# Shopping rant **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 14, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173 "2013-08-14T01:06:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/81 "2013-08-15T19:43:46Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > I hate when the clerk at the Family Video has to comment on what I’ve chosen to rent. Even though he’s always saying I made a good choice or whatever, I don’t want to hear it. I worry that one day I’ll make my first bad choice and have to hear him tell me about that. Any and all porn IS a good choice. No need to worry your pretty little head over it. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/82 "2013-08-15T19:43:58Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Attribute your quotations. That was Robert Heinlein, _Time Enough For Love_. (Lazarus to Ira, IIRC) Actually, Heinlein attributed it to a concatenation of statements by Lincoln, Douglass and Tubman, each of whom said a slight variation of the sentiment. I think there was a Roman in there somewhere, too, but I’d have to dig out the file to check. But yes, I was using RAH’s formulation, just as we all tend to use JFK’s form of “Ask not…” (also not original with him). > [@](#): > > And as long as we’re quoting the master… So… you were his slave? 🙂 Never mind. That usage always makes me chuckle. As for the additional quotes, nothing I’ve said is about politeness, even the formulaic and rote politeness between customer and grocery checker. Perhaps you mean using my first name without invitation or anything like familiarity; I in fact find that damned rude. Or delaying me to try and get me to upscale my membership, contribute to a cause I don’t agree with or insist I have to participate in some card/coin/points/savings program when I’ve already indicated no interest. Is that the “politeness” to which you refer? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/83 "2013-08-15T19:49:49Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Credibility is earned, not given… I’m only seeing if you can give enough credence to my words to listen to any further explanation. So far, your practice has been to throw shit at me and then call me names for not answering. Check the record. I’ll wait. > [@](#): > > …and I posted first so you’re the stalker. You’ve pulled your little dick-waving challenge shit in a dozen threads so far. I typically don’t address your posts at all. Do the math. > [@](#): > > Are we done being pissy? Any time you want to put your pisser away, I’ll be glad. You don’t strike me as being one of the morons here, but I['d be interested to see if you can rise past snarking naysayer. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/84 "2013-08-15T22:10:52Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Any and all porn IS a good choice. No need to worry your pretty little head over it. I haven’t had to rent porn since 97, thanks to the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/85 "2013-08-15T23:55:59Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > You can’t free slaves. They can only free themselves. > > Again, much of the above stupidity deals with the kind of customer service that _requires_ significant interaction. My comments and objections, and those of us here who aren’t posting juvenile yuks, are when essentially passive storebots like checkers insist on “engaging” customers with directed and programmed chit-chat, or when floorwalkers interrupt your shopping to try and upsell you something else. > > But by all means, carry on with the stupidity. It’s entertaining as hell. And you have no idea how… _useful_ it is. I’m guessing that our good friend **Amateur Barbarian** ends up [here](http://notalwaysright.com/) a lot. You are exactly the type of people who make customer service the shitty jobs that they are. “storebots” indeed, douchebag. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/86 "2013-08-16T04:31:43Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > It’s not a matter of “having things the way we want them,” exactly or otherwise. It’s a matter of not being personally and psychologically abused by a seller because he/she/it thinks that prodding and bothering and “making buddies of” us is good for their bottom line. You consider normal social interaction abuse? 😕 Please. Get help. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/87 "2013-08-16T04:59:15Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I’m only seeing if you can give enough credence to my words to listen to any further explanation. So far, your practice has been to throw shit at me and then call me names for not answering. Check the record. I’ll wait. Then don’t post for my benefit. Post for the peanut gallery. If your conclusions follow from your premises, my inability to accept them will put me in a bad light. But withholding explanations because people aren’t suitably deferential? Not exactly persuasive and rather immature. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/88 "2013-08-16T08:27:35Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > You consider normal social interaction abuse? 😕 > > Please. Get help. This is exactly my thought. I saw this nonsense spewed by him/her before and just ignored it because this person really does seem to be mentally ill. A normal person with a correctly functioning brain doesn’t consider simple societal interactions to be abuse. So honestly, without a single tract of snark **Amateur Barbarian** , please consider speaking to a doctor about this stuff because something is wrong in your head. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/89 "2013-08-16T09:14:17Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > I hate when the clerk at the Family Video has to comment on what I’ve chosen to rent. Even though he’s always saying I made a good choice or whatever, I don’t want to hear it. I worry that one day I’ll make my first bad choice and have to hear him tell me about that. You have a video rental store where you live? ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/90 "2013-08-16T21:59:19Z")
> [@Tequila\_Party](#): > > Where on earth do you shop that a cashier has the time to ask you in _three_ separate questions how you are? Because I’m no spring chicken, but no one has ever done that to me, nor have I ever heard it done to anyone else. Those must be some _really_ OCD clerks. King Sooper’s and Fred Meyer (interestingly they’re both owned by Kroger). My WAG is that they are just tired, and don’t remember that they’ve already asked me that, or something. I dunno. But I find it more perplexing than assaulting (wow… assault? wow). And I amuse myself by finding different ways to get around them. If I’m ever in a situation where the poor thing doesn’t have 15 customers behind me, I’ll try and figure out why they MUST know how I am. 😃 (JFTR I have my own personal, relatively normal human-type reasons for hating this question, I do NOT think I’m being abused when someone asks it) ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2013, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/91 "2013-08-17T02:57:00Z")
You do know that simply echoing back the question is acceptable? They say “how are you,” you say “How do you do,” and then you can get on with your business. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/92 "2013-08-19T15:32:14Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > You do know that simply echoing back the question is acceptable? They say “how are you,” you say “How do you do,” and then you can get on with your business. Which is exactly what I do, as I said earlier in the thread. And then the clerk, after hearing “and how do you do” from me (in answer to their first “how are you”), goes on to ask “how are you?” again! And if I answer another non-committal answer, they ask it a third time. That’s why I brought it up, as others in the thread have stated, this is not a common occurrence, this insistence on knowing how someone is! It seems to be a bizarre time/clerk continuum that only happens to me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/93 "2013-08-19T16:34:46Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Ah yes, de-humanizing others to justify your disdain and bad manners. I’m surprised you’d use the dehumanizing term “others” - they’re “team members” and “associates”. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173/94 "2013-08-19T21:03:36Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > You have a video rental store where you live? Family Video is actually doing quite well, despite most other places (_cough_ Blockbuster) going down the tubes. > [@](#): > > We [Family Video] are the largest movie and game rental chain in the United States. We operate more than 775 Family Video stores in 19 U.S. states and Canada; we’re opening more all the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shopping-rant/666173.md?page=4)