Sometimes you just shake your head and wonder what's going on in someone else's mind.

Entitlement with a capital E.

E for Eeeek too! What a diva! Maybe you should have asked for her autograph before she drove off!

Tis the season!!!! to be rude!!! Retail joke.

I work a customer service counter at a grocery store. We didn't get a bell ringer this year. Last year the bell ringer was pan handling money form the store employees. Saying he couldn't afford to "buy" lunch, you know.....crab salad at the deli.....barbeque beef. About $10 a day for his lunch & breaks!!!!!! I bring my lunch & snacks for pennies!!!! :0) X-mas drama is not always done by customers....lol

I have encountered so many rude people this holiday season it's insane! Yesterday I was at panera picking up some soup and sandwiches for lunch and they packed it in a big shopping bag. I had my son, who is big for his age and HEAVY. We were both bundled in heavy coats so I had son in one arm in big puffy coat, big shopping bag in other hand and am about to push my way out the door when this woman comes rushing in, opens the door and rushes past me.

So I'm thinking "okay maybe she didn't notice me"... but then she realizes what she did and stands IN the doorway (in her big heavy coat with her huge purse) holding the door open for me leaving like a 12" sliver of space for me to squeeze through. I'm sorry but it was not happening and I wasn't about to barrel through, so I said "thank you, but I've got it." She YELLED at me at that point "just GO already, I don't have all day to stand here and hold the door for you!" OMG, who asked you to? Two grown adults with two large bags and one 28 lb toddler on my hip do not all fit in the same 30" door space!

A woman at Meijer today. It was the first time I'd ever seen a woman in her late 60's climbing up the sides of shelving to find a specific icing. She was frantic about it, grumbling under her breath, "where is that f*****G Vanilla Cream. I saw some sitting right in front of her face and handed it to her. She didn't even say thank you. Instead she grunted like a animal, tore open a new box sitting in the back on the shelf, grabbed two more containers of it, dropped a couple more on the floor in the process and WALKED AWAY leaving them for someone else to pick up. I couldn't believe it.

Lukkirish, loose cannon, lol..........
Her cake will be iced with love, no doubt....

People never cease to amaze me. Rushing around, bullying others, cutting people off, etc. Is this really what the season is about? I find it a sad commentary on our society today.

Rudeness + stupidity = makes ya wanna stab 'em.
;-)

DH was grocery shopping at Target the day before Thanksgiving, and had his cart pulled over to the side of the aisle, and he was methodically loading cans into the cart. A woman came barreling around the corner (without a cart - just her hateful ol' self), almost ran right into DH's cart and barked out, Excuse YOU!" I told him it was a darn good thing I wasn't there with him. He's extremely easy-going and will go out of his way to avoid confrontation. I, on the other hand, would have probably been arrested for assault with a can of mushroom soup or something.

Honestly. People.

I was at the twenty item "express" line in Walmart today. Ha. In the front of the line was a heavy, older lady in a scooter. She started unloading the scooter and it was like watching a clown car of groceries. Groceries at her feet, in the basket, hanging off the handles, things in her lap. It was so over the top it was comical. She had $147 worth of groceries in the express lane. To top it off, as she was paying she yanks at the ATM machine and BREAKS it! So of course we then had to wait for the elusive customer service manager to fix the ATM machine.

Finally she leaves and I get to the front of the line and check out with my wine and a few groceries. I told the poor check out girl that I had been trying to make an under age wine purchase but not to worry becaues I became legal age while waiting in line!

As the child of a parent who had to rely on a wheelchair for 1/2 of her life, I'd not mock anyone who uses a scooter when they shop, regardless of how many items they are purchasing and even if it is the holiday season.

I chalk it up to this being the season of so much pain to many people. When people are in emotional pain, they get cranky.

Remember the "Pet Peeve" topic I did? Same thing happened again yesterday, a lady not much older than myself stood right next to me in MY space while I was checking out, and I had a lot of groceries. It bothered me, but I cut her some slack. lol Honestly, that annoys me more than anything.

Where in my post did I mock her for having to use a scooter???? I pointed out that she had the scooter because it hid the fact she had so many groceries. I think most people will agree that it is rude to get in the express lane with $147 worth of groceries.

I am sorry that you are offended but I find it offensive that you would assume that I mock disabled people based on a few lines that I write on a message board. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Being in a scooter doesn't give anyone a free pass to be rude and ignore common courtesy and the rules, and that's exactly what she did. Most people do cut disabled people some slack--helping them in some way, like helping them reach something. But it's discouraging when the "Golden Rule" comes back to smack you in the face. Sorry, Patser, but you owe Deee an apology.

I agree. If you've read deee's posts here, you know her comment had nothing to do with the fact that the woman was in a scooter. That was merely a fact that related to the situation she described.

Perhaps we can extend some of that positive holiday spirit to one another here by not jumping to conclusions?

I'm sure she was very embarrassed to have pulled the machine off the stand.

