Just check me out and shut the fuck up!

Perhaps I’m just feeling bitchy because I have a UTI and have to pee every ten minutes. Perhaps I was annoyed with myself for having to break down and go to Wal-Mart for the first time in two years (I had to go somewhere close because of the aforementioned UTI). Perhaps I’m just a little stressed with work. But it took all I had not to let the check-out guy have it.

I am the most polite person in the world to checkers. I say hello, smile, make conversation if they want to, say please and thank you, whatever. So I think I’m a little justified in my irritation.

Because of the UTI, I really needed to get some cranberry pills and some medication that’s on the market for a UTI that’s non-prescription. The last UTI I had turned into a kidney infection, which in turn sent me to the ER for a day. So I don’t take any chances. I would have gone to Target, but it’s about three miles down the road, and it was difficult to get to my CAR without having to dive for a ladies’ room, so Wal-Mart was my only real choice. (And yes, if it gets worse by this evening, I am going to the doctor to get antibiotics…)

So I picked up some cranberry pills, a packet of Uristat, and a few other items while I was there that we’ve been needing and wanting to get, but won’t need for a week or two at least - some Tylenol to keep in our home medicine cabinet, a basal thermometer to start charting ovulation, since we’re going to try for a kid soon, and two pregnancy tests on sale - since I’m on a form of bc that is continuous and doesn’t tell me if I’ve missed a period. So I do a test every so often just to be on the safe side upon recommendation of my doctor. I might as well get it while it’s on sale than go back and pay full price for it in two weeks.

So yes, this was an odd selection of items. But each of them have their place, and they aren’t all being used today. I made my way up to the express lane and put them on the belt for Mr. Checkout Man, who was around 50. He started ringing them up, and I could see the wheels working overtime in his mind. He rings up the last item, looks straight at me, and says in a rude tone “Well, that’s an interesting combination. Looks like it’s going to be fun in your house tonight!”

Ummm…whiskey tango foxtrot?

Fuck you, dude! First of all, I FEEL like shit and don’t need your comments on my purchases. Secondly, it’s none of your goddamn business what I buy! If I want to buy a fifth of whiskey and a pregnancy test at the same time, that’s my prerogative! You have no idea why I’m buying these items, and guess what? It’s none of your fucking business in the first place!

I have half a mind to go back, buy some wire coat hangers, go through his line again, and say something like “Oh, these are for that little problem I was buying the other stuff for.”.

E.

That was way over the line. Did you say in your frostiest Eve voice, “Pardon me?”

I don’t like chatting with cashiers at the best of times - like your subject says, just check me out. A polite greeting, here’s your change, have a nice day. And someday, my wish will come true and Safeway will stop making their cashiers try to call you by name. I say “try” because I don’t think a damned one has ever got mine right.

Obviously this person has no kind of life at all, considering he was so interested in yours.

What an asshole!

Did you actually say anything to him?

There’s no way I could have left that store without management knowing exactly what had happened and exactly how I felt about it. Actually, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have left the store without making the asshole cry. Unreal.

You should have said something along the lines of

“More fun than you ever will!”

Or

“Thank God you won’t be there!”

Or maybe

“Fuck off, Fucker!” :smiley:

Seriously, I’ve had checkers tell me “good Indian girls don’t smoke”, make rude comments about my purchases, etc. Stay out of my business!

Oh, hell. I should’ve channeled Eve. I knew I was forgetting something!

You know, I was just so stunned that someone would make a comment like that, and coupled with the fact that I had to pee like nownownownownow!, I was caught off-guard and just kind of mumbled “yeah, it’s been a weird week.”. WHY I said that, I have no idea.

E.

Oh, amen in spades, honey. I am so sick of my last name being mumbled and hacked to pieces by illiterate cashiers–it’s five freaking letters! It’s phonetic, fer Chris’s sake! And the ones who call me Eleanor are the worst–you are half my age–and I don’t know you! (old, creaky codger self here)–show some respect and just say M’am (I’ve given up on Miss…sigh).

I can do Kelvin temperature cold if needed–and they do get it.

Oof! that burned off most of my spleen for today–thanks!

This man is worse than Hitler.

Heh…that gives me an idea. Maybe I’ll go back tomorrow, buy a pregnancy test, prenatal vitamins, AND a pack of smokes in his line.

I’m tempted to call the manager, but on the other hand…it’s Wal-Mart. I’ve never been to one where customer service was at the top of their priority list (although this was the cleanest Wal-Mart I’ve ever been to).

E.

Oo! oo! Don’t forget the Hustler.

And, I too have a problem with the first-name thing in our society. I’m young, and I was always taught to refer to anyone more than, say, 15 years older than me, with respect. So “Mrs. Rigby”, not Eleanor.

Ah well.

I think you’re being too hard on him. The guy’s been standing behind a register dealing with assholes all day. He probably thought it’d make you laugh.

Lighten up.

Hey! You know better than that!

You forgot the beer! :smiley:

And I was perfectly polite to him. Notice I came to the Pit to bitch instead of taking it out on him? I was probably one of the most polite customers he had all day. But his comment rubbed me the wrong way, especially since he was the one taking the rude tone with me when all I’d done was say a polite hello.

Does Wal-Mart sell beer? :smiley:

E.

I am so with you on that. My last name is a difficult one, and sometimes I simply don’t want to take the time to teach the checker how to pronounce it.

I agree, the guy was waaaay out of line. Where I work, that would be grounds for firing if the customer told a manager.

eleanorigby, I had this whole spiel written out about how I call customers “Sir” or “Ma’am” and only call them by their names if I have to confirm it for a special service or program, and even then I call them by their last name unless it’s something like “Schildknecht”, or something else unpronounceable on sight. With an added comment that I can read. But then I remembered that yes, there are not-bright cashiers out there. Others are rude, or bored, or just not interested in serving the customer. Plus I’m afraid of becoming a one-trick pony. All I ask is that you treat the other, good ones with the respect and courtesy they deserve.

Added anecdote: I had some customers with the last name, “Banal.” I jokingly used their name as its meaning in a sentence, and they were impressed that a cashier would know a word like that. :sigh:

End hijack.

Oooh, instead of the smokes, buy some model glue and spray paint. And ask for extra plastic bags… :wink:

Ooh, do I ever hate this. Seriously, it doesn’t make me feel closer to your stupid store to hear my name mangled by some 19 year old cashier.

Oh I bet, I can hear it now, “Thanks for shopping at walmart Mr. Pithycannedpeanuts, er, Mr, um, Pickatchernuts, um, anyway, thanks for shopping at walmart.”

Now me, I’d go back, buy two rolls of duct tape, some large black garbage bags, a length of rope, a saw, a disposable camera, and a gallon of bleach…but that’s just me.

Heh…I’d have come back with, “Nobody ever said I was good. Mind your own damn business, asshole.”