This weekend I was running a couple errands and became increasingly bothered by the people and situations I encountered. I went to only two stores, and came home with three stories/experiences that really bothered me.
In the first store, I found the few things I needed to buy and went to get in line to pay. As I approached what I deemed to be the shortest line, another customer also walked up to get in line. I encouraged him to go first since I had a few things to buy and he had only one item and would be finished faster. “Well, really I have two,” he spoke softly, with a bit of a glint in his eye. “One is in my pocket. Sometimes you just don’t wanna pay for things, you know?”
I wish now I had understood exactly what he said as he said it, but it took me just long enough to process it that I didn’t say anything back. Then I was frustrated because later I had all these great comebacks… isn’t that the way it always happens? I should mention, too, that we were at a dollar store. This guy pocketed something in order to save a dollar??!! I admit, I’m pretty cheap, but wow.
So off I went to my next store, bothered and preoccupied by what had just happened.
As I waited at one counter, a store employee approached me… but not to help me. That would have been too… helpful. Instead she wanted to explain the seemingly odd behavior of another nearby employee and apologize for him. In doing so, however, she described him using language that I found hurtful and offensive. This was a young man with evident cognitive challenges who, as best as I could observe, was doing his job. His coworker, on the other hand, was not. She was robbing him of his dignity and self-worth as she tried to explain away his behavior and her inability to deal with it, but more significantly, with him. I was not going to miss this opportunity to respond like I had missed my chance at the other store. I explained as politely yet firmly as I could that I didn’t appreciate the words she used to describe him and encouraged her to find nicer ways to talk about him. Apparently she just didn’t get it, because she just kept going!
Determined not to leave this situation completely unresolved as I had at the previous store, I decided before leaving the store to find the employee manager and report this incident. Now, understand that I’m not generally one to register complaints; I mostly wanted to know that I had done my part to make the world a better place. (Now there’s some altruism, eh?) The manager listened as I retold the incident, asked lots of questions, promised to address this directly with the offending employee and informed me that he intended to go back and watch the video footage to confirm that he had addressed it with the proper (ironic term, isn’t it?) employee. I thanked him for that, and for hiring the young man.
So out the door I headed, but only to be stopped first by another store employee who asked to see my receipt. No problem; I produced it with calm confidence and allowed her to examine both it and the contents of my shopping cart. She voluntarily explained that I had an item on the very bottom of the cart (where the cashier had placed it after I paid) and that often customers “hide” merchandise there in order to get away without paying for it. I thanked her for noticing and checking, we exchanged smiles and goodbyes, and away I went.
But all this left me thinking, what is wrong with people? Why would a customer find it more objectionable to shell out a dollar than to pilfer? Why don’t people protect and care more for and about their coworkers and fellow humans? A few months ago I saw a TV show (”What Would You Do?”) with hidden cameras trained on unsuspecting people in orchestrated and questionable situations to see how they would respond. I hope that I’m slowly but steadily learning to respond rather than retreat, and to treat others the way I would want to be treated (Matthew 7:12), as people of integrity and value.
Kathy Raines, UBC College Minister
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