This was so righteous!

The BBQ Pit
1

I actually got to tell off someone who was behaving poorly at Babies R Us!

The store was fairly crowded, as it tends to be on a Saturday morning. I get mildly annoyed at all the shiny happy faces (I’m not expecting, mine are 1/5 + 4) that aren’t paying attention to their huge families in attendance as they make their choices for their registries. I remember doing this with glee, albeit without the huge gathering that now, I guess, accompanies it.

I get my things for a shower coming up and head to the register. That process goes suprisingly smooth as I have loads of coupons. The cashier actually did it right! So far, so good, as far as I’m concerned.

I decide that maybe I’ll wrap the gifts at the station since the paper’s free and lets the receipient know that I chose from their registry. The station is an 8’ x 3’ long table with 3 long rolls of wrap underneath. The paper cutters on the wrap suck, they always have, but “hey, it’s free paper” I think. I approach the station where there is one woman struggling to wrap her box. I come closer and nicely say “how, 'bout we share?”, while putting my 18" item on the table with lots of room to spare. I also notice another woman wrapping her items on a nearby empty register stand. She told me NO! “Huh?” “NO! I’ve been waiting a long time and ramble, ramble, bitch, bitch”. “Okay, well, I’m gonna wrap here and I’m sorry you’ve had a hard time”. Snarkily of course. She wouldn’t shut up. Finally I said “hey lady, you’re a bitch. you needn’t make this unpleasant for everybody. it’s an 8 foot table and others are waiting. geez, I hope you have a nice day”. She continued to moan and when she finally finished (after a good ten minutes, when-what? nobody else was supposed to use the table?) I wished her a nice day and told her that her box looked like hell. Oh, I forgot, I “screwed up her tape” by losing it on the roll and having to pick it off.

I had absolutely no fear, knew for certain that she wouldn’t push me. I’m really small (5’2", 125) and she surely could’a kicked my ass. I guess she knew she deserved it.

Sometimes I just don’t know when to keep my mouth shut, but when clearly mid/upper class people are just so shitty, they need to be called on it.

GOD IT FELT GREAT! I highly recommend it to anyone who can pull it off without retaliating violence!

2

Space hogs are awful. It’s not like you bodychecked her while asking to share. Sounds like that table was plenty big enough. She just sounds like a big spoiled brat who wanted the playground all to herself.

And I have to let out an evil laugh at this:

Mwhahahaha!

3

Hehe, well done. One thing of your OP confused me; what does the age 1/5 + 4 mean? I am assuming you have 2 kids? One is 4? I don’t know what age 1/5 would be though. Or do yo have 3 kids? 1, 5 and 4?

4

I love that you’re posting to this thread. :slight_smile:

5

I read that as One Fifth, or about 2-3 months old.

**RSSchen **: Glad you stood up to the bully. You realize she is telling stories about the horrible person she ran into today at the store? :smiley:

Jim

6

I previewed that OP no less than three times and still fucked it up. :smack:
My kids are 1.5 and 4. Sorry. I laughed at the 1/5.

If she went home and bitched about me (which I’m sure she did, wouldn’t you?) I just hope she repeated it all verbatim. Prob’ly told her hub that she called ME a bitch. Just for the spin, you know.

7

And here I thought every income level should strive for courtesy.

8

Ah, got me. I guess I shouldn’t have made that reference. Shame on me for assuming that a woman laden in jewels and Gucci sunglasses should have been considerate. In fact, in retrospect, that should’a been the tipper.

9

Well, if nobody else will say it, I will. The OP behaved much worse than the woman she’s complaining about, and her triumphant feeling is inappropriate. She horned in on someone else’s station, asked-told her she was going to share, then proceeded to be snide and insulting. I hope next time will consider that other people are people and to treat them with the same respect you expect. I also hope you will find something in your life you can be proud of other than being a complete jerk to total strangers.

10

While the pride in doing so is lost on me-why would you be so proud of being a bitch?-I understand why the OP did what she did, and have done it many times before. Just without running around the ring after the match saying “Look at me, I out-bitched a bigger bitch!”

