Wherein I don't loose my cool.

[AnqeiicDemise]

I hate Winco. I mean, I love the prices and the deals but I loathe the people there. Its just.. the cheap prices make the classless, crude and rude come out in droves.

Today was one of those days where I just... wish I had *never* gotten out of bed.I got a mild case of food poisoning in the morning and kept going in and out of my anger Management class. My period started and I had no cash nor any feminine supplies (thank goodness for kind people and their quarters). I almost got rear ended in traffic. Guy at Target didn't give me my gift card (shelf promo) and showed complete disinterest in even double checking the GC info... and then to top it all off, my *one* splurge of the season ended up at my feet because the barista didn't put the cap on right on my mocha frap. And then I had people bitching about me having the door open, thereby preventing their parking next to me because I was *cleaning out* the blended coffee mess from the car. -.- (One guy totally layed on the horn to get me to move and I just ignored it).

To top it all off, right when we're at Winco my back gave out. I took a step, I got locked, I cried and wanted to just.. die. But I didn't. Instead, I bit my lip and kept going once I got unstuck and decided to go home.

Once at the registers, there's, as usual, a HUGE line. I get there and wait, patiently.

After about ten minutes, another register is finally opened, There are six of us (hubs, me, a couple, a mom and her daughter)blocking the way that are waved over to the new register. The leading girl, lets a sweet couple who only had one item in front of her and I follow.

This other trio had been walking to park behind me when the new line opened. One of the girls, the one not pushing the overflowing cart, decides to run for it. As she's running, she looks over her right shoulder, straight at *me* and keeps running, hip pushing my cart out of the way.

I just grumbled and kept pushing forward, veering out of the way and getting right behind the Mom and her daughter. Running Girl (RG) is not in line, btw, she's right off to the left of it , waving at the friend pushing the cart.

F: Its okay, I'm in line now. Besides, you cut her off.
RG: But I got here first, just come here.
F: Its fine, her cart is not that full anyway.
RG: But I got here first.

M: Excuse me, I was here first, you just pushed my cart with your hip.
RG: I did not touch your cart.
M: You probably didn't feel it as I tried not to hurt you.
RG: I got here first and I didn't touch your cart.
M: I'm sorry, but I was in line first; I have been waiting for a long while and you just ran in front of me. Maybe you didn't notice that this was a line and that I was not trying to go on through.
RG: But I got here first.
M: Yes, I know that, because you *cut me off*, thereby line jumping.
RG: But... I got here first.
F: Just let it go, RG.Seriously, its okay. They're probably in a hurry.
RG: But.. I got here first.
M: Again, you did get here first only because I *did not want to hurt you.*.

RG then proceeds to look me over and in a snotty tone says:

RG: I did not touch your cart and I got here first, so F, get over here.
M: -by now, my cart is now pressed against the back of the conveyor belt as she has pushed me that far back- I don't have as many items as you anyway.
F: Just.. Let it go. Its fine.
RG: But I GOT here FIRST.
M: -feeling her face get flushed and my anger now rising.-
RG: -sees the vein starting to pop on M's forehead.- but..
M: Seriously, that is just rude.
F: Let.It.Go.
RG: Fine. I'll let it go. -as she's now walking next to me.- Because, you know, I don't bitch. I'm not the type to just, you know, BITCH.
M: Thank you, I KNOW I am a Bitch, what's your point?

This, I said with a calm, even tone of voice though I am sure I was giving her a deathglare.. or something... because her voice just got quieter as she said she had not implied that I was a Bitch.

M: Well, implied or not, just so you know, I am, indeed, a Bitch. I have no problem with that.

I think I broke her brain at that moment because she didn't know how to react. She may have been expecting for me to say something snarky, maybe even smack her.. I don't know.. but all she could do was stand there and blink at me, mumbling under her breath about how she didn't mean how that came out.


Hubby then tells me he was compelled to tell her that even if she did not mean to imply that I was a Bitch, her saying "Unlike people, I don't bitch" she was, quite, in fact, complaining... and if she wasn't complaining, she was implying that someone around her was.

I left the store cool as a cucumber at the whole incident.

