One thing I've noticed is that, unlike us Brits who having chosen our goods want to get them paid for and out the door as quickly as possible, the Spanish seem to relish their time at the till as much as their time spent browsing. It seems it's part of the whole shopping experience to them, and they'll think nothing of spending ten minutes f*cking about at the till, gabbing away, emptying their purse or bag out over the counter for no apparent reason- anything to drag out their time there for a bit longer.
I got stuck behind one such lady today in the Guess shop. I wonder if she really knew what shop she was in, as she didn't come across as Guess's target market. I was starting to wish I'd brought a packed lunch, and even after paying she managed to loiter at the till for several more minutes- not really doing anything, just savouring the moment. By the time she'd finally finished all the creases had fallen out of the T-shirt I was about to buy, so at least she saved me the job of ironing it.
Next we went to ToysRUs, whereupon I was immediately made to leave my Guess-branded carrier bag behind the till. Fair enough, I thought, before turning round and noting the first person I saw in front of me had been allowed to keep her massive handbag on her person. If you were a detective, who would you pick as the potential shoplifter- the woman with distractive kids and a massive handbag, or the bloke carrying visible evidence of having just spent money in the most expensive clothes shop in the centre? Oh well, no harm done.
On to the builders merchants- think Wickes or B&Q. I knew exactly what I was going for- some kitchen cabinets for the garage- and had thought ahead to take a print-out list from their website just in case I couldn't find them and the language barrier posed a problem. I couldn't find them.
The wife spotted a service desk in the middle of the kitchen area, so took up position behind the couple already being served. Ten minutes later when the member of staff manning the desk had managed to finally free himself of the couple, the wife approaches, asks where to find these particular cabinets, and is pointed straight to one of the two people at desks behind this bloke and who had been sat there all along doing f*ck-all and could have at any point offered assistance had they been so inclined.
So then, for no apparent reason, we have to supply full contact details- name, address, etc- before we can have access to these off-the-shelf cabinets. Then the guy takes my print-out and puts it all in his computer, double-checking and triple-checking it (it was only three cabinets). Then, he prints out a piece of paper- one that looks suspiciously like the piece of paper I handed him in the first place- and tells me to take it to the other end of the building and present it to another desk, and they will get my cabinets. I can't figure this guy out. He could have just sent me straight to the other desk in the first place. Maybe he was bored- but not so bored that he felt like asking the wife if she wanted assistance for the ten minutes she was stood at the previous desk waiting to speak to someone.
The whole process from the wife joining the queue to me having the cabinets on my trolley took about forty minutes. In the UK, people would just walk away before waiting that long. But then this is Spain, and we didn't come here to rush around like idiots- you've just got to go with the flow.
