American cultural curiosity rarely seen in Germany: offers to go ahead in line [View All]

[lebkuchen]

Is that custom unique to small town America, where I am right now?

Whenever I'm in line in this Arizona town, one or two customer will offer to let me go ahead of them, usually because I have fewer items in my cart. That almost never happens in Germany, where customers tend to be very territorial and will more than likely cut you in line than offer to let you go first.

Today I was at the post office with two large boxes, and an octagenarian woman who only wanted to buy stamps offered to let me go ahead. I declined since she would have had to wait much longer for me than I would have for her. I guess she figured the boxes were cumbersome, but still, it was so polite of her to make that offer since she was rather frail looking.

Americans also say "excuse me" a lot. Unless you've actually made body contact with a German, and sometimes not even then, you don't hear apologies.

The Walmart crowd crush and shop-shootings seem incongruous to the otherwise very polite shopping behavior unique, in my travel experiences, to Americans.