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I have no qualms about helping people shop, but when they start acting like I'm their personal slave...just no. There is a difference between having someone shop for you because you're disabled, and taking advantage of such.
We have two semiregular customers; one guy is completely blind and his friend is legally-but-not-totally-blind. I don't mind helping the man shop when he comes in alone; he's a very sweet guy. His friend is...control freak is the best way I can put it. She thinks I've never worked with blind people before and likes to order everyone around, can be contradictory ("I want X. No, I didn't say I wanted X, I want Y.") and generally a pain in the rear.
So I got to help both of them yesterday. It started fine enough; except I asked her three times if she needed a cart and she said no. Look at shopping list...okay, maybe I can handle this. She has a scan gun...why get a gun if you don't need a cart? OK, your friend has a cart...wait, what? Splitting up? And you don't want a cart with this list. Okay, okay, geez, you can stop blocking me now (she physically stood in my way so I could not get a cart).
We get the produce, then to the meat. What I didn't realize is that the lox she was grabbing was frozen -_- At that point a friend of theirs comes over to steer her to where the guy is, he has a cart. Good, my fingers are getting frostbite here. Over to the bakery case, which involves a lengthy discussion of what danishes to get and how many. You need to scan the barcode on the case once for each danish. No, it's not buy three get one free, you need to scan them all.
More frozen stuff. And then...12-pack of water. Okay, I can handle a 12-pack plus a basket (won't be fun, but I can do it).
Wait, what? She's getting a 24-pack instead
She scans the one at the back of the shelf; they're all the same barcode so I grab one that I'm sure I can lift/wrangle without hurting myself.
SC: "Take the one I scanned, in case they have to scan it again."
Me: "It doesn't matter, I can't reach that one."
SC: "It does matter, take the one I scanned!" *whaps me with her cane--an inch to the right and she would have hit me in the head* "Now go get some soy sauce, ginger and bagels."
SC plops down on the floor to wait, and giggles at me. I go off in the direction of the soy sauce, but instead go up to the desk.
Me: "S, I can't help the customer shop anymore. She hit me, is ordering me around and I need to watch selfscan."
Unfortunately it's busy, so I can't pass her off on anyone else--FEM who gave me this assignment is herself busy--and I can't ditch her (I can't find their friend anyway). I take my time and answer some questions from nicer people, dreading that she'll come up with several somethings that are not on the list. Which she does.
SC: "*giggle* "See, I told you we should have taken R's cart." *cackle* (no, you bodily prevented me from getting a cart)
Another regular sees me struggling with the basket and water, and offers to carry the basket. Now we have to find her friend. After wandering the packed main aisle for a bit, I strongly suggest that she wait up at the desk, she demands I go to the desk and have her friend paged *giggle, laugh like this is the funniest thing ever* Awesome Regular and I exchange a look, and we both go to the desk.
Me: "I am SO sorry you got dragged into this, I didn't realize what a chore it was going to be, I thought we were just going to go to checkout."
S:
(she knows I have a hard time handling 24-packs with both hands)
AR decides then to put in a compliment about me, and complaint about the girl: "She has poor Dreamstalker running all over the store, and she was sitting on the floor and giggling."
We get in line, I tell AR to go, I can handle it from here.
Turns out that the two of them have two separate orders, and they start arguing with each other and the cashier. At that point I can safely bail (who, me? Happy to see an SCO freeze? Yes, at least that I can do something about).
My back and shoulder hurt for about an hour after that, but I was able to move around which helped.
We have two semiregular customers; one guy is completely blind and his friend is legally-but-not-totally-blind. I don't mind helping the man shop when he comes in alone; he's a very sweet guy. His friend is...control freak is the best way I can put it. She thinks I've never worked with blind people before and likes to order everyone around, can be contradictory ("I want X. No, I didn't say I wanted X, I want Y.") and generally a pain in the rear.
So I got to help both of them yesterday. It started fine enough; except I asked her three times if she needed a cart and she said no. Look at shopping list...okay, maybe I can handle this. She has a scan gun...why get a gun if you don't need a cart? OK, your friend has a cart...wait, what? Splitting up? And you don't want a cart with this list. Okay, okay, geez, you can stop blocking me now (she physically stood in my way so I could not get a cart).
We get the produce, then to the meat. What I didn't realize is that the lox she was grabbing was frozen -_- At that point a friend of theirs comes over to steer her to where the guy is, he has a cart. Good, my fingers are getting frostbite here. Over to the bakery case, which involves a lengthy discussion of what danishes to get and how many. You need to scan the barcode on the case once for each danish. No, it's not buy three get one free, you need to scan them all.
More frozen stuff. And then...12-pack of water. Okay, I can handle a 12-pack plus a basket (won't be fun, but I can do it).
Wait, what? She's getting a 24-pack instead
She scans the one at the back of the shelf; they're all the same barcode so I grab one that I'm sure I can lift/wrangle without hurting myself.SC: "Take the one I scanned, in case they have to scan it again."
Me: "It doesn't matter, I can't reach that one."
SC: "It does matter, take the one I scanned!" *whaps me with her cane--an inch to the right and she would have hit me in the head* "Now go get some soy sauce, ginger and bagels."
SC plops down on the floor to wait, and giggles at me. I go off in the direction of the soy sauce, but instead go up to the desk.
Me: "S, I can't help the customer shop anymore. She hit me, is ordering me around and I need to watch selfscan."
Unfortunately it's busy, so I can't pass her off on anyone else--FEM who gave me this assignment is herself busy--and I can't ditch her (I can't find their friend anyway). I take my time and answer some questions from nicer people, dreading that she'll come up with several somethings that are not on the list. Which she does.
SC: "*giggle* "See, I told you we should have taken R's cart." *cackle* (no, you bodily prevented me from getting a cart)
Another regular sees me struggling with the basket and water, and offers to carry the basket. Now we have to find her friend. After wandering the packed main aisle for a bit, I strongly suggest that she wait up at the desk, she demands I go to the desk and have her friend paged *giggle, laugh like this is the funniest thing ever* Awesome Regular and I exchange a look, and we both go to the desk.
Me: "I am SO sorry you got dragged into this, I didn't realize what a chore it was going to be, I thought we were just going to go to checkout."
S:
(she knows I have a hard time handling 24-packs with both hands)AR decides then to put in a compliment about me, and complaint about the girl: "She has poor Dreamstalker running all over the store, and she was sitting on the floor and giggling."
We get in line, I tell AR to go, I can handle it from here.
Turns out that the two of them have two separate orders, and they start arguing with each other and the cashier. At that point I can safely bail (who, me? Happy to see an SCO freeze? Yes, at least that I can do something about).
My back and shoulder hurt for about an hour after that, but I was able to move around which helped.
Anyone who hits me should not be shocked if they get hit right back. Nobody anywhere should have to put up with that kind of abuse, particularly someone who is merely trying to earn a living and assist others. 
I am very sorry it happened to you, Dreamstalker. You would've been well within your rights to hit her back, or at least grab the cane and verbally rip her a new one. Nobody should have to just roll over and take that.
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