Life at The Store has been chaotic recently. It seems like there are more customers than normal, there are no lulls, there is no downtime to straighten up a check stand or to take a Not Break, where you’re able to have a chat with someone or zone out for a minute. It’s stressful because if we’re understaffed, the lines get long and people get angry and they want very much to yell at someone.
It’s often me. Big angry red faced men love to yell at me or any other person who’s handy when they don’t get their way. They want someone to suffer for the slight they have received because their retail adventure didn’t go as they fantasized.
Tonight was a good example. Our deli, (remember the Chicken Dimension, that I used to work in?) lost three employees last week and so they’re extremely short staffed. The deli shut down around 5:30 on a Sunday. No big deal, right? Loads of stuff closes early on Sundays!
Unfortunately, a gentleman that came through the line tonight didn’t share that mindset with me. When I asked him if he found everything on his list tonight, whoa nelly did I get an earful.
The ONLY reason he came to the store was the deli. It was the ONLY thing he wanted to buy. (While I am ringing up the items he’s buying for some reason, even though he ONLY wanted deli service.) There not being enough people to keep the deli open until 8pm doesn’t compute to this guy and goddamnit he was going to yell.
So he yelled. I didn’t apologize or even offer any other explanation than I had given him. I just stuck to the script and interrupted him when needed to find out if he wanted to give us his loyalty card and if he wanted a bag. It was kind of comical that he’d drop his rage for a second to answer me.
When I didn’t crumble, grovel, cry, break character, get angry and slam his groceries, I think he was more frustrated because he went and tried to SPEAK TO A MANAGER.
The manager was busy with another customer and this also made Closed Deli guy mad. He waited around for at least 120 seconds before throwing up his hands in disbelief and stomping out the door.
When I was less stable, this would have ruined my day. I probably would have cried and I probably would have taken it personally. I would have felt that man’s random rage as though he truly hated ME and not just the situation, when the reality is when people get in to a RAGE AT SOME ONE RIGHT NOW mood, they just want to yell at a human face and try to drag that person down so they feel as inconvenienced as they do.
In all seriousness a store being out of something or closing a department is a MINOR INCONVENIENCE, in the big picture. Unless we’re out of a life saving medication, its just a thing or a situation in which the person throwing the fit isn’t getting their way about life.
Now that I am more clear headed and stable in my thinking, this shit doesn’t bother me. I think about how shitty their day must be to have to come and yell at me about something I can’t change or assist them with, while ignoring the things I could do in order to make their day better or at least easier. I think about how much they must miss out on being angry and shouty all the time. I think about how badly they must feel about themselves to be going around finding someone to be shitty to.
Mostly though, I feel bad for them that this one thing “ruins,” their day.
There is definitely more to life than fried chicken and sliced deli meats, I’m just sayin'.’
Is there anything so special at the deli this guy couldn’t get it somewhere else? Talk about first-world problems…