Eh he appeared to be all of 16, I doubt he even knew what lobster cost he probably just knew it as a stereotypical rich people chow.
I got a laugh out of it.
True, he shouldn’t have made the comment, but expecting teenagers on their first jobs, special-needs adults or the sort of non-special needs adult that manages to make a career out of bag-boying, not to say strange or dumb-assed stuff isn’t a very realistic attitude either.
Had he said something racist, creepy, rapey or hostile, that’s one thin,g but just a slightly snarky comment about lobsters and never having had one isn’t such a big deal.
So you’re saying poor people are acceptable targets of insensitive or prejudiced statements and public displays of contempt where racial minorities and women are not? Just want to be sure I understood what you said.
Huh? Not following how you got that out of my last post.
We don’t excuse " racist" or “rapey” comments due to age. If a 16 year old clerk called a customer a n**** or said “I’d like to rape you, bitch” to a customer he wouldn’t get a pass for 16 and might even be fired. If a store clerk threatened to punch a customer in the teeth would a young age excuse that behavior? So… why is age an excuse to verbally shit on someone for being poor? Is the revenue generated by poor people any less money than that of any other customer?
The only reason to given such behavior/comments a pass is because you think it’s OK to diss the poor, that they aren’t worth the same consideration as everyone else.
How was his comment in any way a slam on poor people? He just said he couldn’t afford lobster. There was nothing in Grude’s account to indicate that the kid was making any kind of commentary about poor people. He may well have thought Grude was rich.
Oh, good grief! He didn’t shit on anyone for being poor, he alluded to his own lack of funds by asking to be told how lobster tastes because he couldn’t afford it himself.
And on preview, what Doug K. said!
All these people lamenting they can’t afford lobster actually CAN - they just don’t make it a priority. Seriously. Then choose to spend their discretionary funds on something else, maybe going to the movies or new clothes or something they deem more important. ANY middle-class person can afford lobster if they really want lobster, but it might mean deferring gratification on something else for a bit.
When the only luxury open to you is a food item it shouldn’t be surprising that that is what you’d buy.
Even if it’s not your only option, the clerk behind the counter should STFU and say nothing other than “Enjoy!”.
Grocery clerks of any age should not be making snark of any sort to any customer. Sorry, he doesn’t get a pass from me. That’s unacceptable behavior.
Why do you assume everyone assumes everyone else is poor?
Why do so many people assume the poor are cheats, liars, and committing fraud?
Most people don’t dress up to go to the grocery store, thus, you can’t tell the rich from the poor visually - yet so many assume they can spot the difference.
Oddly, in general I found found that the poor are more honest than the rich. The most honest to be the working poor.
They see me poor-ing, they be hating.
So I first saw this when Cory Booker did it, and it was interesting. It did show some of his dumb choices as well - but it raised awareness of how hard it is to budget on food stamps - and that is without the issue of boring food vs. the kids birthday party where you just want to do something right.
Its funny - in Boy Scouts our boys get $15 per boy for the weekend food budget. That covers Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Breakfast - and making them budget it out and check their spending is always an eye opener. I will then explain that they are STILL ahead of the curve vs. food stamps.
Bless Paltrow and Booker for making this an issue to think about. If I did the challenge, only a couple of people on Facebook would notice (and some of them are on food stamps themselves). When a big name does it, and fails, it would be nice if the reaction was “Yep, pain in the ass -ain’t it” instead of the early poster dropping the C word.
Trolllin’ they tryin’ to catch me ridin’ thrifty.
Dammit, that should have been shoppin’ thrifty.
returns street cred for full refund
Personally, I once went to the “grocery” store on a lark* as I was having a small soiree and we were down to our last 5 jars of beluga. Well! You can imagine the scandal that would have caused.
I personally was aghast at the hoi pelloi! At least half of the men there were in tuxedo* jackets, and it was certainly into evening wear. You won’t believe me but some of the men even had on striped pants brazenly going around in the evening as though morningwear was appropriate. And most of them didn’t have their collars properly starched. If it had been me, I would have given my laundress a good talking-to, you can be sure of that. (Actually, I lie. Had it been me, I would have been simply too ashamed to go out.)
The state of the women’s wear was even worse. Some women were even wearing white shoes…in APRIL! I can tell you that my monocle nearly fell out.
Shocking. Simply shocking.
*It was the butler’s night off
Right. What do you call it when someone is full of it? Lobster I mean, of course.
What? For what value of “afford” are we talking about here? You often speak about subsisting, and just barely, on food stamps and gardening. Little meat and mostly beans. Which is the real scenario???
I’m not the one buying lobster here. I’m dirt poor and if I did buy lobster for whatever reason it would seriously impact the rest of my diet. Yes, in my household it’s lots of vegetables, not much meat, and gardening. I don’t buy lobster, it’s not a wise financial decision for my household and not a priority to us.
IF there was some sort of very special occasion and IF lobster was important for that occasion yes, I probably could save up sufficient pennies over a time span to purchase as small amount of lobster. Even on my budget. It’s just not that important to me and mine. We’d rather spend our extremely limited funds on something else.
My point is that someone making, say $20,000 a year CAN afford lobster… if they make it a priority. Such a person will have to make other choices elsewhere in order to afford it, but they are still, in fact, able to purchase it without, I dunno, going into debt or foreclosure or whatever. If people can afford to drop $30/person to go see the latest movie they can afford a lobster dinner. The woman who gets a mani-pedi at a salon could choose to spend the money on lobster instead. They choose to make other things their priority, though. And that’s fine. We all need to learn how to budget, and being able to afford a small luxury is the payoff to budgeting well. Part of the problem is that people have forgotten about deferred gratification and prioritizing their wants.