Begin rant…

What is happening to our world? Why has a simple trip to the grocery store become an opportunity to educate my children as how NOT to act when they grow up? I am continually SHOCKED at how common it has become for members of general society to act like total and complete ingrates in public. I am not sharing this opinion in vain. Oh, no. I have an example. Oh, yes. A real doozy. Allow me a moment to further explain:

So there I was, grocery shopping at Safeway with my daughter, Avery, in the frozen foods aisle trying to explain the merits of choosing real vanilla bean ice cream over its counterpart French vanilla, when I overhear what sounds to be an extremely angry woman in the refrigerated aisle next to us. Not one to impose or shamelessly eavesdrop I throw the ice cream in my cart and move quickly one aisle over while Avery struggles to keep up with me. Hey! I needed butter people! While I am mulling over salted or unsalted butter (salted, of course) I soon find myself in the company of someone I would discover to be one of the meanest people I have ever met. This woman, and I use that term loosely, is standing in front of the yogurt demanding to know from the young stock boy stacking GoGurts what happened to the sale price on her favorite kind. “Just two weeks ago I saw this in the sale ad for almost half that price!I’mnot paying this price! I won’t!” she demands, loudly, bordering on hysterics. The kid had been trying, unsuccessfully, to explain to the woman that he had no authority over the pricing and she would need to speak to a manager. She was letting him know, in no uncertain terms, that she would NOT stand there and get the run around. That she had been shopping at Safeway for years and years and wasn’t about to begin getting treated with disrespect by some kid. Now, mind you, this kid was probably 16 years old judging by his congested skin and oversized elbows. And the poor thing looked terrified which led me to believe that this was perhaps not his first encounter with Queen Bi-atch. I looked down at Avery who looked terrified as well and I quickly asked God to bless this woman’s poor grandchildren, if she has any. So, anyone who knows me knows that I really don’t have a problem stepping into something if the situation requires it and I was planning on doing just that until the young man wisely tells the woman that he will go find a manager and then quickly scurries away before she has a chance to complain. At this point I have been studying butter for a ridiculously extended amount of time and decided I had already given this woman too much of my attention. I sent the woman a look that would have frozen a forest fire and off we went to conclude our shopping while I was mentally scripting the speech I was going to give to Avery about what’s wrong with some people. We finish up and go to check out when lo and behold, who would be in front of us? You got it! Queen Bi-atch herself! Apparently Mr. Manager decided to mark down her yogurt, I imagine just to shut her up. And you know what? She was STILL angry and proceeded to b*tch through the entire check-out process while subjecting her fellow line neighbors to the longest check-writing experience of our lives’, collectively.

Now, I get that we can’t possibly understand what is going on in someone’s life that has influenced them to be a certain way. But I do strongly believe in common decency. As far as I am concerned there is absolutely nothing worth getting that angry over at a grocery store. There is no reason to treat anybody with such disrespect and rudeness. I should not have to spend the entire drive home explaining someone’s stupid and rude behavior to my child while harboring a secret fear that she would have symbiotically picked up this poor excuse for a human’s bad traits! Where’s the love, people? I mean, is yogurt really that important?!? I think not!

End rant…

Love to all (in a quest for peace and decency), Mindy