one bottle of water. We agreed thinking that there was nothing wrong with this. She smiled and waited her turn to cash. Suddenly I overheard the same lady shouting to a friend and beckoning to come in front of us. My hubby and I watched with our mouths wide open as this woman, whom we showed kindness to, was allowing someone else to come in front of us. My hubby and I were fuming and so was everyone else in the line behind us. As my hubby would say, "NOT ME AGAIN!" When you try to be nice to a Trini, instead of appreciating your kindness, they love to take advantage of you!

Line In Standing Trinidad

Wow don't you think you're exaggerating a little bit? What you experienced happens everywhere, there are rude people in every country.

Line In Standing Trinidad

I do not think Geenie is exaggerating at all, I have experienced this first hand. It is not only that they take advantage but they have no consideration for you, they want to inherit your ability / skill for free when they would have to pay elsewhere. If you are in a line and you let one forward, there will be others looking at you as though to say "Well let us through too nah...". I find Trinis have little to no patience. They are always in a rush to go nowhere and expect instant response to their requests for anything.

Trinidad - Standing In A Line

TriniSpanish said:

I don't think I could have responded to this better than JB. Unfortunately TriniSpanish, I think Trinis are more aggressive and have a bold faced way about them. True there are rude people in every country but Trinis do have a way of standing out when it comes to being "wrong and strong." They expect everything from you without being grateful and if one day, you happen to say "no" they react as if you were very rude to them. I think the lines are an excellent example of how ill mannered Trinis really are. And JB is right when he mentioned that they have no patience at all.

I always remember this particular incident which took place in a bank. I was in a very long queue patiently waiting to do about five transactions. There was a white woman ( a local not a foreigner) who kept grumbling about how long the line was and how people were taking too long with their transactions. I was tempted to explain to her that it was the end of the month and worse, in the afternoon. So it would be expected that everyone would try to visit the bank after work. But sometimes, ignorance is bliss. I ignored her grumblings and she was elated to see that I was next (since she was behind me). Well as I previously mentioned, I had five transactions to do. While I was by the teller, I thought to myself that the lady behind me must be going crazy. I was right. Before I had time to actually leave the teller, she flew right up to me and mentioned something inaudible. I suspect it was a rude remark about how long I took. I just shook my head and left. Sometimes, it just isn't worth the while to stress over Trinis.

Trinidad Standing In Line

It is good that you actually specified the race because a lot of people tend to think we are stereotyping a particular race and the truth it is this is unique to Trinis in general and NOT a particular race, in other words it is part of the culture and thus standing in a line with Trinis can be an ordeal. A lot of Trinis will also say "Well I don't do that..." and that maybe true, count yourself in the minority because the majority of Trinis are not like that!

Trinidad Standing In Line Trinidad & Tobago / Caribbean

In a line today while at Hi-Lo a guy cuts in goes to the person nearest the cashier and asks her if he can quickly cash a bag of dog food. She allows him and then makes a chide remark that he could of waited like everyone else, but it was done with a joke and slang so he didn't move. At the same the woman manages to see a friend of hers at the back of the line and calls her up front while saying, "Is the season..." and whatever else nonsense and so in one shot she put two people in front of a line of others with no care or consideration. Rather than get angry, make a scene and have all the typicals watch me like if I'm the one wrong I just switched to another line where the people understood something called patience, manners and waiting and I actually got through pretty fast. I could tell you about the cashier... But that is another Thread.