The Bitchy Lady and the Cancer Patient

[elkat]

Warning: Swearing. Lots of it. Normally is when you're dealing with uneducated, insipid people.

Ok, so I work as a cashier at a grocery store. This is probably one of my worst stories. It was a Sunday and so busy that the managers were helping us bag and weren't paying attention. I had two women in my line, and I finished ringing up the first woman's purchases and ask for payment. She paid with a check which I ran through, and the computer asked me for ID so I relay that to her. Her response:

Bitchy Lady: "Why do you need that?!"
Me: "The system updates itself regularly, so if it flags you occasionally it doesn't mean anything. It's just being thorough for your own protection."
Bitchy Lady: "Ok, *you* are making me work!! Do you understand this?! I'm going to have to go through my purse and find all this for you just because your system is a piece of shit. I thought you guys were all about customer service!! Obviously not if you're making me do this!!"
Me: ...(I really don't say anything. What are you supposed to say to someone bitching about the effort of pulling their driver's license out of their wallet?)
Lady behind the Bitchy Lady: "Why don't you just *shut up*?!! She's just trying to do her job!"

I have to take a time out and explain that the woman defending me looked sick. As in deathly, I'm about to collapse on your floor sick. She was bald, wearing a scarf, and you could see the radiation treatments on her head. It was completely obvious that she had brain cancer.

Bitchy Lady: "Why the hell are you talking to me, bitch? This is none of your business, so stay the hell out of it."
Cancer Patient: "I would if you wouldn't treat people like absolute shit who haven't done anything to you."
Bitchy Lady: "Whatever, scarf-head." (I am *not* making that "insult" up, it was like she regressed to kindergarden) "Why don't you fuck off, you ugly bitch? I could kick your ass, so just step off."

Yes, the bitch threatened to beat up a [I]cancer patient. Who looked like she couldn't even carry her own groceries. At this point, I'm just frantically trying to get her out of the line, exchanging worried looks with my bagger. Finally, I finish, and tell her to have a good day and basically do everything but physically shove her away from my line. She proceeds 10 feet over to our Starbucks where she starts to talk about the cancer patient and how ugly she is in an extremely loud voice. The cancer patient gets pissed and follows her over there, and they start arguing again. I follow, looking at the ceiling asking what I did to deserve this, and I come up right when the Bitchy Lady says...

Bitchy Lady: "Y'know, I feel sorry for your family. It's a good thing they won't have to put up with you much longer."

No. She. Didn't.

At this point, I don't even care anymore. I am so past "I'll get fired if I say anything" that it isn't even crossing my mind anymore. I step in between them and get in the woman's face, and say...

Me: "Get the FUCK out of our store."
Bitchy Lady: "Excuse me? You can't talk to me like that."
Me: "I just did. And I REALLY enjoyed it. So get the hell out of here before I THROW you out on your gigantic ass."
Bitchy Lady: *gets in my face as well* "You can't talk to me like that. You just kissed your job goodbye. I'm the customer, and you want my money. It's your job to give me what I want-your bosses wouldn't want me taking my money elsewhere."
Me: "We don't want your money. It costs too much, you fucking vapid cunt. Now get out of here, RIGHT NOW."
Bitchy Lady: "That's it. You're fired."

She starts walking towards the customer service desk, but the cancer patient gets in her way.

Cancer Patient: "I'm going to tell them exactly what happened, and that she was only defending me. She won't lose her job, and you'll be banned from here. Now fuck off, you bitch."

Bitchy Lady huffs, and tells the woman that they'll settle this in the parking lot later. Yes, she went that far. She proceeds to leave the store, and I walk the cancer patient back to her groceries in my line. I'm walking in front of her, so until I turn around when I'm back to scanning I don't notice that there's tears pouring down her face. She's crying, telling me that "she can't help the way she looks" and that she's been doing so much better with the treatments and if she finishes, she might go into remission. She starts saying that she "had no idea that she looked that bad" and she thought she was okay to go out in public now. At this point, I just want to punch the bitchy woman in the vagina.

Me: "...do you want a hug?"

The woman laughs through her tears and says yes. I give her a hug, and tell her...

Me: "You're not ugly at all. She's the one who looks like she got in a fight with a brick wall and lost. I mean, did you see her face? She was a fat pig..."

The woman laughs again, and tries to stop crying. I ring up the rest of her groceries, and we go over to my managers who are no longer busy and somehow managed to miss this entire event (...?) and tell them what happened. It was a good thing we did, because she ended up calling 5 minutes later and complaining that I "handled her vegetables roughly." They disregarded it and didn't write me up. It's the only time in my life I've ever completely gone off on a customer, and I actually managed to get away with it. I ended up having to find a male bagger to escort her out to her car just in case the bitchy lady followed through on her threat to meet her outside.