G was right, when confronted with the Truth, people don't know how to react. LOL

PS: She *did* have more crap that I did. My cart was half full, hers was overflowing. Hubby says he wanted to tell her she needed some Class and a pair of glasses.

[Aethian]

First...virtual hugs and many puppy lovings.

Second...how did you survive?

[Red_Dazes]

*bug hugs* sorry love!

I hate winco shopping as well... but being poor I need to go there. A few weeks ago I was walking with my HUGE purchase of Hot Pockets and some fruit, up to the register... I got there first but apparently there had been a couple ((looking at bread when I had walked up)) who thought THEY should be allowed at the register. I heard the lady call me a 'little witch'

....It made me smile

[AnqeiicDemise]

@Red : I hear ya. We'd been buying groceries at Freddy's but realized we get a much better deal if we buy at Winco even if it means driving to Renton to get there. After this last fiasco I think we'll go to Marysville but it might just be as a bad up there too.

I just.. ugh.. seriously, the cheap prices bring out the arseholes in droves.

@Aethian : I don't know, really. I guess it was mostly because I was tired and I wanted to go to sleep, although I was already cranky. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I had the energy to smack her around.

So I did the next best thing and called her out on her sheer stupidity and let her know I'm comfortable enough in my own skin that rude remarks won't bother me.

[pitmonkey]

Just don't go in to winco on a Sunday night! What is fun is the way they have the bagging lanes. they are set up for you to put your cart at the end straight out. It never fails, the other person takes up the whole end or stays in the isle between the registers. The looks you get moving their cart out of the way, or trying to get by them.

[AccountingDrone]

*bug hugs* sorry love!

I hate winco shopping as well... but being poor I need to go there. A few weeks ago I was walking with my HUGE purchase of Hot Pockets and some fruit, up to the register... I got there first but apparently there had been a couple ((looking at bread when I had walked up)) who thought THEY should be allowed at the register. I heard the lady call me a 'little witch'

....It made me smile

Respond really politely-

No, I am sorry, you have it wrong. I am a pagan, not all pagans are witches. Witches imply that I follow wicca, but actually I am a devotee of Astarte, the Phoenician goddess of nature and fertility. Have a lovely day!

[I used to do this when I lived in the bible belt, and the closest convenience store to my jobsite was right next to Pat Robertsons bible pounding university I have never in my life seen so many unchristian christians]

[bunnyboy]

@Red : I hear ya. We'd been buying groceries at Freddy's but realized we get a much better deal if we buy at Winco even if it means driving to Renton to get there. After this last fiasco I think we'll go to Marysville but it might just be as a bad up there too.

That one's (Renton) not so bad... depending on when you go... any time during the normal day = suck... fortunately I've only gone there once before 8 PM... and yeah...still don't get how that one's like ZOMG busy, but Fed. Way is often... just dead.

[Teskeria]

A fun way to handle being called (or implied that you are) a bitch is to raise your voice just a little, enough for a couple people to hear you (works esp well if you can possible pass as at least 10 years older than them) and say something like:

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! It been so long since a CHILD called me a Bitch!! I was beginning to think I had lost it. What a nice CHILD you are (heavy sarcasm in this line, of course!). (If a friend or SO is with you, then turn to them and comment, again a little loudly, "Did you hear what this CHILD called me? Wasn't that sweet of the CHILD."

The heavy emphasis on child infuriates them, but they look stupider and the other customers start laughing usually when they try to defend themselves.

[seigus]

It never fails, the other person takes up the whole end or stays in the isle between the registers.

This happens to me ALL THE TIME at Winco; that and people bagging slower than a snail on crutches moving through molasses.

[AnqeiicDemise]

The whole bagging thing: I know, its such a pain in the butt too! Which is another reason I was annoyed at the potential of this woman cutting in front of me. I'd seen her before and she bags superbly slow.

I like to park my cart off to the side in front of the bagging station while I bag but if I can't do that, I have no problem keeping it off to the side while I bag. I keep my thigh or hip pressed against the button and I put things away fairly fast. I take over bagging duties 'cause hubby's really slow.

My mum was a bagger back in ye olde days of yore and taught me how to do things quickly and efficiently as a child.