I forgot to say, I don’t normally listen at a high volume anyway - I listen to my MP3 player A LOT, and I don’t want permanent hearing damage.
Really? Because I’m not an alcoholic and I’d be pissed at that kind of remark, too. It’s not their place to make that kind of remark/joke.
nevermind
For what it’s worth, it may not have been intended as either joke or criticism. Drinking when one is cooped up by foul weather is a pretty widespread activity, and many folks see nothing wrong with it. It’s not an implication of alcoholism or any other problem.
QFT.
You’re more imaginative than I am, all I want to do is lodge that promotional button in their trachea.
I have to give this the attention it deserves; I snorted out loud. 
Your library lets them back out?!
WTF???
Okay, it boggles my fucking mind that so many people don’t get how to do idle chit-chat. WTF? The main rule for chitchat interaction when it’s with someone you’re only seeing for a few minutes: unless they say something horrifically offensive (like racial slurs, specifically bashing any religion/ideology/whatever, etc) you fucking smile and nod and reply in a generic but agreeable manner.
In your example, good answers could include:
“Yeah, isn’t it good?”
“No, I haven’t. What’s it like?”
“Definitely; my friends LOVE it!”
“Yeah, a friend of mine who also loves it was telling me about another awesome one (insert whatever wine you think is good).”
It doesn’t fucking matter if you hate the shit or if you drink 8 bottles of it every week. It doesn’t matter if you hate it and say that you like it. It’s conversation that is over in a few minutes; why would you think the other person would
1- want a “teachable moment” (newsflash: people have different tastes. You aren’t the arbiter of good wines and I’m sure there are others who would snicker at your recommendations)..
2- be able to DO anything with the info you gave her? If she’s working, she can’t run out and buy the wine now and likely doesn’t have the time to even write it down because she’s WORKING (I’m sure you’d be really happy to see a cashier take time out of ringing someone up to write down a wine recommendation), even if she gives a shit in the first place.
3- Be happy that you basically told her she’s ignorant and has no taste.
I get sports chitchat all the time (ESP if a team is doing particularly bad/well, playoffs, etc.). I really don’t give a shit about sports. I don’t SAY that, even politely! It’s easy to bullshit about it, even if just with really vague statements or asking them what they think. In the end, what does that cost you?
Correct, and lets not forget that this person is tied to that register for hours and the chit chat helps them remove the drudgery of their job. Being polite is the least someone can be.
Don’t you have some social anxiety or something? Maybe that’s what Vinyl Turnip meant.
But don’t you know that a SUPER DOPER lives to fight ignorance everywhere? How else would they be able to shine their light of superiority around if they didn’t let anyone and everyone know of their impeccable taste in wine, music, movies, food, books, television, EVERYTHING!
Why, it’s a public service when you think about it!
*Everything *is a teachable moment. Everything.
In the sense that every moment is one you (generic you) can derive meaning and learning from, sure. Presuming to be able to teach others at every moment would, however, be the definition of being a condescending prick.
Bolding mine.
It boggles my mind that zweisamkeit just wrote an entire post criticizing bump for doing exactly what zweisamkeit thinks is the correct action.
Bzzt, not quite, sorry! The poster clearly has to think about what to do. If you have to ACTIVELY consider rude options every time, even if you generally go for an okay* response in the end, it’s not showing real understanding.
I still can’t get over “part of me wants to make it a teachable moment”! :: snert :: I have this mental image of grocery store cashier getting schooled in wine choices and afterwards, a star shoots overhead with THE MORE YOU KNOW
- “okay” because depending on how they said it, the general wording could still come across as disagreement or what have you.
+1
Been there - and I was a chatty cashier cause that’s how you made the hours move by with some appreciable speed. Plus, I can be a fairly chipper person, who (in small doses) enjoys chatting with people on inane subjects.
while the cashier in the OP was a bit inappropriate, I would have gone along with the joke and not given it a second thought. Maybe even up the ante a bit just to see how far she would go with the commentary. “You know - now that you mention it, maybe I should go back for that bottle of jager” hee hee hur hur.
I had one customer that would literally choose to stand behind 2 other people in my line, and turn down chances for using another line, just cause she liked chatting with me. We’re all in this world together, we might as well do our parts to make it all go smoothly.
Nope, just OCD. I’m not agoraphobic or anything like that. Yeah, I spend a lot of time online, but I don’t have any aversion to going out in public.
A friend of mine is frozen into her house with three 11 to 14 year olds and a yonger child. I’ll wager she’ll be ready to give her left tit for a bottle of brandy by tomorrow.
Is it legal to give children a small doses of benadryl just to get them to shut up for a while?
I think it is because, in general, talkers don’t get non-talkers and don’t know how to deal with them. I’m a non-talker, always have been and probably always will be. I don’t want to chit chat in the checkout lane; I just want my stuff.
When I was a cashier (Man, did that suck!), I would default to a “Hi!..Your total is $XX.YY…Here’s your change, Have a great day!” mode. If a customer wanted to chit chat and started it up, I would force a smile and make pleasantries with him to the extent I could without slowing down. If he didn’t, then he got out of the store that much faster.
That, as a non-talker, is how I think these sorts of interactions should work. That is, the customer gets to dictate what kind of experience he wants, rather than being forced into choosing between rolling with the cashier’s desire or being an asshole and telling him to shut up.