I must wear "eau'de Psycho"

[Kusanagi]

Okay:

I have no problem with alot of what PETA does. They have raised treatment standards for alot of the animal-for-food industry, and the way they protest against the unethical treatment of bears and fur animals in other countries is good.

The ones that shout out meat is murder, want to stop ALL animal testing, don't want people to own pets, throw blood, etc; those are the ones I have problems with.

Guess what type walked into my showroom today while I had a dozen people in the store?

Busy as hell today, finally got a break to sit down and type this. By myself, haven't eaten, spending time correcting the mistakes of other associates since I'm the senior person in the district, again...

So, I'm busy as hell and in walks this psycho woman with a PETA hat on. She heads right down to the leather area of the showroom as I'm helping someone and I hear very loud shouting. I head down and she's shouting to three customers looking at leather that leather is murder, that they butcher helpless animals for our corporate greed, etc. One customer (a good sale too, damn) walks out instantly, the other two are trying to hide their smiles and the rest flock over to see what's going on.

CL: Crazy Lady
Me: Self Explanitory

Me: What seems to be the problem?
CL: Leather is murder! Do you know what they do to those poor creatures?
Me: Yeah, I do, actually.
CL: Only an evil corporation would subject the tortures that they have! Do you know that alot of hides are harvested when the animal is still alive?
Me: Yes, they do it with raccoons in foriegn countries. But just so you know, all of our leather is a byproduct of the meat industry. We don't raise cattle for slaughter.
CL: So you're related to those godless heathens?
Me: You need to leave, now. You're causing a disruption in the store and I'll call the police to remove you.
CL: You can't do that! It's within my rights to protest here!
Me: Lady, I know that SUV's pollute the atmosphere but I don't walk into the Hummer dealer down the street and protest because I'm not that stupid! You really think anyone in here that's looking at leather is going to go "Oh my god, leather comes from COWS?" like they don't know?
CL: Do you know what those animals go through?
Me: Yes. I've been to a slaughterhouse, I have seen exactly how they go from the cow to the steak I love to eat. I already said we don't raise cows for slaughter for leather, so what's the problem?
CL: You're an enabler! You're a murderer!
Me: Look, the cow's already dead, would you prefer they just throw the hide away?

Boy, did that line make her mad. She started rabbling on again, angry red face, etc. I looked down and commented:

Me: Is that belt leather?
CL: NO! It's a fake leather.
Me: Do you own any leather shoes?
CL: No, I don't own any leather, I only use fake leather products! I'm not a murdereeeer!
Me: So you just perpetuate the image and pretend to be a murderer without actually being a murderer. Thanks for clearing that up. I'm going to call the police now.

She left when I actually connected with the officer stating that she would be back.

Anyone get any crazies in their store that protest things (legitimate or not) that just make you laugh your ass off?

[blas]

Remember the first Clerks movie, the anti smoking Nazi in the beginning? While no one ever raised a huge fuss about cigarettes, there were people behind smokers in line (to pay for gas or get a lotto ticket) that would comment, "Who the hell wants to die from lung cancer?" or some other ignorant babble.

The funniest and most ironic ones were the golden oldie lotto addict customers who would stick their nose up at smokers, say something like, "Damn addicts", then proceed to spend their entire social security check on scratch offs.

Or the well known welfare customers who would stare at those golden oldie lotto addict customers and snort, "What a waste of tax dollars.........the state gives them money to gamble!" *snort snort*, then they'd look at me, hoping I'd agree......I never did reply, but I always wanted to say, "What a waste of tax dollars. People like me go to work every day so you can have your carton of Camels and 30 pack of Hamms. Amazing."

[Rapscallion]

Considering I was a butcher for a decade, oddly enough no. That said, I was in a relatively small shop, so not really a prime target.

Back in my more callow days, when I was green in youth, I did have the amusement factor of a lady screaming about how she was a vegetarian and couldn't bear even the sight of meat. She stayed on the veg side all the time, but went to extreme lengths to make sure she didn't see any meat by using hands as blinkers (the sort used on horses). She made sure everyone knew she wasn't going to be able to see it.

It did mean she couldn't see me flipping her the bird...

As I said, I was more immature in those days.

Rapscallion

[SuperB]

CL: You can't do that! It's within my rights to protest here!

