Do you think people are more unreasonable than they used to be?

[nicktay2605]

Basically, as the thread title says. I was in a cafe/bistro type place earlier today for some lunch. It was very busy, with pretty much every table occupied and the staff looked hurried and stressed. Upon joining the queue I could hear one of the servers at the tills telling customers that there was at least a half hour wait for food, possibly more. Fair enough I thought, they are at least telling us before we order and it was the middle of lunch service on a busy, wet Saturday, so it was hardly a surprise.

However, it seems that to a lot of the people in the queue ahead of me it was a surprise, and many of them seemed to consider it unacceptable. At least one couple walked out with a grumpy look on their faces and I heard one of the staff saying that she'd had several people roll their eyes at her and she didn't think it was very polite. I felt sorry for the poor staff, they were all being very friendly and clearly trying their best to appease people and make sure everything was brought out as fast as it could be under the circumstances.

Is it just me or are people more impatient, rude and unreasonable than they used to be?

 

[nicktay2605]

I think they simply took the information, decided they weren't willing to hang around that long and left to get on with their day. The staff told the people queuing this to prevent irate customers later on. Nothing of note happened, they weren't being unreasonable to be a little disappointed at the potential delay.

You're probably right, though things like rolling your eyes at someone is, in my opinion, rude and disrespectful. I used to work in one of the 'posh' supermarkets and we got some customers who could be very rude and dismissive, presumably because we were young and they thought they were better than us. I think manners are important and it doesn't cost anything to be polite.

My experience today isn't the only example of this sort of thing recently so I was curious whether it was just me that thought people were getting less patient and polite or whether it's noticeable to others too.