Uh, I'm Right Here...

[Myra]

So a girl and a guy come in, with a broken phone. Luckily it's real cut-and-dry, they just need a new flip. So I look them up, they're on the service plan, so I tell them it'll just be a moment. I hop behind the partition where the repair desk is. The partition is just a wall we popped up in the store to make a small room to hide the repair area mess. The walls are just like what you'd see an office cubicle made out of. In other words, thin. Besides, I was all of MAYBE seven feet away from the customers. The way the seats were, he could see me if he leaned to his left enough. As soon as I start work taking their phone apart, they start chatting.

Girl: "I'm sorry, but I heard from so-and-so that as soon as I was out of town, you were going up to so-and-so's house to scam for women. I didn't buy you that truck for that, so I'm sorry if you don't like that I took it away."

Guy: *mumbles something I cannot hear*

Girl: "I'm just watching my own ass. Not trying to be a bitch, but I gotta watch my own ass."

Guy: "I've never given you reason to think I'd..." *Rest I cannot hear as he gets quieter*

They go on a bit, and as I do the repair I think "Do they not realize I can hear them? Surely they think I can't...why else would they have this sort of personal conversation here? So I finish the repair and come back out to print off the paperwork for her to sign. I figure the conversation will halt. I am wrong.

Guy: "I just don't get why you don't trust me. I don't even care about that truck. I just want you to know that I care about you, and I would never run around on you."

Girl: "No you won't. Because I have the truck."

Wow. They were both polite to me, and never raised their voices at each other, I was just shocked at that. When Husband and I have to have serious conversations, we certainly wait til we're in the privacy of home, or at least an enclosed car.

Was just strange is all.

[Gurndigarn]

These people are treating each other like things to manipulate, not as real people. Is it really a surprise that they think a clerk is just another thing?

[Brighid45]

In my experience, people tend to think of clerks, cashers etc as robots, incapable of understanding conversations--until it suits the customer's purpose to believe otherwise. Not everyone is like that, but many are.

[dawntazz]

Just flies on the wall....that's what people think when you work retail

[TennesseePieman]

It's not even that, in some cases. A friend of mine has attended school functions for her kids and they're always chock full of other moms. One time she dragged along her husband to one of them, and he really felt out of place, and looked it.

While making small talk, one of the other moms commented to my friend that it was so unusual to see dads/husbands at these events and how uncomfortable he looked, and went on to say, "My husband would never attend one of these. I think he likes me being out of the house so he can have girlfriends over."

Mind you, they're not close friends or even casual acquaintances, just a couple of moms at a school bake sale or something. Why would you even blurt out this sort of really embarrassing intimate detail to someone who is basically a total stranger?

[Gurndigarn]

Mind you, they're not close friends or even casual acquaintances, just a couple of moms at a school bake sale or something. Why would you even blurt out this sort of really embarrassing intimate detail to someone who is basically a total stranger?

1) She may not have been embarrased by it.

2) I've found that when it's girls-only (or perceived as girls-only, such as this), many of them are far more likely to talk about sex than otherwise.

[Barefootgirl]

one of the other moms commented to my friend that it was so unusual to see dads/husbands at these events and how uncomfortable he looked, and went on to say, "My husband would never attend one of these. I think he likes me being out of the house so he can have girlfriends over."

(snip) Why would you even blurt out this sort of really embarrassing intimate detail to someone who is basically a total stranger?

Perhaps it was supposed to be humorous. If one of the mums at my daughter's school said something like that to me, I'd assume she was making a joke. I say things like this myself sometimes. i forget that not everyone has a warped sense of humour like me.

[Eireann]

Once, when I was in an elevator, it stopped a floor or two below where I got on, and a couple joined me (I was alone until then). As soon as the doors closed - and mind you, I was still there - the woman turned to the man and said, "You know you're not working. Why did you tell her that?"

I guess she was too pissed off to shut the hell up around a total stranger. Or she wanted him to look bad in front of someone else.

The argument was still in full swing when we all exited the elevator. I imagine they continued to perform for other strangers as they made their way down the street.

[Banrion]

OK, I admit that me and my b/f joke about him and his g/f's, but just between us. And it is usually in the context of, "Honey, I'm taking the early train home tonight, clear the girls out before there is a massacre!" Completely joking of course. I know that when he gets home from work, all he does is kiss the kitty and play FFXII