Absolutely Astonished

I ran to the grocery store today to grab a couple of things, and as I waited to check out, I witnessed a shameful thing. The customers in front of me were two older women, I think one likely the mother of the other. They wanted to purchase five bags of oranges for less than the posted price. The cashier explained the lower price was for clementines, not the oranges, but they insisted quite loudly that the lower price was for the oranges. 

The cashier sent a clerk to check the price not just once but twice, and also the manager came over to confirm the price, but the women still didn't agree. They were quite rude and bullying, and the cashier, a sweet girl who looked about sixteen, started to get tears in her eyes. She kept apologizing to the rest of us waiting in line, and we all assured her we weren't in a hurry and it was okay. At one point she laughed at herself a bit for getting emotional, as one does laugh when embarrassed, and one of the rude women barked at her, saying "You think this is funny?" 

Anyway, the daughter finally backed down and just wanted to leave, but the mother was still upset. When she couldn't get the price she wanted, she reached into her cart, picked up the bags of oranges, and threw them with a loud thump on the conveyor belt, one after the other, hard enough to make them bounce. It was like watching a child have a hissy fit, and I was so close to snapping at her for acting like a baby about it. You're seventy years old woman! Act like an adult! And pay for the fruit you just damaged! But I decided that wouldn't be very adult of me. 

The manager finally coaxed the two women over to the customer service counter to deal with them, and the cashier tearfully apologized again to all of us in line. She said, "I've never been treated like that before!" and I assured her she shouldn't have been treated that way and I was sorry she had been. I gave her what comfort I could, and the others in line were equally appalled and offered their support.

As I left the store and passed the customer service counter, it was all I could do not to hiss at the older woman. You just made a perfectly nice girl cry at work because of a couple of dollars. You're getting ready for a big religious holiday dinner, but God is not going to hear your prayers until you go apologize for bullying that innocent child. She's just trying to do her job. I just don't get people like that. Nothing is important enough to bully someone else about it.