# When (and why) the fuck did checking out at a store become such a goddamned stupid ordeal. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 4, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803 "2013-04-04T04:07:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![drew870mitchell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drew870mitchell/32/3946_2.png) [@drew870mitchell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drew870mitchell)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/101 "2013-04-04T19:18:31Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Well maybe he doesn’t, but I’ve had to. It’s one petty indignity among at least a guaranteed few in every day. So I comply, since I’m not Michael Douglas in Falling Down. No, you haven’t had to. Store security barking “ **Slithy Tove** , your papers!” at you doesn’t have any legal weight. And it’s nothing like D-FENS shooting up a Whammy Burger because he doesn’t like how big his burger is. Just because **pkbites** was an asshole in pretty much every word of the OP doesn’t mean he’s wrong about this. edit: BTW, **pkbites** , 9/10, would watch you drive the Pit into a tizzy again. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/102 "2013-04-04T19:28:09Z")
I had a guy from KMart follow me into the parking lot once, accusing me of shoplifting. “Sir, do you have some unfinished business with KMart? Sir?” He was trying to follow me to my car and write my tag number down. I told him that was bullshit, let’s go back into the store and I’ll prove I’m not concealing any merchandise. Nope, company policy against searching customers. I told him there wasn’t going to be any searching, all I was wearing was shorts and tee shirt, and he was about to see everything I was packing. Nope, didn’t have anyplace to do that. So I told him I was calling the cops since some weirdo was harassing me in the parking lot, but he wasn’t getting my license tag number. The cops could search me and arrest him. He finally went back in the store without my tag number. ---
**Author:** ![Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cabin_fever_1/32/2908_2.png) [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/103 "2013-04-04T19:55:18Z")
This is the Pit so here goes… Didn’t read all the responses - but to the OP: You fucking heathen. You are not capable of just walking into any retail establishment and politely saying “No. Thanks anyway.” Walk to check-out counter with your one item in-hand? Wait a minute before the transaction before you is finalized? Paying for it then leaving on your way? Oops, guess not. Then you may need some remedial training in some aspects of life. You were distracted enough to take the time to post your “unpleasant” experiences to people who don’t fucking care. Want some advice? Get over it. Ever work retail below management-grade? No? Not even as a kid? Yes, I get all of your points that you mentioned. BIG.FCKNG.DEAL. Anyway. PK - enjoyed your venting, understand it, just not tonight. Besides, I got to use some cuss words unavailable for me to use online until now. As an addendum - Fix-a-flat sucks. Go ask the TireGuy about that. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2013, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/104 "2013-04-04T20:17:22Z")
I remember we had to push this one charity, and being told if we refused, that we would be “fired for insubordination”. I’m not kidding. They’d schedule just enough people to barely get through the day, leaving most of the registers closed, so if someone called off, you were screwed. People would naturally take it out on us. We’d have to wait until the end of the day to take our lunches, meaning I’d be working say, nine-hours, and take my lunch after seven. Despite that technically, that violated labor laws. If you needed a price check, you’d have to call several times, because again, every department was short-staffed. It would have been quicker to check for ourselves, but we weren’t allowed to do that. :rolleyes: I liked working the self-checkouts (when I was there, you had to have one person at a main terminal to help with any issues, deactivate theft-tags, price checks, and make sure their total were correct) I didn’t know they took them out. Probably because people liked them and they were convenient – can’t have that! And people wonder why I quit that hell hole. I’m surprised the one where I worked is still open – that place was a fucking mess. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/105 "2013-04-04T20:24:20Z")