Uh, got news for her. It is most definitely NOT within her rights to affect, disrupt or otherwise block any business. It IS within the stores right to have such nuisances arrested.

[shelly2jn]

Umm...I'm a veggie....but live and let live. Just cause I choose not to eat meat doesn't mean that I have the right to dictate to anyone else how they live their lives.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Not quite on the same scale, but a couple years ago, there was a book about a certain presidential candidate that got a lot of press and interest, and tons of people coming in asking for it. The publisher did not, by a long shot, print enough copies, so pretty much from day 1 we were sold out, with no definitive answers on when we'd get more. People would rant and rave about how we were censoring the book and BN was trying to push a political agenda and blah blah. We went so far as to post a copy of a news article at customer service about the reason for the shortage and the fact that it was the PUBLISHER'S fault just so we could hand it to the people who didn't want to believe that BN doesn't censor books. Hey, we want to SELL the damn things. We WANT your money! Ironically, a lot of them didn't go threatening to go to Amazon or wherever, cuz they didn't have it either! The ones that did just made us laugh. There was another book that had a similar furor from the same publisher that we couldn't get in for the longest time too. In both cases we had tons of orders and they'd trickle in 1 or 2 at a time. You'd think the publisher would learn but I'm sure they haven't...

[SongsOfDragons]

I once made a raving man calm down by asking him to slow down and repeat what he was saying more slowly. Turns out he was (as well as maybe a little off his meds?) quoting lines from the Qu'ran I initially thought was actually poetry. When I mentioned such he had a big smile on his face, like that was the last thing he thought someone would say Warm fuzzies.

And what already been mentioned...*stretches hands*...well I do get rather tactless with people like these two. With anti-abortionists I mention anti-spazz pills and potential anencephaly...and with PETA muppets I just stroll past mentioning how bloody nice that horse was I had in France...heh heh heh.

And I'm sure they're not allowed to protest in stores, don't they have special laws dealing with security on these places?

[BookstoreEscapee]

And I'm sure they're not allowed to protest in stores, don't they have special laws dealing with security on these places?

Freedom of assembly may apply to public spaces, but last I checked, stores are still private property and the owner has every right to tell/force you to leave. If you are arranging a protest, in some cases you still need a permit.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Me: You need to leave, now. You're causing a disruption in the store and I'll call the police to remove you.
CL: You can't do that! It's within my rights to protest here!

No, it isn't. Freedom of asembly applies only to public property.

Kusanagi presumably works for a private company and a private store which can kick out anybody they like for any reason.

[Shironu-Akaineko]

DOM - THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT DEMANDS THAT YOU STOP USING THESE BAGS IMMEDIATELY! THEY KILL AMERICAN BABIES!

Yes, because when kids tries to put them on their heads and I take them off, mothers will pop a small hole in the bag and give it back to the daugther! (True story on my first day to work)

SO STOP USING THESE BAGS! THEY HELP CLEAN UP THE GENE POOL!

[Ciarrai]

DOM - THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT DEMANDS THAT YOU STOP USING THESE BAGS IMMEDIATELY! THEY KILL AMERICAN BABIES!

Are Americans the only one affected by this? Does that mean that Canadian babies, Mexican babies or Irish babies have superhuman breathing powers and therefore are immune to the horrors of a plastic Target bag?

[derangedperson]

Christ, ANOTHER ONE? Well, you DO live in California...

And if you want to see PETA knocked off their tower, watch the episode of Bullshit! that Penn and Teller did on 'em. It's sobering and hilarious.

[GayleShy]

As a member of PETA I just want to say that we are not all like that by any stretch. People like that aren't trying to do anything except draw attention to themselves and certainly are not helping animals any. It gives people who really want to help a bad name and it's why most animal rights groups are not taken seriously. So I hope that lady's proud of herself.

I bet the customer who left when down the street and bought the biggest, greasiest triple Whopper with extra cheese and a large milk shake.

[hecubus]

All I can say is, if God didn't want us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat.

[Rapscallion]

I see forum drift of continental proportions, folks. Let's not go out offending members who happen to be sane members of rights movements. That's for fratching.com. Keep it to the customers who don't understand how the law or sanity works, thanks.

Rapscallion