Mark your calendars, people! Val stood up for herself in a convenience store line! Kinda...
I stepped up to the counter of the Gas Station Chicken Store on Saturday afternoon. Handed my $60-winning scratcher to my favorite clerk. A lady had motioned me ahead of her, saying that her husband was pumping gas, and she was waiting to pay when they knew how much. No pay-at-the-pump here!
Anyhoo... I stepped up. A dude was carrying his soda up the fountain aisle. So there were the three of us customers, secure in our order, waiting to complete our transactions. The Clerk was scanning my ticket, and printing the win slip for her register, when PUSHY came in the door.
PUSHY stood at the end of the counter, right by the register, and said:
"I just want to get $20 on pump seven."
The Clerk glanced up at her. Said to go ahead. She turned to flip something on the box that controls the gas pumps.
"Huh. Let's just call it what it is. If I came in like that, I'd at least have the guts to say, 'I just want to cut in line. Give me $20 on pump seven.' Seriously. That's exactly what she was doing. Cutting in line. Don't get me wrong. I'm not in a hurry. I know it makes things run faster to turn it on. I'm not mad at you. It's just that she needs to call it what it is. NOT say she just wants to get her gas turned on. There are three people ahead of her."
"Oh. Sorry about that."
"No. I don't care that you did it. It's HER who has a lot of nerve to cut in like that. And to pretend she just wants her gas started. It's line-cutting!"
"Yeah. You're right."
"So just say it already! 'I'M CUTTING LINE TO GET MY GAS AHEAD OF ALL OF YOU!' Don't pretend. Again. I'm not mad at all. Only calling it what it is."
The Clerk wasn't at all discombobulated. She kept stapling my win slip to my ticket, and then pulled the new ones I asked for. We have a good working relationship. I didn't turn to see what the other two customers thought of me showing my rumpus.
I WAS kind of shocked they didn't cheer and hoist me up on their shoulders. Maybe if I had actually given my little speech in front of PUSHY herself! Then again, I didn't want her to open up a can of whoop-rumpus on me...
Good for you, but how is that gaslighting?
ReplyDeleteFrom PUSHY announcing that she "just wanted $20 on pump seven," wanting us to believe it wasn't line-cutting.
DeleteLike it's perfectly normal for people to push ahead of others, and we'd be crazy to think she was not taking her turn per the unwritten rules of society.
Courtesy, just common courtesy. I would have taken it a step further and asked her if she thought she was more important than the rest of you. She apparently thinks she is!
ReplyDeleteYour mouth writes checks your rumpus can cash! I am a yellow-bellied chicken!
DeleteI'm never sure what gaslighting means...I sort of do but not positive. I have only recently realized that "organically" just means "naturally" I always liked "naturally." That song "Alone again Organically" just would not seem the same. Also never sure these days if I am binary or non-binary? I used to just be a dude. Times are not as easy as they used to be.
ReplyDeleteIt's just somebody trying to make you think you're crazy, and that what you believe is happening is not really happening. Watch that black-and-white 1944 movie "Gaslight." It's pretty good.
DeleteAs for your confusion on being a dude, I suggest listening to the Brad Paisley song, "I'm Still a Guy."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-urVmgbjETQ
It's no "Alone Again, Organically." But still a decent song. My favorite lyric is "creamy lotiony hands that can't grip a tacklebox."
Is it really cutting in line when all the cashier has to do is flip a switch while still attending to the current customer? You still got served, the customers waiting still got served and the lady wanting gas was able to get it without waiting behind three customers just to have a cashier flip a switch. Of course then she still has to come in and pay for it, unless she handed over the twenty as she asked for the gas.
ReplyDeleteYes. It IS cutting in line. Otherwise, they would have a sign saying "Ask for your gas to be turned on here," and let everybody buying gas have priority. Why SHOULDN'T the gas-buyer have to wait her turn? Are you saying the gas-buyer is privileged, and shouldn't have to wait in line? If she's in a hurry, she should go somewhere that allows her to pay at the pump.
DeleteImagine, if you will, a Twilight Zone where anybody wanting gas could walk in and demand the clerk's immediate attention, mid-transaction with other customers, no matter whether it was one or twenty customers in line. There are 8 gas pumps. So 8 people might walk in one after the other, demanding to have their gas turned on. Imagine that in a larger convenience store.
Yes. I still got served. But what if the clerk had set down my winners, and had to look around for them. Or if I had to repeat the tickets I was buying, because she had forgotten while distracted. That slows down the line for everybody. EXCEPT the line-cutter.
We won't even get started on those people who come in and shove a twenty over the counter and say, "I JUST want to pay for my gas," after they've pumped it. Which is also line-cutting.
I have said to a person like that--1) the line is behind us. or 2) we are ahead of you. 3) no, you have to wait on us to get waited on. I might say all three. However, with all the crazies out there, that might get you shot. But, I would not take it without objecting and looking straight at the cashier's face. If a cashier says it will just take a minute, I would say--so will mine.
ReplyDeleteI really like this cashier, and I'm surprised she turned on the gas. It might be because we banter when I'm in there every day, and I'm always telling her I'm never in a hurry, and it's okay if she's filling the ice in the soda fountain, or writing up a slip to correct a cash register error.
DeleteThe other cashier I see the rest of the week would not have done it. She flat-out tells people "You'll have to wait until I'm done with these people in line." I saw her tell one guy three times, when he kept going out and coming back in.
You are braver than I! I'm a mealy-mouthed, sarcastic confronter who doesn't like to draw attention to myself. If I was in a store I don't frequent, and had one of those unfriendly cashiers, I might have called them out on taking someone else ahead of me. The cashiers usually won't whip a customer's rumpus...
I see your reply to PP, where you say you always tell that cashier you're never in a hurry, perhaps that's why she thought it would be okay to just flip that switch. She didn't think you'd mind.
ReplyDeleteI really didn't mind that the clerk flipped the switch. I've been a clerk before, and try to make things easier for them. So I'm sure that was part of her decision, knowing I have patience with things she needs to do.
DeleteIt's the audacity of PUSHY that irritated me, expecting to go ahead of three other people, no matter how little time she assumes her request will take.