Be Kind!

The boyfriend and his best friend decided to go ice fishing out of town for a few days, which means I have some free time. I needed it. I'm an introvert, so naturally, it's imperative I have time to myself to recharge. 

But Friday night I decided to escape the house for awhile and head over to Barnes and Noble for a bit of Christmas shopping and book browsing. I managed to find a couple of items, and stepped into the checkout line. The cashier was helping a customer who appeared to be buying books for her school, or something else that led to a complicated purchase on the register. The line behind me grew and only one more cashier appeared to help out.

And then the grumbling started. One man kept making rude comments about the customer who just wasn't hurrying fast enough for him, while a woman actually said something rather rude to the cashier. I was appalled.

So, being the passive aggressive person I can be sometimes when my goat is up, when it was my turn to go to the cashier who'd had to deal with the previous complicated customer, I said, rather loudly, "Wow, you have a lot of grumpy people in line. You'd think they'd be more understanding and have more patience around the holidays."

The cashier agreed with me, and then I said again, loudly, "I think every person should work retail during the holidays at least once in their life so they know what it feels like. It's hard. And you're doing a great job. Hang in there!"

I completed my purchase and didn't even bother to turn around to see if my words made an impact or not. I don't care. What I really should have done is just turn around to face the cranky customers and told them straight to their faces how they were being giant jackwads. 

I've worked retail during the holidays, and it is tough. Tempers are frayed and the people that most generally receive the brunt of this are the cashiers or employees just trying to help out customers. My daughter works retail and came home in tears tonight because a customer had yelled at her because the coupon they had was expired, and thus, my daughter couldn't accept it. 

As a society, why do we act like this? Several reasons, I suppose, and I know that I've been guilty of being a snot to an employee who doesn't deserve it. 

We all need to show more kindness to each other over the holiday season, and hell, we need to show more kindness to each other every single day of the year. There's too much hate and anger and hurt in the world as it is.

So. This is also a reminder to myself to be kind and show more understanding to my fellow human beings. Join me!