(11 Feb 2017, 11:09 pm)MurdnunoC wrote To be fair, the shop-assistant should have probably notified the woman standing in front of you that a till had become free. On quite few occasions, perhaps because of my impatience, I have went up to a till when it has been busy only to find it is non-operational. Perhaps the woman in front has experienced something similar in the past and now waits to be called instead of risking embarrassment?
Think the shop-assistant was busy with another customer at the point the first one became available. I suppose the embarrassment thing could be a factor but I think we've all been subjected to this embarrassment at least once. It's happened in Tesco a few times, been about 6 tills when this has happened though. Think she just didn't see the available till.