The Chick in the Car
Columbus, Ohio went through a massive power outage during September of 2008. Winds and rain from hurricane Ike swept through the Midwest and tore down a bunch of trees and power lines. For all intents and purposes, Columbus was not “working” for the better part of a week. Radio stations and television stations that were still able to broadcast would announce school closings, business closings, and then went on to list all the several niceties that would not be working while the juice was off.
Most calm, normally rational people were made into idiots overnight. People who were used to having things their way, the way they like it, were tossed into a world of chaos.
During that time, I was without power for a week, which besides being very rude of the power company was a massive source for laughable rude behavior.
One morning, I was at an old store where I had worked in the past. I had some friends who worked there still and I was chatting with them about how they were dealing with the power being out. Since I smoke (don’t start…) and most of them did as well, we were outside the blacked out store, smoking and talking. It was about six o’clock in the morning.
During our chat, a very nice sports car pulls up to us. It was being driven rather recklessly, so my friends and I had to step back to avoid being hit by the car. Inside is a very attractive woman wearing a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. She is disheveled and messy and she is also obviously very distraught over the power outage. People who live in the area of the store we are standing in front of are generally well off, successful business types. It is not very shocking to see a beautiful woman in a shopping store, or to see outlandish demands when it comes to high priced items within. Also, it is not out of the question to see a person wearing a three hundred dollar coat argue about ten cents.
Now that you know what kind of person we are dealing with, it will be easier to point out just how insane and rude people can be when they don’t automatically get what they want.
“Are you guys open?” She demands.
Now remember, everything in Columbus is down. Over a million customers and businesses were not open due to a lack of electricity. The news had been stating that power would not be restored to people for at least a week…this all was not new news to people.
“No, ma’am,” one of the store workers says. “We aren’t sure what is going on, nobody has told us what to do about opening the store up. Most of the stores are closed in the area and we’re kinda just stuck in limbo about the whole thing. Sorry.”
This just isn’t good enough for the woman in the car. Because the information that is being supplied to her by the store’s workers is not to her liking, she disregards it and she also disregards any sort of decorum when she asks her next question.
“Well then, when are you guys GOING to open…or am I supposed to just go someplace else.”
This just floors me. Here this guy had just told her in the most courteous manner possible that the store is closed and that he has no further information concerning procedures for opening the store any time soon. In my estimation, he probably went above and beyond the call of duty because he explained that other stores in the area were close. But I chalk this up to her being attractive and him being a hound dog.
On top of her demands, she also issues a threat. If you didn’t notice it, she mentioned that “if” they didn’t do something she was going to “go someplace else.” This is a pretty common practice amongst shoppers in retail stores who don’t immediately get their way. They’ll just go someplace else…as if this hurts the person who is trying to help them.
Let me tell you folks out there right now, the average cashier, sales associate, team member, or whatever they are calling themselves these days are just as rude as you are. Also, they really don’t care about you going someplace else. In fact, they are quite happy that you are leaving and going someplace else. They don’t have to work so hard, don’t have to make sure they take off all your coupons, don’t have to issue you your rebate, don’t have to lift that crap out of your shopping cart, and best of all they don’t have to deal with YOU.
Companies aren’t happy about this, but the average Joe Blow behind the counter could give a rat’s ass about where you go to shop, they have better things to do than ring you up, find you a product, or give you an opinion on how good a product works. It is a sad fact of life that you are not as important to these people as you think you are. They’d rather be over in layaway checking out the hot redhead who is making a weekly payment on her Foreman grill.
I really have to commend the guy talking to this woman. He held his temper for as long as was superhumanly possible despite the fact that she thought of him as less than the worms in the dirt beneath her feet.
“Ma’am” the worker is trying to calm the woman. “Nothing in Columbus is open right now. Haven’t you heard? The storm cut the power. Nothing is open.”
“But half of my building has power!” she exclaims. “Why doesn’t the store have power?” Obviously, this woman has never heard of generators, power grids, or wires…
“I don’t know about your situation, ma’am” he goes on. “But this store isn’t going to be open, and it’s not going to be open tomorrow. Considering the fact that our coolers are down, we probably won’t be open for at least a week.” There isn’t a hint of any sort of anger or sarcasm in his voice. He is laying it out for her as plain and simple as possible.
But it just isn’t computing. The lady in the car is visibly angry now. She is being told she cannot get what she wants (which turned out to be bottled water, ice, and batteries…) and it is pretty obvious that she is about to explode.
“Where is the nearest open store?” she demands. You can hear the sneer in her voice.
My worker friend goes on to list her a few stores in the area but he also goes on to tell the lady that they are not open either…because of the same power outage that is effecting the whole town…not just this particular block. That she lives on.
Finally, her rage boils over. She demands to be let into the store to make her purchases. Her voice is ragged, but you can hear the tinge of superiority she has in her words. It’s as if she thinks she can order the store open and the dolts in front of her should bend and scrape and get her purchases ready post haste. Visibly, she is breathing hard, and I am sure her heart rate is doing jumping jacks because she is so livid about her situation of helplessness.
Nobody moves. It’s a no win situation with this woman. They can’t let her in because the registers are powered by electricity, they cannot guarantee the safety of the food she might choose to purchase, they can’t even take her credit card because, you guessed it, it runs on power. But they can’t let her go off in a huff…that might be rude, wouldn’t it? Gently, he explains this, but you can tell he is starting to get a bit miffed about her treatment and her overall attitude. She will have none of it.
“Fuck,” she says as she slams down on her steering wheel while simultaneously tromping on her gas pedal. The sports car leaps out of the parking lot as if perused by the Devil himself.
And there we all are; jaws on the floor and wondering how people like that can get through life without forgetting to breath.
