I Don't Get it

So here's the thing: I work in retail. I have for my entire adult life. I actually enjoy it. Really. Obviously, there have been times when I have hated retail but that was mostly during my previous job. Let's be honest on that one, it was rarely the customers or the job that got me down, it was the corporate offices and the management of the store that made me miserable. I have a job now that I enjoy and the company is great as is the manager. But what I don't get is why people think its okay to walk into a store and be an asshole.

I can count on one hand how many times I've had to be a bitch in a retail moment. Once, the girl at McDonald's couldn't get my debit card to work and told me it was declined for insufficient funds. That one worried me for a moment until she tried a second card and had the same results. I not so very nicely told her it wasn't the cards that were insufficient it was her. Another time, I bought a book at a store that was going out of business. I very nicely asked the cashier not to put a mark on one item out of the three because I was giving it to my husband. She wasn't very nice in her response which was something to the effect of, "I have to, dumbass. Do you want it or not?" (Dumbass was obviously implied in tone and not actually said aloud.) I replied that I did and paid for it. When she was finished putting a black line through the UPC, I stepped to the side, licked my thumb and wiped the offending black mark off in her face.

I'm sure the people watching me thought I was the bitch in the situation. And maybe my attitude was uncalled for but I have been on the receiving end of good customers and bad customers for long enough to know when a request of mine is out of line. Here's the thing, when you go out in public treat the people who are there to help you with a little common courtesy.  We don't have to be best friends but at least say please and thank you and keep that comment you think is going to cut me to the quick to yourself. I don't make policy, I don't set prices, and I am not the help. I don't care what happened to you before you came into my store. All I know is that I didn't do it.

There's no solution obviously. People will be assholes for any reason they choose. Its life. As long as I work in retail, I will have to deal with it. Some days I may be able to laugh it off and others days it'll make my blood boil. I could wish that everyone would have to work retail for a year of their life. Maybe then, they might have an understanding of the pure shit retail staff have to go through. (A Christmas season and slow down would have to be mandatory to understand the crush of the holidays and the fight for hours just to have some money.) Maybe if everyone did that, there would be less jerks but I doubt it. People will still be assholes if it suits them. But still, I just don't get it.