Gas and Dash

Today, in Val's continuing series on breaches of convenience store etiquette...

What is it with some people? They are so entitled that a convenience store springs up at a location just to serve THEM! Their own personal convenience store! "I can see a line. But lines are for thee, not for me!"

Tuesday, I filled my 44 oz cup (they're kind of fragile if you have powerful thumbs, you know) with Diet Coke, and went to stand in line behind a lady cashing in a $1 scratcher winner (amateur!), in the paying-for line on the aisle between the chicken counter and the fifths of whiskey. I think they have other spirits, but all I ever see is about 20 varieties of whiskey, none of them being Farmer H's preferred brand of Wild Turkey.

As I walked up to the $1 Lady's back, I noticed a short guy at the side of the counter, over by the door. I assumed he was checking his draw ticket. They have a machine there where you can scan them. I also saw a tall bald man standing back, between $1 Lady and Short Guy. I knew he had been there before me. He was chatting with Lady Owner, who was over by the ice cooler. It's really a pretty small store.

$1 Lady got more tickets. Paid for her coffee, stepped back, and said, "Oh, I'm afraid I took this gentleman's turn." How convenient, to acknowledge it after her transaction was complete.

Man Owner looked at me. I looked at Tall Bald Man and nodded my head. "He was here first."

"Oh, you go right ahead!"

So I did. I stepped up to the counter, and held out my winning scratcher. Short Guy was now talking to Lady Owner, while Tall Bald Man waited in line behind me. Out of the blue, as Man Owner was stapling my winning receipt to the ticket, Short Guy rushed up, tossed some bills on the counter, and said, "I had $32." Then he rushed out the door.

Man Owner said, "Oh, the diesel?" Because he also has to keep track of the pumps while ringing up people. You'd think that after a lifetime of doing this, it would come easier. But he's always uneasy, and kind of slow, and sometimes mistakey. He's a really nice guy, though.

As Short Guy was busy not letting the door hit him on the rumpus, he barked over his shoulder, "Yeah."

I guess the fact that he paid at all is something he needs to be patted on the back for, because at the Casey's today, a guy drove off, after sending his two women inside to buy something, AND they denied they were with him, and even verbally abused one of the four clerks standing around the door. I got there just as they were going out, and heard the aftermath. I'm pretty sure they got a license plate or partial, because the manager was saying, "We'll get him next time."

At this moment, $1 Lady chose to ask, ""Ma'am, do you keep this end?" It was her red tickets for the weekly gas drawing. I don't know why she was asking ME! I told her I didn't know. So she started asking Man Owner. He was methodically ringing up my purchases and taking off the winnings. "Oh, I guess he's busy now..."

A lady behind me told $1 Lady how to enter her tickets into a cardboard box. THEN $1 Lady started asking, "Excuse me, did somebody win the drawing this week?"

I swear, people these days don't know how to WAIT IN A GOSH DARN LINE!