What really grinds your gears?

[Lace Neil Singer]

I'm lucky in that most of our regulars are nice people, but there are a few who get on our nerves.

Firstly, there's Bagman. He carries several carrier bags all the time, no matter what time of the day it is and he's a staunch Labour supporter. How do I know this? Well, he's always wearing various stickers and badges that proclaim his left wing tendences. Bagman's annoying in that he'll come into the petrol station kiosk just before we close, spend at least ten minutes just staring into space, before finally buying one Wispa. He buys the same thing every time, but has to spend ten minutes staring into space before picking it up. Sometimes he comes back after we've closed and stares thru the window at us. This is unnerving and creepy but if we ignore him, he goes away.

Second, Mr Lastminuter. He shows up about fifteen minutes to close and fills his huge van up to the brim. He did use to come at five to, but I started closing a couple of minutes early to stop him and eventually he learned after being shut out a few times. It's still annoying when he comes tho, as he cleans his van of rubbish and chucks it all on the ground by the pump, ignoring the bin.

Finally, we have Strangewoman. Strangewoman is, well, strange. She gives off an aura that suggests she strangles kittens in her spare time and always turns up at a time where we're totally slammed and have a queue going out the door. Strangewoman will always, without fail, try to jump the queue. She will be told no, and then go to the back of the queue. It's as tho she has a memory that exists only in the present, cuz the next time she comes in she will attempt to queue jump again. Strangewoman only ever buys a pack of red Pallmall when she comes in, and she comes in several times a week.

[Zellie Crescent]

Coworkers especially newbies (I swear to god this place is a revolving door of new hires) that think we can do stuff for them that we can't/won't do for customers, 1 of them (I found out later it was her first day here from being transferred) was raising a fuss because I didn't crab legs in the microwave for her. I have clear instructions from my boss that since we only have a microwave instead of an actual steamer we are only alowed to put the raw shrimp and tank lobsters in there, since the crab legs come in pre-cooked and are in the cooked section they are off limits I don't give a shit who you are. And no the ONLY employee discount you get is the same as the rest of us, you scan your employee savings card at the register. Don't try to pull your sad, stupid, pathetic (insert whatever) card here because it won't work with me and I've been here 10 years all the managers know me and know I'm not like that, I don't think she'll last a month.

[Plankton78]

Second, Mr Lastminuter. He shows up about fifteen minutes to close and fills his huge van up to the brim. He did use to come at five to, but I started closing a couple of minutes early to stop him and eventually he learned after being shut out a few times. It's still annoying when he comes tho, as he cleans his van of rubbish and chucks it all on the ground by the pump, ignoring the bin.

I've always wondered why customers will throw garbage from their disgusting vehicles into the parking lot instead of the trash can see not even five feet away. I see this at a lot of stores, not just mine. I mean..... Did they just not see the can or.....?

[bloo]

I've always wondered why customers will throw garbage from their disgusting vehicles into the parking lot instead of the trash can see not even five feet away. I see this at a lot of stores, not just mine. I mean..... Did they just not see the can or.....?

Self-absorbed beyond all comprehension. No thought to the fact that the future of The Jetsons is not here and someone is going to have to clean that mess up.

I used to visit parenting expert John Rosemond's website back when my kids were little and enjoyed reading some of the parental submissions and even sent in one of my own. You can't access that content now so I'll try to share this little tidbit from memory:

"My daughter had gotten her own car and had this habit of wanting to keep it clean (a good thing) but doing so by throwing her garbage on our lawn (a bad thing). All the talking, yelling, threatening in the world would not make this kid take the time to throw her garbage in the garbage in the house. Constantly garbage on the lawn.

So one Saturday morning, I'm looking out my front window at the lawn to see the latest deposit of fast food bags on the ground next to her car. I steamed and asked myself, "How would she feel if I threw my garbage onto *her* property?" Then I really thought about it and decided to find out.

I took the kitchen garbage bag full of the remnants of last night's dinner, coffee grounds, egg shells and whatnot and dumped it on the driver's seat of her car. Then I waited, for once, excited for her to wake up.

She stirred around noon (her usual Saturday resurrection hour) and almost immediately got ready and left to meet her girlfriends at the mall. By noon, this garbage had been sitting for 3+ hours and would be completely stewed in the warm summer weather.

