Monday, December 5, 2022

I Don't Mind Waiting, But I DO Mind Being Ignored

Sunday afternoon, I stopped by the Liquor Store for scratchers. Only two cars were in the parking lot, if you don't count the line at the drive-thru window. They have their own cashier, so they don't concern me unless the line is blocking the entrance to the parking lot.

Nobody was waiting at the counter when I stepped inside. The clerk was doing something at the register. I know she knew I was there. They have a freakin' COWBELL on the door. So it clangs when people go in or out. I waited patiently for her to finish whatever she was doing.

Hmm. What WAS she doing? At first I thought she was putting a roll of coins in the register. I heard the tinkle of coinage. Perhaps there had been a shift change. I waited.

A woman came in, cowbell clanging, and stood behind me at the counter. A couple minutes passed. Still no greeting or go eff yourself from the cashier. We might as well have been invisible. ANOTHER woman came in, and went to the soda fountain. The cashier from the drive-thru register passed through, to fetch a soda for a car-bound customer. Still nothing from our clerk.

If it wasn't such a big deal for me to limp my way into the store, and shuffle down the blacktop ramp when leaving, I would have taken my $11 elsewhere! But it was easier to wait than huff out in a fit of pique.

FINALLY, with three of us in line, the clerk stepped out from behind her duck-blind-like wall of assorted last-minute-purchase trinkets. Still no greeting.

I told her what I wanted, shoved the money across the counter, and left with my precious scratchers. Which yielded not a single winner.

Would it have killed that clerk to say, "I'll be with you in a minute." Or "Just let me finish up my register." 

Probably not. Good thing LOOKS can't kill...

6 comments:

  1. People are becoming very rude these days. You should have made a scene.

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    1. Unless they downright insult me personally, I won't be making a scene. Because THEY have to work, while I flit about the countryside doing as I darn well please.

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  2. A kind word goes a long way. And it costs nothing! Maybe she was having a bad day, but she should have left it in her car when she came to work!

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    1. Any acknowledgement would have been fine. Even a finger held up like "Just a minute."

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  3. A few months ago I had the same from my local supermarket front desk people. We can buy a newspaper from there without having to go into the store and there were two women chatting with one leafing idly through a manual of some sort. Both looked my way but neither said anything nor came over. I took my newspaper into the store and out through the self serve checkout! Heads would roll if that happened at the store I used to work at.

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    Replies
    1. Few people seem willing to do a job right these days.

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