I must say that after years of working in the customer service industry, I give a lot of leeway to those in the "line of battle". I even pride myself on being one of those customers that goes out of my way to make things easier. So, when I run into someone that is so obvious in their contempt of my utter existence I find myself being rather unsympathetic.....
As is customary in our home, on the first of the month we make a b-line to Trader Joe's to stock up. I love Trader Joe's, but the place is always packed, so I have to plan my visit at just the right time. We headed over after 6:00 pm hoping it would be on the slow side.... Since we had depleted our house of all food, we had quite a full cart. The place was busy but not slammed. I wheeled my cart over to the checkout and Craig headed over to the GNC a few doors down. When I looked up at the checker, he seemed annoyed that I was in his line. Now, I know that I had alot of items in my cart, but what is the difference between ringing up my very large purchase and ringing up many small purchases? Each item still needs to be scanned, each item still needs to be bagged.
As if his apparent annoyance wasn't enough communication, he decided to verbalize his frustration to me as well. "Wow, I guess I won't have to ask you if you found everything that you needed...." I felt the other people in line stare at me and then watched them as they headed to other lines. Now it was just me and Mr. Sensitivity. Every time someone would enter the stand, he would say "You're better off going to another line, this could take a while." Now, I was getting embarrassed and mad. But somehow, I found myself apologizing for making my HUMONGOUS purchase. "Yeah, we haven't been to the store lately with all the holiday festivities...." He responded first with silence and then with a heavy sigh. I then tried the empathetic approach. " I bet you guys are glad that the holidays are over, it such a madhouse in here around Christmas and New Years." To which he responds, " I haven't really noticed the difference, it feels just as busy to me"(long stare in my direction). It was at this point that I decided to stand my ground. By way of his body language, he was hoping that I would take pity on him and start assisting with the bagging of my groceries. I just let the counter get deeper and deeper with all my purchases, rummaged in my purse for chapstick, picked lint off of my shirt and finally leaned my elbow on the check writing counter carefully cupping my chin in my hand as he very indelicately bagged my groceries. It was about this time that Craig had returned and remarked that he thought I would be done checking out. "Yeah, me too...." I replied and then shot a very large grin toward the direction of Mr. Sensitivity. Was my sarcasm lost on him? I guess I will never know...
After he was done bagging I handed him the cash, $121.06 which included a hundred dollar bill. Again, another sigh as he held up the bill to the light to check its authenticity. Finally, he handed me the receipt and we were on are way..... "Happy New Year" I cheerfully said as I headed toward the door. I think we were both happy to be done with each other. Just as we left the store, I heard the next customer in line respond to his hello with, "I hate that you guys always stop carrying the things that I buy. I have half a mind to stop shopping here....." I didn't get to hear the rest of her tirade, but I felt a little satisfaction in knowing that my BIG purchase was looking pretty good after all.....
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