Proper dress results in discrimination

[Limescale]

Wow, second post, second uniform tale, this one told to me recently by one of our delivery guys (DG hereafter).


Setting is a store that apparently took quite the pounding during the weekend. DG walks in to a frightful mess of our displays, and during his efforts to get everything prim and proper again noon comes and goes. By the time he's done the hunger pangs are gnawing full force at his stomach, and since this particular establishment has a deli he naturally figures to grab lunch there.

Enter SC, a thin, fritzy haired young lass with a overstocked cart and an established position at the entrance to self-checkout. Our boy doesn't know how long she'd been there before he approached, but she was sighted when he went for food, and she was still there when he returned, only now with a gradually growing line behind her.

Initially she seems very much aware of her position, as once the line reaches three deep she looks up and waves everyone on.

"Oh yeah, please just go ahead of me." She warmly greets to the one behind. "I'm working out if I've got enough on my card to cover all this so I may be here for a while longer."

Pleased by such courteous efforts, the man behind does as she says. The one behind him is likewise gestured to go and complete their purchases as well. Based on this, DG believes he will thus be permitted to do the same, assuming SC doesn't finish up her calculations beforehand.

Well, as the two letters I've dubbed this woman will attest, she thinks otherwise.

"Whoah, hold on there, what are you doing?" She demands, pushing her cart over to block DG ( It was set at an angle to the SCO).

"I...just want to go check out. You said it was okay." He flubs.

"Not you, you're an employee. You have to let customers go first." SC reprimands. DG is acceptably stumped.

"I...I'm sorry ma'am, but you're mistaken. I don't work here, I'm just a vendor." He attempts to assure. Sadly this too fails to impress SG as she looks him over and shakes her head.

"You're in a uniform, that means you're still an employee for one of the businesses around here. Fact remains, you need to practice the same courtesy I am. Now please wait, I won't be much longer."

Now true to her word, she does move quite soon after that. Doubly so, another customer does come up while she speaks to use the check-outs. All in all, her arguments are sound, though the sudden shift from kind to judgmental still leaves poor DG as

Not to be one to be put off for long, however, he simply took the next opportunity to purchase his food, enjoyed his lunch, and returned to regal us with the conclusion that 'common courtesy' is now the newest addition to the list of modern day oxymorons.

[telecom_goddess]

how rude Entitled much?

[blas]

Ah yes, "common courtesy", or, in asshole terms....."I'll treat you however I feel depending on the day but don't you ever dare cross me"

[gremcint]

oh my god we found the manager from this thread: http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=93351

[MoonCat]

Her logic is faulty. Or perhaps not extended far enough. After all, very likely all or most of the customers she let go ahead of her were employees somewhere! Just because his workplace happened to be that store...which was not actually his employer...doesn't mean he should go last. Would she have told this to anyone else who happened to be wearing a nametage or uniform for some other business? Does that mean that only people in street clothes can go first?

Note to SC's everywhere: In a line, only ONE customer can be first.

[shopgirl15]

What a bitch.

[Captain Trips]

At the "you should be as courteous as I am" line, he should have pushed her cart aside and paid for his lunch. After all, that would have been the same courtesy level, wouldn't it?

[Jester]

My only regret about this story is that DG was actually a vendor for that store, and as such, was doing work in the store for the store. It would have been so sweet if he had been in uniform for his job, but merely shopping after work for his groceries, and she had treated him like this....and he had told her to go blow a goat.

"You're in a uniform, that means you're still an employee for one of the businesses around here. Fact remains, you need to practice the same courtesy I am.

I long for the day I see something like this happen, either to me or someone else, when they are off the clock and at some place other than their place of employment. Because, frankly, this is the kind of shit where I would tell this little ninny exactly how much courtesy she isn't practicing.

If the guy was an employee of the store, she might have a point. He isn't. And she clearly didn't realize what he was doing there, as she assumed he was "an employee for one of the businesses" in the area.

Fuck her. Fuck her and the shopping cart she pushed in there.

All in all, her arguments are sound...

With all due respect, no, no they're not. It is not sound to expect that an employee of Jester's Tavern and Brewery, if shopping in Limescale's Scale-a-Porium, should be forced to allow another customer to check out before them. It is, to quote Spock, illogical. He argument carries less weight than Kate Moss after a weekend cocaine binge.

...'common courtesy' is now the newest addition to the list of modern day oxymorons.

I don't know how new it is, since it seemed like an oxymoron at least 20 years ago, if not longer. Just saying.

[Draco]

If the guy was an employee of the store, she might have a point.

Frankly, this line of thought I've seen the last few days has disturbed me. I've seen it in a few threads and maybe I'm just reading this wrong but frankly it does not matter if the person is an employee or not. If they are on break or off the clock, they are a paying customer just like everyone else.

Let me put it this way: If someone stopped me from going to pay for my purchases or in some other way hindered me all because I was an employee and "we are the customer!", it wouldn't turn out good for them. My tact would, however, depend on my mood at the time!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

How did the woman identify DG as an employee of the store? Just because he's in a uniform doesn't mean he's in the store's uniform.

Unfortunately--and gremcint beat me to it--there are managers out there who think stuff like this is a good idea. Hopefully the manager of the store isn't one of them.

When you get right down to it, every shopper in the store is an employee for a business in town. If you're that self-absorbed that all "employees" must wait for you to check out first, then keep your mouth shut and don't volunteer your place in line.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Sometimes, you don't even have to BE in uniform to be identified. I've had a customer hone in on me back when I was finishing work at the supermarket and in my bike leathers. She was miffed when I gently and politely informed her that since I was off the clock and out of uniform, no, I would not walk to the frozen section and get her the stuff she'd forgotten.

I have bright red hair with two blonde streaks in front; I'm sure that the customer recognised me by that. Be that as it may, when I am not working and therefore not being paid to be helpful, I am not putting myself out for a customer. Especially since I was in the produce section at the time and there were at least five employees around who were in uniform and on the clock.

Also... sometimes, being polite is more insulting to the SC than if you'd yelled at them. XD It's doubly frustrating cuz they can't do anything about it and they know you're doing it on purpose to annoy.

[PepperElf]

At the "you should be as courteous as I am" line, he should have pushed her cart aside and paid for his lunch. After all, that would have been the same courtesy level, wouldn't it?

except he was in uniform and apparently vending with the store. so she could have gone to the manager about him.

[Jester]

Frankly, this line of thought I've seen the last few days has disturbed me. I've seen it in a few threads and maybe I'm just reading this wrong but frankly it does not matter if the person is an employee or not. If they are on break or off the clock, they are a paying customer just like everyone else.

I did say that she "might" have a point if the person was an employee of the store. Because some stores do have policies about these things.

But since the vendor wasn't, she had no point. That is what I was trying to say.

[Jay 2K Winger]

except he was in uniform and apparently vending with the store. so she could have gone to the manager about him.

And the manager would have been able to do what? DG doesn't work for him. DG works for <Vendor>, and the manager works for <Store>.

Sure, the manager could report him up the chain to <Vendor>, but as DG had finished his work and was trying to conduct a PERSONAL transaction with <Store>, that makes DG every bit a customer as the Sucktomer who rebuked him.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Fritzy haired lass is a total SC for blocking the self checkout when she is not ready to use it. And it doesn't matter who she is preventing from using the self checkout. Keeping anyone else for using it is just plain sucky, whether they work there or not.