by Ariel Stephens

Created on: August 27, 2009

I was in the return line at Target. I happened to look over and see a grown woman standing at the counter with an employee assisting her. The woman had her arms crossed and frown on her face like a young girl who just had her dolls taken away. Pout, dissatisfaction, anger all flooded her face while the employee eagerly punched keys on the cash register. The woman started to speak and while I couldn't hear her, I could pick up on her disgust in her situation by her body language-like a teenager giving her mother a 'tude. A rude tude. You know-arms still crossed, rigid body and slight neck bobbing. The employee continued keying away on the cash register and you could almost see the tension. The woman stopped speaking and saw me staring at her.

I don't know her situation, but from the way she acted I would have suggested the inevitable result would be life or death in returning the item. (Which by the way were a pair of comfy swishy pants. Maybe they weren't that comfortable?)
For those of you who've worked in retail you know these situations and how uncomfortable they can be. From my experience, retail is the one of the top areas where people seem to display their greediness under a mask of "I deserve". Honestly, we all hafta step into working roles and consumer roles it's just the way our society is designed. We all serve and get served and there's a time for both. But what bothers me is that sometimes people step over other people to get what they want no matter what the cost. And that is sad. It's sad because they are basically saying this situation, this thing, this object and gaining it whatever it is, is more important than the way I treat other people. I'm not saying we shouldn't want things or try really hard to go about getting them, especially if they're a gift or something we've saved for and worked really, really hard for. I'm just saying placing consumer and employee roles aside we are people first. That woman and the employee at Target didn't like the way either of them were being treated. Like I said, I don't know the situation but unhappy or unsatisfied people usually grouch and spit and no one likes to be grouched at.

Sometimes people do need an attitude check this is true. But can we just try to remember that at the end of the day we're all just people? And it's not the end of the world if we can't have something we want right away or ever?

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