I hate all this shit too, the difference between me and a jerk like the OP is that I don’t get angry with the unfortunate souls who have to deal with people like him all day while making close to minimum wage. I’ve made my living for the past 2 years in corporate service jobs. I refuse to do most of the sales techniques/badgering I am trained and expected to do; I’m a rebel like that. But I’m childless, irresponsible, live in an urban area with shitloads of opportunities, and I have lots of experience and a good resume. I don’t worry much about my ability to pick up another, similar job in short order if I am fired for it. Many, many people don’t have that luxuries I do. They are just trying to do their job as expected so they and their families can survive. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/106 "2013-04-04T21:13:19Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I regret this already, but fuck it… > > I don’t think “niggercunt” really works in this case, because ‘nigger’ hasn’t really changed in language the way ‘fag’ has. Like it or not, kids are using ‘fag’ in a way that has zero to do with being gay. Just, zero. Kids who are gay or who support gay rights or who would kick another kid’s ass for putting down gay people, will use fag. I’m not defending it…I’m just saying what I have noticed while observing slang. > > Nigger just hasn’t been used that way yet. Not that I have a problem with the word ‘nigger’. I don’t. But I can see how it is different. If I join a board where the kids hang out and they call me a ‘newfag’, I know they aren’t calling me gay, and I know that they don’t have anything against gay people (at least, not that can determined by their use of that word). But if they call me a newnigger, I will guess they may be racist, just because ‘nigger’ hasn’t evolved in the way that ‘faggot’ has with kids these days. > > And again, I know that ‘nigger/nigga’ has seen its own evolution, but it took a very different path than ‘fag’ did. I’m a gamer, and I work in the game industry, so I usually have a fairly thick skin about the whole “gay/fag” thing in youth culture, but this post is really bugging me. I mean, what you’re saying here is that the majority population has taken a slur against a persecuted minority, and so thoroughly mainstreamed it that people use it as a generic pejorative, without any conscious reference to the persecuted minority, and that makes it okay to keep using those terms? That’s actually kind of fucking horrible. And while I’ll cut kids a lot of slack on this, because kids tend to be idiots by nature, the OP is a grown-ass man, and ought to know better. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/107 "2013-04-04T21:20:59Z")
> [@deltasigma](#): > > Isn’t kmart owned by sears now? That might explain a lot. Sears was at $80/share in early 2012 and now its barely holding at $50 so it stands to reason that they’re pulling out all of the stops to try wring out every ounce of revenue that they can. What they don’t realize of course is how counterproductive that can often be. Other way around, Kmart bought out Sears, then turned their corporate name to Sears and moved their HQ from Kmart’s Troy, MI location to Sears’s in Chicago. Anyway, yeah all the stuff EVERY DAMN STORE does at the register now is annoying as a paper cut on your naughty bits, but at least in the case of Kmart, I’ve actually saved probably a hunnerd dollars or more thanks to Kmart points. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/108 "2013-04-04T21:39:19Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > But the point of the poster you were responding to is not that they shouldn’t have taken the job, but that if part of your orders is to annoy people into doing things they don’t want to do, it’s a violation of everything we know about human nature to not expect and be prepared for some pushback. > > Not that it justifies extreme abuse, and you’re right that the poor are much more likely to be in such a job, but I’m kind of inclined to agree with the previous poster who said it’s much like reacting to telemarketers. Granted, telemarketers are intruding on a personal space, but I think that’s a factor in increased ire, not the sole source to begin with. > > And yes, I’ve worked retail. Not a lot, and not long, admittedly, but it’s there. It’s one thing to be annoyed at the lines a worker drone is required to spout, it’s another thing entirely heaping personal insults or verballing torturing someone just because they’re a big box employee or a telemarketer. For the former “not interested” and just walk away should suffice. For telemarketers just hang up. No need to use slurs based upon appearance, gender, sexual preference, race/ethinicity, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/109 "2013-04-04T21:45:20Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > And if you do you’ll start breaking femurs. I have found more effective means of dealing with trouble than physical violence. And I’ll just leave it at that. And I had _nothing_ to do with Kevin Ware’s little incident. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/110 "2013-04-04T21:47:49Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > What’s funny to me is that I am guessing that this lost time that caused him such tremendous aggravation probably amounted to an extra two minutes at most, which pales in both he amount of anger he carried over from it and the amount of time he used to write this up. That’s why its called recreational outrage. I really doubt he’s in the least truly upset - just was annoyed at the time. And entertained himself via this rant. And probably thought he’d entertain us as well. Which is what the rest of us are doing - I doubt anyone is outraged by his OP in proportion to the time its taken to read this thread and post a reply. We are entertaining ourselves. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/111 "2013-04-04T21:51:24Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I’m a gamer, and I work in the game industry, so I usually have a fairly thick skin about the whole “gay/fag” thing in youth culture, but this post is really bugging me. I mean, what you’re saying here is that the majority population has taken a slur against a persecuted minority, and so thoroughly mainstreamed it that people use it as a generic pejorative, without any conscious reference to the persecuted minority, and that makes it okay to keep using those terms? That’s actually kind of fucking horrible. > > And while I’ll cut kids a lot of slack on this, because kids tend to be idiots by nature, the OP is a grown-ass man, and ought to know better. I don’t think the kids are idiots. Most times, they aren’t using the word in a truly negative way. If I call you an androidfag, I’m not really even saying anything bad about you. Anyway, I wasn’t defending the OP. I should have been clear. I have never heard the word ‘punkfaggot’ before. I was responding to a specific post that seemed to misunderstand that someone could call someone a ‘fag’ without it having anything to do with a ‘persecuted minority’. As a ‘persecuted minority’ about thrice times over, I usually can tell if someone is throwing a slur, and I just don’t think most of those kids are at all. I was really just commenting on how the slang works. I can’t tell gay people how to feel about it, since I’m not gay. But I can comment on how the slang works since that is one of those useless things that I actually know a little about. And I maintain that the kids today have changed the word. Whether we like it or not. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/112 "2013-04-04T22:26:37Z")
I am skeptical of the claim that modern youth are post-homophobia. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/113 "2013-04-04T22:47:21Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > For the former “not interested” and just walk away should suffice. Doesn’t a lot of upselling (and indeed, the incident the OP refers to) take place at the cash register? (Although if more people would just walk away from a purchase at that point because of this, maybe executives would take more notice…) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/114 "2013-04-04T22:53:21Z")
What a bunch of shitroosters. I mean, a whole metric ton of cocklamps. Ass taxis. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/115 "2013-04-04T23:02:53Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > And while I’ll cut kids a lot of slack on this, because kids tend to be idiots by nature, the OP is a **grown-ass man** , and ought to know better. As a dual minority I take great offense at that. Being both grown and having an ass has been one hell of a social stigma for me and millions of others to overcome in these so called “enlightened” times. Yeah, its all fun and games for all those one percenters without asses or that are not yet grown but for the rest of us its just one fucking bad day after another. You grown? You gotta an ass? Suck it up they say. Deal and move on. Act like you are grown and got an ass!! Hearing that shit gets old after awhile let me tell you! FTR mature-posterior man is the politically correct term, if one MUST insist on such labels. And for that matter, just noting a person’s sex in the first place should be right out IMO as well. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/116 "2013-04-05T00:02:03Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > I changed the valve 3 weeks ago myself and it’s still going flat slowly. You knew about this for 3 weeks and didn’t do jack shit until it was completely flat?:smack: Jerkwanker or cocksnuggler? Probably cocksnuggler. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/117 "2013-04-05T00:06:21Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > What a bunch of shitroosters. I mean, a whole metric ton of cocklamps. Ass taxis. hee! this whole thread is a mature-posterior fun ride! ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/118 "2013-04-05T00:08:41Z")
**pkbites** , I laughed at you calling Kmart “fucKMart.” ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/119 "2013-04-05T00:11:02Z")
Damn it. I should have checked Urban Dictionary first. Cocksnuggler is there and it means pretty much what you would think. Please disregard. I suck at making up words. ---
**Author:** ![LouLou7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@LouLou7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouLou7)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803/120 "2013-04-05T00:29:57Z")
> [@JackieLikesVariety](#): > > hee! this whole thread is a mature-posterior fun ride! Twatwaffle!!! Snatchflaps!!! Hee! This is fun. Oh, yeah, and kmart sucks too! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-and-why-the-fuck-did-checking-out-at-a-store-become-such-a-goddamned-stupid-ordeal/654803.md?page=7)