Originally Posted by
acatalephobic
All the examples I gave are from the convenience store I've worked at for just over 4 years, and they are all 100% true...except when I said "over peanuts" I didn't literally mean peanuts, just tiny stupid nonsense things.
Even the one about innocent people being shot to death over a misunderstood glance. I knew one of them, and he was a very good man, always upbeat and kind. He was at his job, trying to keep the peace between two violent idiots and ended up paying the ultimate price. All over someone else giving some guy "the wrong kind of look". Justice has yet to be served in that case.
And as for the tire slashing, my coworker has had her car keyed and tires slashed almost 20 times last year, all over an incident where a customer threw a bottle of motor oil at her, just barely missing her head. When my coworker decided to press charges, the woman went stalker and began vandalizing her car.
To make matters worse, the whole incident started because at the time our policy was such that school age children were not allowed to shop in groups unsupervised. Only one kid could be down the aisles at a time to prevent loitering and theft.
Its funny to me, because this mother couldnt be bothered to take her children to the store in the first place, and if she had we never would have asked that they shop separately. But as soon as she heard we'd asked them to enter the back of store separately (as per policy) all of a sudden she had no problem driving immediately to the store, screaming, cursing, causing a scene, and chucking a heavy bottle of motor oil at another mother's head...and for months after causing hundreds of dollars in damage to car owned by a woman who was simply doing what her job asked her to do. It's mind-boggling to me.
I'm not saying every case is like this, obviously. Maybe its just here in the shit town I live in. Maybe I'm just jaded after seeing too many bad situations.
But I can say that, although it sounds wonderful to work in a retail environment where most are overly-polite (even if not completely genuine) its not like that everywhere or in every circumstance. It could be, and I personally think it would be great... but some people just aren't willing to play that game I guess.
I used to think that on the whole most people were good, and treated others decently unless disrespected. My Dad said that I always had my rose-coloured glasses on, and that over time I'd lose them.
And after enough years in retail, those babies are long gone and now protective goggles seem to be a more appropriate choice of eyewear...if only to hold on to the little bits of hope and idealism I still have left.