How Dare You?

We're out of paper for our home printer. Last night, after the gym, I had a couple of extra minutes, so I thought I'd swing by Office Depot and pick up a ream to carry home. I found an inexpensive pack of paper and was heading towards the checkout when I saw that there was only one checkout clerk and a line of about 15 people waiting. I would miss my train home if I waited in that line, so I decided to put the paper back on the shelf and come back later when I had more time.

Office Depot always has somebody standing at the door to greet customers and make sure nobody walks off with stolen merchandise. Sometimes these door people will get bored and spend a couple minutes straightening the pens and paper clips kept near the door. The door guy was there, adjusting a bin filled with boxes of pens, and a customer who had just paid for her purchases was telling him off. She kept saying things like "How dare you straighten pens when 20 people are waiting in line?" and "Don't you recognize these peoples' time is valuable?" He seemed to be trying to ignore her and doggedly kept adjusting the pens in the bin.

I'm ashamed of myself for not stepping in and saying something. There were so many things wrong with the situation: he probably doesn't control where he's stationed, he probably couldn't leave the front area, he might be untrained on the registers, etc etc. And who was she, anyways? Doesn't she realize that there's a labor shortage? If you want the low prices of a place like Office Depot, you sacrafice access to good customer service. And why the hell was she talking to him and not his manager if she had such a big problem? What the hell was this guy supposed to do with it?

I guess I didn't say anything because I didn't want to get involved, and because I didn't want to be the next target of this white, middle-class woman's self-righteous wrath. Same reason most of us don't get involved with such things, right? How dare we?

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