I'm traumatized. I don't get anywhere near the amount of exposure to rude and/or violent people as a lot of you seem to. I've worked retail for 20 years, so I've seen my share, but today's sighting made me cut my shopping trip short and get the hell home.
I went to Wal-Mart to exchange some shoe liners I had bought, and to get a few items. (For one thing, that's the only store that carries the coloured copper wire I use in my jewellery). It wasn't too busy, but thanks to Calgary's labour shortage, there was only 1 lane open besides the self-checkouts. Whatever, I use the SCOs most of the time anyway, because I kind of think they are neat and they really speed things up, I think.
As with pretty well every other self-checkout on the freaking *planet,* there was one line for all 4 of the checkout stations. People went to whichever till was free when it was their turn. That's normal, right?
Well, one guy skipped the line and went straight to the checkout. The person who had been next in line said "hey! it's not your turn!", echoed by the other 4 people behind him, including myself. Mr Impatient turned around and instantly started cursing him out, saying that the other guy was too stupid to stand in the right line, and obviously there hadn't been a line at that checkout, f-- this, f-- that, etc. Once again, everyone in line said no, you have to wait, it's not your turn. Mr Impatient ignored us and kept focusing on the other guy, even as he backed down from the self-checkout and headed toward the manned checkout lane. He was threatening to punch the guy out, and all kinds of stuff - and the other guy was responding in the same vein. They were talking back and forth like this even as the line-obeying guy was doing his checkout!
Eventually I lost MY temper and snapped," oh, for Chirist's sake! You are both acting like CHILDREN!" and glared at them both. I was in between them at this point.
They shut up. (Teacher Voice is a pretty useful skill).
However, I was pretty upset after that and I decided to come straight home instead of going to another store where I wanted some bike stuff that is on sale. It will probably all be gone now
I went to Wal-Mart to exchange some shoe liners I had bought, and to get a few items. (For one thing, that's the only store that carries the coloured copper wire I use in my jewellery). It wasn't too busy, but thanks to Calgary's labour shortage, there was only 1 lane open besides the self-checkouts. Whatever, I use the SCOs most of the time anyway, because I kind of think they are neat and they really speed things up, I think.
As with pretty well every other self-checkout on the freaking *planet,* there was one line for all 4 of the checkout stations. People went to whichever till was free when it was their turn. That's normal, right?
Well, one guy skipped the line and went straight to the checkout. The person who had been next in line said "hey! it's not your turn!", echoed by the other 4 people behind him, including myself. Mr Impatient turned around and instantly started cursing him out, saying that the other guy was too stupid to stand in the right line, and obviously there hadn't been a line at that checkout, f-- this, f-- that, etc. Once again, everyone in line said no, you have to wait, it's not your turn. Mr Impatient ignored us and kept focusing on the other guy, even as he backed down from the self-checkout and headed toward the manned checkout lane. He was threatening to punch the guy out, and all kinds of stuff - and the other guy was responding in the same vein. They were talking back and forth like this even as the line-obeying guy was doing his checkout!
Eventually I lost MY temper and snapped," oh, for Chirist's sake! You are both acting like CHILDREN!" and glared at them both. I was in between them at this point.
They shut up. (Teacher Voice is a pretty useful skill).
However, I was pretty upset after that and I decided to come straight home instead of going to another store where I wanted some bike stuff that is on sale. It will probably all be gone now
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