randomly chaotic and frequently mundane

The nasty customer that I posted about in this post has been dubbed SkunkLady by my co-workers.? Not so hard to figure out why… her hair is black with white roots.? I’m talking 6-8 INCH long white roots!? As you can see from that post, which was my first encounter with the raging cunt, she’s not a pleasant individual.? She treats all of the female cashiers the way she treated me that day.? On top of that, this creepy woman (who’s in her 60’s at the very least), hits on the 20-21 year old guys at the store.? Are you kidding me???? That’s just repulsive.? She’s harassed, insulted down right offended almost every female cashier in the store (regularly harasses one on the basis of her weight and even called another a n****r!)… she ALSO harasses customers sometimes!? WHY IS THIS WOMAN STILL ALLOWED TO SHOP IN THE STORE?????? Seriously.? If I were the manager, I would have banned her a long time ago.? She has no right to create a hostile work environment for people, she has no right to harass people.? There’s no reason for her to be rude.? And quite frankly, some of her comments to the young males is flat out sexual harassment.

Most recently, yesterday in fact, she was in.? She turned to myself and Jenn and said “What, you were getting too many people coming in when the guys were working?? The fantastic employees.” (only 1 of her favorite boys was working at the time).? I laughed at her.? So she said “Laugh all you want, but the guys are 100 times better than any of you females!”? To which I responded “Says the creepy lady who hits on 20 year old boys”? As she was leaving the store, she turned and yelled “You fucks!” at me and Jenn.? Bitch.? Oh no you didn’t.? I followed her out of the store and demanded to know what she called me.? She didn’t respond.? That’s right lady, you go and run away from the people who’ll stand up to you.

This is why I’ve started bringing my video camera to work.? Fuck you bitch.? You claim that the store is under investigation and that plainclothes policemen are documenting everything we say.? Wow, they must have caught all the theives, rapists and murderers if the police have the time to waste on your petty bullshit.? Well, she IS under investigation.? That’s? right, I said it.? I’m investigating your ass lady.? I’m documenting your behavior in the store.? That way when someone finally flips their shit and unloads a stream of obscenities in your direction, one that you very rightly deserve, I can prove that we’ve been provoked… repeatedly.? It’s been over a year since my first encounter with this nasty individual.? She should have been banned a dozen times over.? Another of our stores (owned by the same family) has already banned her.? What is the fucking delay?

and it’s not even the full moon.? People were in rare stupidity today.? I’m explaining simple things? — things along the lines of “push the button that says…” and they’re looking at me like “huh?”? Seriously?? Am I fucking speaking English?? I just wanna make sure I didn’t wake up speaking Swahili this morning or something.? Or maybe daydreaming about Hot Russian Guy has made me spontaneously learn the language and it’s Russian I’m speaking.? Who the fuck knows.? All I know is that these morons were looking at me like I was speaking in tongues and growing a third head when I said “Push the button that says ‘finish and pay’”? That’s it.? Finish and pay.? Simple words.? Simple concept.? But no, we can’t do that all by ourselves.? We’ve left our brains in our other pants today.? Andrew knows what I’m talking about.? And a bunch of other people from work, too.? It’s disturbing to think? that these people are allowed out in public unsupervised.

Here’s hoping tomorrow is a little better — if this stupidity trend continues, I may just have to strangle a customer or two.? Put a little fear of cashier in the customers, ya know?? Maybe they’d be a little nicer.

Speaking of being nice, or not nice as the case may be… I let a customer know today that if she was purchasing at least $25 in groceries, she could get an 18-pack of eggs for cheaper than the dozen that she was taking off the shelf.? No “thank you,” no “oh, I didn’t know that,” no what I got was “I don’t need you to tell me what I should buy.”? Honey, buy whatever you wanna buy.? But when 12 eggs cost $2.39 and 18 eggs costs $1.49, it doesn’t take a genious to realize that you’re getting the better deal on the 18 pack.? But fuck… it’s your money, if you wanna waste it… feel free.

A co-worker and I were chatting, discussing, comparing and we both agree.? Of all the customers from all the different countries (America included) who come into our store, the Russian customers are the nicest.? Personally I’ve found them to be polite, patient, courteous, etc.? We even had one customer, who is Russian, who purchased a money order for one amount but received a money order for 10x the amount she requested.? I’ll be the first to admit that if I had no ties to the store… I’d probably have had a hard time returning that money order to get one in the correct denomination.? This customer, however, did bring it back.? Eastern Europeans are also extremely nice.? Pretty much all of the customers from outside the US are very nice to the employees and other customers.? It’s the American customers who aren’t.? They’re the ones who try to rip us off, who treat us like we’re there for them to walk on.? They treat the employees at the grocery store as if we are so far beneath them that we are not entitled to the simple courtesies that our mothers took such pride in teaching us when we were children.? Whatever happened to a thank you?? Now I’m not saying that all Americans are like that, but I’ve noticed that the customers who walk around and act as if every employee in the store owes them something, or who decides that because they want something for a lower price… or to get a refund on something that they ate in its entirety… or anything else like that… well we should just bend over and take the loss because they deserve it.

