With That Kind of Behavior I'm Afraid I'm Going to Have to Blog You

What ever happened to common courtesy? Let me backtrack for a moment...I ran out of my L'Oreal Wrinkle De-Crease (night) bone fide miracle cream a couple of weeks ago. I made the trip to Walmart at that time to replace it only to find it out of stock. So I bought L'Oreal Advanced RevitaLift (night) instead and it did wicked awful things to my face (i.e. break out in little wannabe zits that never fully materialize but jack up your fresh, polished look nonetheless). I stopped using it around last Sunday and my face has since ended its complete wigging. Back to yesterday...Walmart had it in stock and I chose to pay for it in the gardening department because there's never anyone in there and since that is where they keep mass quantities of their Christmas decor (you'll be happy to know that they are prepared to sell one plastic Santa to every family in my valley; there are that many. Walmart, for all your plastic Santa needs because nothing says Merry Christmas like a lawn full of plastic ornaments), so I figured it'd be a'iiight if I bought my obvious non-gardening essential in that department.

While I stood there, corralling my Girl-Child and Boy-Child#2 from touching all the shiny things, there was a woman purchasing a plant with a mystery price tag. There were clearly no others like it and, subsequently, no reference for its cost. The dear sweet elderly male cashier finally chose a magic number, she agreed to it; problem solved, which was a relief because she was starting to get rather impatient. It was at this point that the second register opened and the new cashier waved the woman in front of me over. Except that there was another female customer in line in front of the woman ahead of me (confused yet?). But the woman who was next after plant lady told her to g'head since she was already next and the plant dilemma solved. So the lady ahead of me moves over to the available checkout and I follow her because I'm a sheep. This is when the cashier, the sweet elderly man, closed his register. After what happened next, I'm sure that it was something he regretted immediately. This woman unleashed her acid tongue on this little old man (who's probably working at Walmart to begin with because his social security isn't something he can actually live on, OR, because of what retirement can do to the male psyche...I've read the studies).

She scolded and chided him in a "how dare you" tone with her volume turned up to MAX. Specks of spittle flew! The phrases "have you no decency" and "I don't care if you're on overtime", and "it's the principle of the thing", and "that's not fair!"...and what was that? Why, did she just stomp her foot? Well turn me upside down and paint me blue, she did! She's having an absolute tantrum! To the man's credit, his face remained stoic. He didn't acknowledge her drama; he just rang her up and sent her on her self-entitled way. It was one of those moments, however, that I wished I had the wherewithal to say "Look. Is it really necessary to speak to him like that?". But after eying her purchase of several large cans of sweet potatoes, I feared she might hurl one or more in my direction considering her disposition, and I wasn't really prepared to take one in the face for the team.

I understand her frustration. Really I do. But I just don't believe that customer service industry folks deserve such a public de-pantsing. Humiliating someone because you're inconvenienced doesn't solve anything. It just makes you a bitch.