Would you like to know the fastest way to drive a mother who is already having a crappy day straight over the edge? Be a checkout clerk at the grocery store she has been going to for the past 7 years and make her feel like a horrible mother for letting her kids have those stupid “Paid” stickers they keep at the register. And then if you’re really feeling cruel (and/or stupid depending on how you look at it) make the kids feel bad about it too.
My children have been taking those stickers ever since they started carrying them. I don’t even notice it anymore it’s been so long. They only take one per kid, so it’s just not a big deal. But today, this woman saw them each take one, came around the counter and snatched them out of my kids’ hands with a rueful look in my direction and said, “I’m sorry, but these are all I have left so could you please control your children?” Seriously. Seriously?!?!?
And I was so completely taken off guard that I didn’t take her to task for it. And I should have. I should have had her call her manager over and put into perspective for each of them that they were just stickers for fuck’s sake and how they go about treating their loyal customers. Not to mention how wrong it is to snatch things out of children’s hands.
Instead I walked out of the store with tears in my eyes. Because not two minutes before all of this a really nice woman had let me cut in front of her in line. Because she could see I was at my wit’s end and just needed someone to give me a break. So I was all full of warm fuzzies from her kindness and then this stupid bitch of a check out woman not only snatched stickers from my children, but snatched that warm fuzzy from me too.
So now? Now I’d really like to drive back there and give her a piece of my mind. But instead I’ll just bash her here. She was mean. And not pretty. And she had stinky breath.
2 comments:
She WAS a bitch. And you should go back and complain. Like I tried to once. And then the stupid manager very condescendingly directed me to the counter where the brochures hung. 'Scuse me, moron, but I've got FOUR CHILDREN in tow, and writing out my complaint really isn't feasible at this moment. Stupid checker people. I've been going to my local grocery store for 10 years, and they're so grouchy. Even when I was bald from fucking CHEMOTHERAPY, they pretended they didn't know me. Do you think there's a support group for people who are bitter and angry at grocery store employees? 'Cause I'm signing up. Then we can all fall off the wagon and storm the store with loud exclamation about how their rudeness has made us and our children feel angry and lonely in a world where we already feel like strangers. And you're right, she was a bitch. Next time, you'll show her.
Every time I go to the grocery store now I find myself looking for her. Daring her to do something so I can say then what I didn't say that day. Probably not entirely healthy to carry that around, but she was seriously a bitch, so I'm ok with it. :)
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