Sam

11

Makes me not regret my choice to do most of my shopping online. Free wrapping paper just ain’t worth it.

12

No, shame on you for making a prejudiced statement in your OP. If the other woman was being a bitch, her income level had nothing to do with it, and your mentioning it reflects more on you than it does on her.

13

Exactly. I’ll hesitate to use the wrapping station lest some entitlement-minded lady comes invading my space, calling me names, and criticizing my wrapping job.

14

And thus the decline of politeness in society continues.

It’s never a good idea to return rudeness with rudeness – not even if it makes you feel better at the time. Why? Because, if you return rudeness with rudeness then your rudeness is the last one spoken. People watching this exchange went home saying, “Wow. I saw two rude women today.” And they were right.

The other problem with returning rudeness with rudeness is that it gives the original rude person justification for their rudeness. Imagine if the OP had returned the woman’s rudeness with politeness:

OP: “May I share your counter?”
Rude Woman: “No! I waited in line for this counter and it’s mine! Back off.”
OP: “Sorry to have bothered you. I thought it looked like there was room for two.”

Then the woman, who might have just been having a bad day, might have felt bad about her sharpness. She might even have apologized herself: “I’m sorry. Sure there’s room for two. Wrapping this package is kicking my butt and it’s making me testy.” Instead, when the OP responded with rudeness it gave the woman justification for being nasty – “There,” she probably thought, “She is a bitch! I’m glad I didn’t let her share my counter!”

And even if a polite response hadn’t turned away the woman’s wrath, at least the OP would have the satisfaction of not adding to the general rudeness. And observers would have gone home saying, “Wow, I saw a really rude woman today. The woman she smarted off to was really polite, though. I hope if I’m ever in a situation like that, I’m able to respond to it so gracefully.”

15

They should. They don’t.

I think I understand the OP’s meaning. There is a certain class of people who wants to “act rich”, which they think means posturing to display their disposable income and treating working class people like garbage. They do this most frequently in places where the merchandise/service is expensive. (I’ve often wondered if they feel intimidated and over-compensate to try to show they belong.)

The worse offenders seem to be from working-class backgrounds themselves. I’ve witnessed it many times (and been horribly embarassed by it-- like when co-workers lord themselves over waitresses.)

I get my revenge on those types of people by being exaggeratedly polite and saccharine sweet. It seems to drive them apeshit.

16

I give this post 1.3 Burning Dogs.

17

Bullshit. When you see someone who is clearly impugning on public domain, forcing others to accomodate her selfish notion that an 8’ table in a store is only hers to utilize while others are waiting I’d like to see you patiently respond when you’ve politely asked to share and been denied. There were 3 rolls of paper, 3 tape rolls and 3 pair of scissors.

This woman snarled at me, totally unnecessarily when I initially asked quite nicely if we could share since the area was large enough for at least two people to work at. She must’ve been having a bad day, I told her that I was sorry she was having a rough time but other’s were waiting.

The woman was a bitch and deserved to be called on it. If it were me, in a similar situation, my typical response would be “oh, I’m sorry” and pull my stuff off to the side. I apologize to people if my shopping cart is in their way. Her response was “NO!”.

Maybe I could’a been a bit more tolerant, but sheesh, she could have just turned her head to see that a line was forming behind her and she was using all the facilities intended for more than one person.

And, FTR, the other ladies around who were waiting praised me, basically saying “yee haw”. The Rude Woman had apparently been rude to others as well as me.

So…please share with me your real life situations where you’ve been so magnanimous as to let people tromp on you and everyone around you, if you care to do so.

18

Yeah, you’re a real hero for cussing at some stressed out woman in the Babys R Us. I see an Onion headline in that. :rolleyes:

19

Just curious, do you consider Babies R Us an upper class store?
I would consider it firmly classless.
I don’t think I buy the explanation that you are giving above in terms of Babies R Us. If it was a Boutique or maybe even Macy’s I would agree with you. But Babies R Us serves a full economic range from my experience.

Jim

20

I’m a little late, but I’ll say it too. I’m middle class, if it matters.