Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Your social etiquette lesson of the day

As you may or may not know, I've been working on and off on a book about etiquette and manners and such and I've got a little pet peeve*.

here's the scenario:

I'm behind someone (generally women, but I've seen old men do this, too) in the checkout line at a store - this person has a cart PILED full of merchandise (most of which is sale stuff, most of which they have to dispute the prices of and/or demand price checks). Once everything is scanned and bagged, the cashier announces the grand total, the woman gawks at the total and asks the cashier to repeat it - twice, then - and only then - does she even begin to look for her checkbook (on the rare occasion it's a credit card, which they have NO idea how to insert into the credit card machine, but usually it's the checkbook). Minutes later, when the checkbook has been found, the person continues to rummage in her purse for a pen, which never works, so she has to borrow a pen from the cashier. She doesn't know the date to write on it, she never remembers the name of the store and the can't remember the total which was given to her three times, before she pulled out the checkbook. She finally gets around to composing the check, looks it over several times and proudly presents it to the cashier, like she accomplished something big. Then the cashier asks for the person's drivers license and the person acts like this is the most preposterous question EVER...

I could go on, but let's examine the situation so far -

1) You came into this store of your own volition. You ostensibly came into the store to purchase something. As evidenced by your cart full of dry cat food and granny panties, you decided to purchase some things. You were obviously checking the prices, so you were aware that the merchandise you placed in your cart was not free. SO WHY THE FUCK DID YOU ACT SURPRISED WHEN THE CASHIER ASKED FOR PAYMENT??? Were you hoping that you were the 1 millionth shopper who got a free cart o' crap? Did you think that you were such a great bargain hunter that all your discounts equaled free stuff? You may or may not have noticed that there were other people behind you in line, why not do everyone a favor and have your method of payment ready?

and

2) Who writes checks in stores anymore? Seriously, that's what debit cards are for! But if you insist on writing a check, you've probably written them before (because you're 900 years old) so you KNOW what information needs to go on the check and you know that the cashier is going to ask for your drivers license.

Is it too much to ask for people to remove their heads from their asses and have the teeniest bit of common sense? Because, whether they wish to accept it or not, the world doesn't exactly revolve around them.


* if you have any pet peeves with people, feel free to share, I call it research for the book...