I smiled when I heard the scream and she rushed in crying. It took her another 3 hours of scrubbing and several days for the garbage smell to disappear from her car.

But she finally stopped leaving her garbage on my lawn. Now that she's an adult we laugh about it. But on the few occasions I've told the story, someone has said, "Oh that poor kid!"

And I respond with, "Don't bring a knife to gunfight.""

People like Mr. Lastminuter need to have parents like *that*.

[Smapti]

16-17 things of butter! Geesh. How high are their medical bills! Why in the world do you need that much butter! Course, Pasta Lady is buying like 24/26 cans of Spaghetti Os every three days... Hmmm. These are the important questions in life!

Keep in mind that's 16-17 cases, each case containing 24 packages.

[EricKei]

That's a whole lotta oleo o_O

[eltf177]

Keep in mind that's 16-17 cases, each case containing 24 packages.

I thought it was packages of 4 sticks each (64-68 sticks). Now we're talking close to 300 sticks! That will cover a LOT of popcorn!

[TattooedMommie]

not a single person, but they're everywhere..and it seems to keep happening to me...those customers who lick their fingers when counting out their money...then hand it to me...eeewww...

follow the journey...saliva from your mouth, onto your fingers, onto the dirty dirty money (sometimes double-dipping back into your mouth), then you want to hand that shit to me? Would you like to just spit on me, cuz that's how it feels to me when I take it.

Purell is my best friend while at work. And I will pump that baby right in front of the finger-lickers, hoping they get the hint...

[Seanette]

I hate that too. Also hate damp currency. Yep, workplace kindly provides hand sanitizer to cashiers (and yeah, customers help themselves too).

[Lace Neil Singer]

I hate people who hand their store card to me, having just been holding it in their mouth. No, I will not scan it for you; you swipe it yourself cuz I don't want to touch it after it's been in your gob. Honestly, you should stop doing that after leaving kindergarten!

[Plankton78]

I've become a germaphobe working with customers. I have a bottle of GermX in my apron pockets at work. That's annoying. Sock and boob money, licking the fingers before handing me cash, just customers touching me makes me freak because where have their hands been??

[bankworking]

I would say that both "Can" and "May" are correct -- in the first case, you're asking if it is *possible* to help them -- which it should be, but that really depends upon how much of an asshole the customer is; the second really sounds like you're asking for their permission -- which, by entering the store at all, they have already granted

I may point that out the next time I get someone doing the whole can/may correction thing.

Of course, I tend to instead get the jokers who declare "I'm beyond help!" or some such derivation of that theme.

[Sapphire Silk]

Oh. You think we can ban her? She's the sheriff's wife.....

Yeah, you can ban her. Here's how you deal with someone like that, someone with connections that you can't call on their BS directly.

You video their BS. Cellphone cameras are ubiquitous. Video her, upload it to You Tube, and anonymously call the local news.

They'll be on it like white on rice. The Sheriff won't have a choice but to deal with her, and the brats.

The people who abuse the 999 system - most recently someone who rang up, got an ambulance and only wanted ibuprofen.

Anyone who calls me an ambulance driver.

I hear you on this one. I had one bitch bring her kid in by ambulance because her kid had pinworms. We'd told her the treatment was OTC. She came back for the same complaint.

The one I hate is when someone calls me "just a nurse."

Sorry pal, nursing graduated from being bed pan changers about 60 years ago.

I hate that too. Also hate damp currency. Yep, workplace kindly provides hand sanitizer to cashiers (and yeah, customers help themselves too).

Money is one of the dirtiest things on god's green earth. This is an example of why.

[KellyHabersham]

For today, mine would the parents who let their kids tear apart the children's room in the library, and leave without picking up after themselves. We've had to put half of our blocks in storage because of the said parents......those of us whose job it is to tidy things up just do NOT have the time to constantly monitor the area where the blocks are and keep them picked up.

[BPFH]

I had one bitch bring her kid in by ambulance because her kid had pinworms. We'd told her the treatment was OTC. She came back for the same complaint.

Since my daughter had her first seizure last fall, I've become intimately familiar with how much they charge you for ambulance transport. Why the hell would you want to pay that for something where the treatment is available OTC?



(Since some of you will probably ask, she's fine.)