The cashiers and baggers at grocery stores...
12 Jun 2014, 5:28 pm
annoy the s**t out of me.
I thought it was just my local grocery store but it's not. I usually stop by my nearest grocery store on my way home from the gym. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week so I stop by the store at least that many times. Sometimes I forget things or I'll have to make a special trip for one reason or another so I'm usually there most days of the week. For some reason the cashiers and baggers seem to think I owe them some sort of relationship. When I go in there I'm all business so I just get what I need and check out, usually in the self check out lane. Many of the employees there stare at me a lot and linger whenever I have to interact with them. They seem to like to chit chat with certain types of customers and I just don't want to do it. My blood sugar is usually low by the time I go there (because of exercise) and I feel aggravated. For some reason people want to talk to me the most when I'm aggravated. I keep things short and sweet and lately I've been getting a bad attitude in response. I think my frequent visits have made the staff feel like they're familiar with me and they've let formal things slide. I don't get called Sir anymore, people mumble under their breath, and I already mentioned the staring. Part of it could be the type of person hired at these types of businesses. They tend to be staffed by underachievers, many of whom are very bitter. When I go shopping it's in gym clothes but I'm not the type of person to buy workout clothes, I just use old clothes to work out in because I've always work athletic gear as street clothes. The store workers are usually very neatly dressed while come in wearing old clothes and am covered in sweat. Many people (who live in the past or are poorly educated) seem to think that power dynamics are in their favor when they are dressed up while more forward minded people think that they can wear whatever and let their money talk. The store workers sometimes speak to me as if I'm the one serving them. This annoys me to no end.
I was in Shreveport earlier this week. The Shreveport-Bossier area is an intellectual cesspool where everyone thinks they're sophisticated no matter how country they are. People there feel superior to others over any and every thing possible. If they have a penny more than you they will brag to anyone willing to listen about how they're better than you. It's also a very passive aggressive culture where people do all kinds of f****d up things under the guise of being hospitable. They know exactly what their doing too. When they hear my accent and realize that I'm not one of them the BS comes to an immediate halt. I went to the store to buy groceries for my grandmother who is coming down with dementia. She told me not to buy something then demanded that I buy it after I got back from the store. So I went back and the people at the front of the store who had seen me a half hour earlier had smirks on their faces as if I'd made a colossal mistake. I wanted to curse them out but I remembered that they live in Shreveport and that was punishment enough.
12 Jun 2014, 5:52 pm
The verbal output from most of the cashiers at my local supermarket is generally:
1. "Are y'awright?" (=Hello)
2. "£8.75 please" (or whatever)
3. "See you later!" (=goodbye).
I have no problem with this. The few who annoy me are the ones who address me as "pal" or "mate". I don't find this level of familiarity appropriate.
It's even worse when a tradesman, who comes to my house to do a job, uses the same form of address, as most of them invariably do. These people are supposedly self-employed professionals, but their attitude is anything but professional. The quality of workmanship, by builders, plumbers, roofers etc. here in the UK is also often abysmal, and many of these people are losing business to better-educated and better-qualified immigrants from Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe. Not before time!