Sometimes, I am completely shocked and amazed how horrible people can be. Then, I remember this story, and I'm not suprised anymore.

[taurinejunkie]

There is no limit to human cruelty.

Bitch needs to catch AIDS, cancer, and a bad case of genital centipedes.

[jerkface11]

You actually got to call someone a vapid cunt? For the first time in history that wasn't a strong enough insult though.

[taurinejunkie]

I thought 'cunt' was the most offensive word of the English language ever? It's my second language so I may be wrong though.

[Peppergirl]

411, for most people - it is.

I think JF is saying that, in this case, the most vile, disgusting name in the english language is not nearly strong enough to describe that woman.

I'd hate to see this thread devolve into a debate of which word is the most vile in existence, so I'll stop there.

Anyway, I know CS doesn't condone violence, but surely we could make an exception in this case? Anyone up for a road trip to beat-a-bitch down?

(I kid, sorta)

[Arm]

I thought 'cunt' was the most offensive word of the English language ever? It's my second language so I may be wrong though.

It really depends on the speaker. It's probably on the top ten, though.

[Melicious Motormouth]

Wow.

The Bitchy Lady is a disgusting excuse for a human being. What you said to her was far better than se deserved. I congratulate you for not hauling off and punching her. She must have a really rotten life if this is the way she behaves. All because she's too lazy to dig through her purse for I.D.?

I wasn't even there and I feel like hugging the cancer patient.

[friendofjimmyk]

I remember a story my ex-husband told me. He said he was at work one day and told a female co-worker who just called a customer (not to their face - but in the back area) a "cunt". He proceeded to tell this female co-worker how much he hated that word. She asked, "why its just a word!" and he said he just didn't like it. Well, that co-worker, to prove her point, all day long on their shift, when they would pass each other, she would start on a "cunt" tirade. She said it over and over and over and over and over...even adding colorful adjectives, like "smelly", "hairy", and "gaping" that eventually, at the end of thier shift, he no longer had an issue with that word.

Anywho...back OT - its unfortunate that there are people out there who behave that way....but then again....I have my doubts.

[LoneWolf]

What the hell? It's been a while since I heard a story about people being so mean that they probably can't be human.

I don't know how the hell those people are raised, but that piece of trash is the one who should be ashamed to walk around freely in public, not the cancer patient.

I wonder if that woman will get her comeuppance sooner or later. There's bound to be someone who will be in a position to kick her butt when being talked to like that. Too bad none of us will probably be around to witness it...

[Sonoma]

I can't wait for the day when Karma smacks Bitchy Lady down. We lost my father to cancer 3 weeks ago, so there would have been no holding me back if I had been there.

[BowserKoopa1]

My hat goes off to you. I'm actually surprised no one else has said this to you, so let me be the first.... You are a very brave person to tell Bitchy Lady off, without even caring at all that you would lose your job with the economy as bad as it is and the unemployment rate getting higher every day. You definitely deserve a medal! There should be more people like you in this world.
Bitchy Lady had a lot of nerve talking to the cancer lady like that, almost as if she wanted her to drop dead right there. I am glad someone has the guts to talk back to customers that way. I've wanted to do the same thing a few times, but I got a manager who gets wind of everything, and he will has been known to fire employees over the stupidest little things, so I hold my tongue.
Again congrats for telling that customer off!

[bainsidhe]

Sonoma said the exact thing I was thinking. I mean, Bitchy Lady is reeeaaaalllyyy lucky the other customer's family wasn't there, or there would have been blood. I'm a little disappointed, though. Too bad SC didn't wait out in the parking lot like she said. I'd love to hear the story of her trying to explain her shenanigans to the cops as they hauled her off.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

What a big, big person to threaten to beat down a cancer patient. I motion we borrow Apathy's cannon and fire her into the sun.

As sad as that is, even sadder is that there are managers who would've fired the OP and bent over backwards to retain the bitchy lady as a customer.

[calulu]

Bravo! You really stepped up by defending that poor lady. Did anyone think to call the cops? I'm afraid for cancer lady once she went out into the parking lot and started to drive home. Crazies like that will follow you sometimes.

There aren't words for the sucky lady. Hope karma bites her in the ass hard soon.

Did the vapid cunt complain to management? What did they say to you?

[MystyGlyttyr]

Yeah, picking on the physically weak like that, that's one of Mysty's crazy buttons right there. The ones that make the red cloud descend and when it goes away, there's still red everywhere for some reason.

I'm sorry, I know we don't condone violence, but there's some THINGS in this world that could really, REALLY use it.

By the by, I had to delete a sentence because I didn't think it would be good. Let me just say Adverb Verb that Adjective Noun in Pronoun Adjective Adjective Noun. And for the record, The adverb, verb, and the first adjective and noun are all the same word.