Customers are people too. And people are confusing as hell.
It's not often that I get completely floored by the actions of other people, but it definitely happened last night. The first of the two actions was enough to make me irritated but the second just steamrolled me to the floor. Curious as to what they were? Then read on.
Working at Walgreens, occasionally I have to work up at the front register instead of in photo when people are on vacation or sick or such. Most times I don't mind it, but sometimes customers are just annoying. Such was the case with this black family of four last night - A mother and her three daughters. One of the three daughters came up to the register talking on her cell phone, standing about two feet back from the counter, telling me to hold on a minute. I think she was checking her messages or something because she kept hitting the same button over and over while talking to her sisters, saying something in the line of "She got the time all wrong! It's an hour later than she thought it was!" quite loudly.
Finally, she approached the counter and bought her candy. Just after I finished ringing her up her mother put some toilet paper down on the counter, so doing what any cashier would do, I started ringing her up. As soon as I heard the sound telling me that a transaction had started and that the item had been rung up, she says something along the lines of "Hey, what are you doing? I'm not ready yet!". So I void the item from the transaction and look at her in confusion, but say nothing. Then she walked away. Ok, I figure, maybe she just remembered something else she needed and didn't want to hold up the line but didn't have the manners to tell me this.
I was partially right.
She did go get more items...and then put them on the counter, leaving again to get more stuff, which she also put on the counter. That's right - she was using the counter as her own personal cart. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Who does that? All the while, customers are looking at her and wondering if it's ok to get me to check them out. I wave them up to the register and then send them on their merry way.
After about 5 minutes of this inanity, she was finally ready to check out. Just as I'm about to tell a guy that he can come on ahead, she runs in front of him and puts her last item on the counter, skipping someone who was rightfully in line before her. I see this guy's eyes roll in disgust and I can't blame him. This woman had so many things that it took me about four minutes to check her out, which at Walgreens is a pretty long time and should tell you the number of things that she had on the counter there.
Finally, after a line had formed, and after all of the coupons and explanations that no, her daughters couldn't just get the money off of the order for items that were on rebate and that's why they are called rebates and not coupons, she paid and left. I then apologized to the guy behind her that she had skipped for her actions and for the delay. Now, spoken language being the linear form of communication it is, when he said "Some people are just rude", I was about ready to agree with him. That is, until I realized that his full sentence was "Some people are just rude n*ggers".
I don't think I said another word to him for the rest of the time he was in the store. I couldn't think of anything to say to that. Who is that racist that in this day and age, they'll just say something like that to someone that they don't even know? He doesn't know me and he obviously had no clue that my best friend, who was managing the store at the time, is half black. And even if I were a racist, who does something like that? Even as a psychology major, I have no explanation for this.
I don't think we'll ever fully understand people. Some of them are just beyond help.
Working at Walgreens, occasionally I have to work up at the front register instead of in photo when people are on vacation or sick or such. Most times I don't mind it, but sometimes customers are just annoying. Such was the case with this black family of four last night - A mother and her three daughters. One of the three daughters came up to the register talking on her cell phone, standing about two feet back from the counter, telling me to hold on a minute. I think she was checking her messages or something because she kept hitting the same button over and over while talking to her sisters, saying something in the line of "She got the time all wrong! It's an hour later than she thought it was!" quite loudly.
Finally, she approached the counter and bought her candy. Just after I finished ringing her up her mother put some toilet paper down on the counter, so doing what any cashier would do, I started ringing her up. As soon as I heard the sound telling me that a transaction had started and that the item had been rung up, she says something along the lines of "Hey, what are you doing? I'm not ready yet!". So I void the item from the transaction and look at her in confusion, but say nothing. Then she walked away. Ok, I figure, maybe she just remembered something else she needed and didn't want to hold up the line but didn't have the manners to tell me this.
I was partially right.
She did go get more items...and then put them on the counter, leaving again to get more stuff, which she also put on the counter. That's right - she was using the counter as her own personal cart. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Who does that? All the while, customers are looking at her and wondering if it's ok to get me to check them out. I wave them up to the register and then send them on their merry way.
After about 5 minutes of this inanity, she was finally ready to check out. Just as I'm about to tell a guy that he can come on ahead, she runs in front of him and puts her last item on the counter, skipping someone who was rightfully in line before her. I see this guy's eyes roll in disgust and I can't blame him. This woman had so many things that it took me about four minutes to check her out, which at Walgreens is a pretty long time and should tell you the number of things that she had on the counter there.
Finally, after a line had formed, and after all of the coupons and explanations that no, her daughters couldn't just get the money off of the order for items that were on rebate and that's why they are called rebates and not coupons, she paid and left. I then apologized to the guy behind her that she had skipped for her actions and for the delay. Now, spoken language being the linear form of communication it is, when he said "Some people are just rude", I was about ready to agree with him. That is, until I realized that his full sentence was "Some people are just rude n*ggers".
I don't think I said another word to him for the rest of the time he was in the store. I couldn't think of anything to say to that. Who is that racist that in this day and age, they'll just say something like that to someone that they don't even know? He doesn't know me and he obviously had no clue that my best friend, who was managing the store at the time, is half black. And even if I were a racist, who does something like that? Even as a psychology major, I have no explanation for this.
I don't think we'll ever fully understand people. Some of them are just beyond help.