Throw Down on Aisle 5!
Joelle said in the early morning on October 19, 2007
So last night, I was standing near the checkout of a local grocery store (Ralph’s on Friars if anyone is wondering) and I only had three items. I decided to go to the self-checkout… like ya do. There was a guy standing in front of the only self-checkout station available, which was marked “15 items or less”, with a cart half-full of groceries, yapping on his cell phone.
He stood there chatting, kind of hemming and hawing. At first, he looked like he was going to move. I saw him look up at the “15 items or less” sign, acknowledge that he had more and make a move like he was going to go somewhere else, but when he turned around and saw me standing here, he turned back, like he was going to use the station, all the while still on the phone. After a minute or so of standing there. I finally said, “Are you going to use it or...?” and he replied, “Oh. Yeah.” then told his friend, with a bit of a groan and a definite tone, “Dude. I have to go, dude.”
As he hung up, I was standing there with my three items, watching as he sloooooooowly figured out how to put his phone away and turned back to his grocery-stuffed cart. So I said nicely, “Um, do you have 15 items?” Yes, I could have let him go through, but I’d been waiting for him to make up his damn mind and I only had three things! He looked down at his stuff and then looks at the sign, waffling… “Uh… yeah. Oh, is this one of those lanes?”
You knew it was one of those lanes. “Yeah, it is. I don’t mean to squabble, but...,” I said cordially but before I could finish, he grabbed all his stuff and drove his cart out of the self-check out area in a huff, muttering, ”Yeah, you do.” Which pissed me off, so I called politely and quite clearly after him, “Oh, well in that case, yes. Yes, I did!” Then I just bitched and muttered about the nerve of that guy under my breath while I scanned my three measly items.
What is wrong with people? Seriously! I can’t count the number of times I’ve let someone go ahead of me in line because I had a cart full of groceries and they only had a few. Hell, if I have 10 items and the person behind me has one, sometimes I’ll let them go through. It’s called courtesy. And if that’s not enough he had to hog up the only available self-checkout express lane in the store with his “dude"-laden phone call, then try to pull a shiesty fast one, like I don’t know how to count.
People are jerks. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his pubes.
Happy Friday. 
Moxie Design Studios™
Thank goodness I’m not so jaded yet that such stories of other people’s level of self-absorbtion still never cease to amaze me. Not just the cart full o’ stuff he had, but that he decided it was acceptable to stand there, chatting on the phone, while people were waiting.
You’re too polite (which actually isn’t a character flaw). I might have reacted more harshly.
from West Palm Beach, FL • Cocktail: Champagne Bellini
There is something that happens to people when they enter a grocery store that automatically turns them into complete a-holes. I experience it FAR less when in Georgia. In Florida? Old people wouldn’t bat an eyelash and beat me about the head and neck with their canes or crash into my ankles with their old-mobiles vs just being NICE.
May those camel fleas infest their pubes as well.
Man, why do so many people have to be such dicks?
Dude. People are lame. Dude.
Man, why do people have to be such mikeys?
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Dick: Sorry, but you’re the one who chooses goes by dick. lol. You could always go with Richard or Rick or Rich. No offense, but the word “dick” has most likely been around much longer than you’ve been on earth. Blame your parents.
And lighten up!
Dude, if you think I’m thin-skinned about being a naturally born “Dick,” try hitting on your cousin’s hot friend and Granny asks, “Have you tried the Jell-O salad, Little Dick?”
Been admiring from afar since the Guinness theme
Cocktail: Fuzzy Navel (I am such a pansy)
My Mama actually works at Wal-Mart, she has to deal with that all the time. They are required to say something to the customer about the line being for 20 items or less, but usually they don’t. My Mama had to tell a customer who was holding up a line because they had about 40 different things that the 10 people behind them with less than 10 each were in the correct line. The lady started cussing her out. That is why cashier’s never say anything, they always get attitude for enforcing a very obvious and polite rule. It was so idiotic.
from New Jersey
I woulda kicked him in the shin!! I hate men…
from San Diego, CA • Cocktail: slightly dirty Grey Goose martini
@Dick: HAHAHAHAHA! I’m sorry. HAHAHAHAHA. Man, Jello salad sucks.
Thanks for reading. I miss that Guinness skin!
@Liv: I don’t understand why people can’t just be decent. It’s sad, really.
@Jenny: Oh, there are plenty of jerky women out there, too. lol.