WHO IS LAST? I AM AFTER YOU

A simple calculation, done automaticaly.

After collecting all my groceries, I push my shopping-cart up to the line, I believe has the least number of people, with the least number of items.
And you would think, assuming I have judged correctly, that this strategy would lead to my spending as little time as possible, waiting, before it is my turn to pay.

However, like everything else in Israel, time is negotiable. And so the jockeying for position begins.

An old man, with a single bottle of ketchup, pushes his way to the front, and asks the person who is next, "excuse me, I have only one thing, and it will just take a minute, do you mind if I go before you?"
No one standing in the line is consulted, and what is anyone to say, really?
He only has one thing, and to argue will take longer then just to let him go ahead.
Then a woman with a child, parks her cart behind me.
"Who is last?", she says. I look at what is in her cart. Only her kid and some fruit.
"I am", I say, with a sigh, because I know what will come next.
"I am after you", she says. Scurrying away to finish her shopping, leaving her cart and her kid behind, to mark her spot. I am now her witness. She said the magical Hebrew words.
"Ani achre-cha." I am after you. And with that, she is in the line, even though she is still clearly not finished shopping, and therefore, clearly, NOT IN LINE!
But I don't say anything.
To argue in Hebrew is exhausting. I can never say what I want fast enough, and often I can't understand my opponent's retorts. And besides, she is after me, not before me, so what do I care?
But what I don't realize (although by now I should), is that some one else has already claimed the place in front of me.
I have not begun unloading my cart, but I can see that, two spots ahead of me, someone is paying. Soon they will leave, and the checkout girl will begin scanning items, and it will be my turn, to put my stuff up onto the conveyor-belt.
As I am preparing to do this. A man appears with a full cart. He cuts in front of me.
"Excuse me!" I say in Hebrew, with an obvious tone of annoyance, "There is a line."
"Don't worry", he says with a guilty but indifferent smile, pointing to the man who is to pay next, "I am after him."
The man about to pay is now called upon to confirm this. He shrugs his shoulders and nods his head, barely paying attention.
"Then where were you?" I ask accusingly. I already know I have lost this debate.
"Here," the man says, grabbing things from his shopping-cart.
"OK", I giggle, under my breath.

All my anger defused, by the absurdity of his answer.