What is it with this sense of entitlement that Americans are developing?? This whole “the world owes me” attitude?? No wonder people hate Americans.? As I said, not everyone has it, but so many people who come into my store on a day to day basis do.? There are days I just fuckin hate people.

I’ve said it before… I’ll say it again.? Randall (from Clerks) said it best when he said “This job would be great if it weren’t for the fuckin customers.”

people can be so f-ing rude, you know that?? I mean, seriously.? There’s no reason to be rude to the people at the grocery store, particularly the people who work there.? I just don’t understand the need.? Really.? A little smile, a please or thank you.? Yeah, it’s my job to ring up and bag your crap, but it is not in my job description to take your crap.? Don’t tell me to put it all in one bag, then bitch that I packed it too heavy and get snarky with me.? You’re the moron who asked me to put it all in one bag.? If it’s too heavy, YOU re-bag it, ya dumb shit.? Don’t act like I’ve done something wrong when I did what you asked me to do.? I’m not the idiot who asked for several jars, cans and a half gallon of milk to be bagged together.? I don’t even do that for myself.? But if you ask for it, you get it,

You know what else?? Don’t ask me to pack 2 items inside a paper bag that’s in a plastic bag.? Seriously.? Are you trying to do your best to destroy the planet?? I’m not wasting bags on your dumb ass.? If you want it packed that light, you don’t need double bags — there’s no point.? It’s not like the bottom is going to drop out because there’s an orange and bag of carrots in the frakkin bag.? That shit just pisses me off.

How special you must think you are.? After making your ridiculous demands, you just stand there and watch me bag.? Even better, you throw in comments like “put this in a bag with that.”? Are your arms? broken?? What happened to the concept of “helping?”? Did you forget that little lesson that momma taught you?

? Randall is my hero — “This job would be great if it weren’t for the f-ing customers.”

So we’ve been through snowmageddon… or snowpocalypse, whichever name you like.? It was frakkin insane at the grocery store.? Seriously.? Non stop and everyone was so freaked out that I was sure that people were going to come to blows.? I saw people cutting in front of other people at the self check out, people shoving people aside to get to the milk and bread.? It was nuts.? Why does all sense and reason escape people when the weatherman predicts snow???? Seriously, do they think they’re going to be stuck for the rest of the winter?? They DO plow, people.? 12-18 inches is nothing.? In 96 we got damn near 3 feet, but you could drive to the store 24 hours after the snow stopped.? When I was in Virginia in the early 80’s we got so much snow one storm the front door was blocked.? Seriously, the front door was fucking BLOCKED by the snow.? Guess what… a few days later, we were able to drive around.? It’s a MIRACLE.? We have the technology to plow, so drop your attitude, grab the essentials and get the hell out of the store.? There is no need to stockpile a months worth of groceries for a snowstorm.? And what is it with all the bread, eggs and milk??? Who NEEDS eggs everyday?? Milk, I get.? If you have children, or use it in your coffee or whatever.? Bread, ok but do you really need 5 or 6 loaves?? Isn’t 1 loaf enough for a day or two?

seriously.? Don’t believe me?? Take a job working with the general public.? Not a specific group of people, like the folks who frequent bookstores or? certain clothing stores.? Somewhere that people of all different types visit.? Young folks, old folks, men, women,? kids, working people, retired people… you’ll find that there’s rudeness from everyone.? Maybe it’s not rudeness, per se.? Maybe it’s the idea that somehow they’re more important than anyone else in the place.? Maybe that’s what the problem is.? My register shut down today.? Dunno why, but it just shut the fuck down.? I was in the middle of an order and there were a few people in line behind that person.? So the person I was ringing up got taken to another register to have her purchase re-rung completely, the others were directed to another register where I logged in to ring them up.? There were mutterings.? Comments like “well I’m never coming here again.”? Really?? Well don’t let the door hit ya on the ass on your way out.? Strike that, PLEASE let the door hit ya on the ass on your way out.? And feel free to make good on that promise.? Of course, the people who make statements like that made the same statement last week when they had to wait five minutes in line.? And the week before THAT, we ran out of something they wanted, so they said they’d never come back.? They always come back.? They can’t help it.? And they think that we don’t remember that last week they were never coming back to this store.? Seriously, where’s your conviction?? Grow a pair and make good on your promises.? Then you can tell the people at the next store you go to that you’re “never coming back” for awhile.

so apparently I got a mystery shopper at work the other day.? I was asked about the customer.? I remember him.? I was perfect except that he said I didn’t check the bottom of the cart.? Um, yeah I did.? In fact, because he refused to push the cart to a position to where I could easily see the bottom of the cart, I was standing on the shelf under the register to look over the conveyor belt at the bottom of the cart.? Which is when he pulled the item that he had intentionally left on the bottom of the cart out and put it on the belt as well.? This is one of the reasons that half the customers irritate the shit out of me.