Waiting in a queue for takeaways while the person in front asks multiple questions and takes their time choosing from the menu are just some of the complaints Kiwis have about ordering food in Aotearoa.
Kiwis have taken to the New Zealand Reddit forum to share their gripes with fellow customers, many of whom are seemingly "ordering food for the first time in their life".
One user said it feels like every time they're waiting to order, the person in front is asking question after question, such as, "How much does that come with?" "Is it spicy?" and "Let me call my brother to check." They called it "infuriating" and asked, "are people just dumb?"
Their post got other Reddit users riled up, many of whom piled on and shared their similar frustrations.
"They spend their time in line waiting, doing nothing, and don't decide what they want until they get served," one person said.
"I used to work at a pizza shop. I'd answer the phone, ask them what they want to order, sometimes they would say, 'Uh not sure, I'll just go ask'," another added.
One person believed Kiwis' general lack of urgency at the cash register also applies to other areas of daily life.
"Like in supermarkets, wait five minutes while the cashier does all their shopping and then suddenly: 'Oh I have to pay now? Let me rummage around in my handbag for my Countdown card, then credit card etc'," they said.
Another user shared a similar story of people who don't have their travel cards ready when they board public transport.
"Waiting for the bus for five minutes at least. Bus arrives and there's a queue (with their Bee/Snapper cards ready) behind nan who is conveniently standing right at the start of the queue and wants to pay in cash or top up her card but first needs to rummage a bit through her bag," they wrote.
"There should honestly be advertising campaigns for this shit, including: Let busses merge into traffic, walk left, wait for people to exit the elevator (don't stand in front of the doors), have your bus card ready when it pulls up (and back of the line if you are doing a driver transaction)."
Others complained that people don't have an awareness of others at the supermarket.
"Like the chucklef**ks who manage to take up the entire aisle by leaving their trolley on an angle on one side and then staring at the products from a distance on the other, completely oblivious to the concept of other people," one person said.
But others thought these complaints were trivial and encouraged those frustrated by having to wait to simply relax.
"People are dumb. But this is a dumb thing to be raging about, relax," one said.
"I don't think it's that they're dumb. I think it's that you're impatient. Order online or over the phone if you're frustrated," another added.
Another user wrote that others don't know what people in the front of the queue are going through, such as having anxiety or it being their first time ordering from a particular takeaway shop, so it's important to have compassion and patience.