Don't know if this counts as "holiday rudeness" or just plain bad customer service. I took DD to grocery store where they have a "kids' club" yesterday, left her off, went to "deli" where they make good pizza, ordered a large to take home, the guy (wearing Santa hat) said 20 min. Left my name, grabbed a few things, paid, got DD, put things in car (they don't let you leave store w/o your kid), came back (more than 20 min and I was ready to apologize, but figured he didn't care, we'd be the ones eating cold pizza, though I did bring an insulated bag for the ride home), and *he hadn't made it yet!* He went on break w/o making it so DD and I had to wait, missed DS's bus (at least he's old enough to let himself in and wait for 15-30 min w/o getting into trouble).

I don't think it's just the holidays...there are more people out shopping during the holidays, but I think the percentage of rude people is about the same.

For instance, in October I was in one of those "lines" in a department store where you go to the next available cashier. The three cashiers were busy, I was next in line, when along comes a young woman with a cart-full of goods. She zoomed right around me! I was dumb-founded, to say the least, but I grinned from ear-to-ear when the cashier she leaped in front of me for said, "Oh, I'm sorry, my register is closed." The offender glared at her long enough to allow two other shoppers to get in line ahead of her as I was checking out. Ah, I was delighted! It's not often we get to see someone get a comeuppance!

Sherry

I like to believe that all those people who cut in front of any line are also unwittingly cutting in front in the line of who dies first. So, okay, maybe you did get thru customs and immigration before me, altho I was clearly next, BUT you'll also be getting your permanent passport stamped before I will since you insist on butting in line.

This theory was born on a trip to Italy. Any one who has been there knows that Italians do not do lines, it's always a free for all. My Italians friends agree, I'm not picking on them.

I totally get the clown car effect. When I was about 11 months pregnant (or at least felt so at the time) I was in the store with a few things in my shopping cart. I could not WAIT to get off my feet but there was this woman pushing a stroller with a baby in it and she seemed like she had 3 items max piled on top of the canopy so I told her she could go ahead of me. I figured it was good karma for my impending arrival.

Anyway she starts pulling stuff out of that stroller like there was no tomorrow. I never knew those things had so many hidden compartments for stuff. I swear she had 50 items or more packed into various places and took forEVER. She had at least three times what I had if not more. I can't believe she took my 11 month pregnant ass up on the offer of going ahead of me knowing how much crap she had crammed in her stroller. I mean I had offered but that's because I only saw the overflow from all of the rest of the hiding places.

My recent event that has left me chuckling is:

I came down an aisle at TJ Maxx with my cart and 9 year DS, two ladies had left their carts right there in the middle of the aisle and were looking at something. After waiting patiently for a good solid 5 minutes I decided to go ahead and go through. In the process I guess I bumped into their carts while squeezing through because when we were past my son said, "Mom, did you hear what they said?" I didn't. Apparently they said loudly, "How rude can you get!" About me!

We are still laughing, even a 9 year old kid knows rude! Always, like Aunt Jen's DH, I move my cart out of the way, always! Too funny, some people are clueless!

Years ago I worked in a hospital and found the absolute worst offenders of the "let's stand here in the busy doorway and have a chat" were the nurses. What was really, really awful was when they were discussing medical things - ewwww, gross! I don't want to hear how bed 2 in room 10 did whatever but I really don't want to hear it when I'm trying to get by you in the doorway on the way to the cafeteria.

Nurses are wonderful, caring people. Except in the hallways and doorways. Or at the coffee urn, another common let's stop and chat about profuse bleeding.

In case it's not obvious, I was NOT in a patient care position. I couldn't do it for all the money in the world and I admire those who can. But again, not in the doorway or in front of the coffee urn.

If you know for a fact that the clerk didn't tell the scooter woman to get in the "front of the line", then I'm wrong and I'll be happy to apologize.

Costco is the worst place for people chatting in the aisles. I've run into old friends that I want to chat with, but I move out of the way! It's also annoying when the people walking into the store ahead of you get in the door and then STOP! Don't they realize that there are people behind them?

Patser, I just had to comment on your post. I know it was out of love for your loved one that you were so sensitive to the scooter post. I am 48 and disabled and know first hand what it's like. We don't want to move slower than other people but we do. As far as special privileges, I would rather be able to walk than have a parking pass. Nothing infuriates my family more than is when they see able bodied people park in them and it happens all the time. I'm sure the post was not meant to offend but I respect your love for your mother.

Anybody live in a college town like me? Unfortunately most students haven't learned grocery store etiquette yet and do all sorts of unknowingly rude things.

Here's a question for you: Do you think most people are knowingly and willfully rude, or perhaps just ignorant of the way they're inconveniencing others? For instance, the people who stand in an aisle or walkway and chat -- do you think they're purposely just hogging that space without regard for anyone else, or do you think they're maybe just so caught up in that moment of conversation with another person that they're oblivious to anything else? Some people just aren't capable of multi-tasking, it seems: Focusing on the person that's right in front of them and carrying on an animated conversation, and being aware of other people trying to go about their business in the immediate vicinity.

I know how quickly I jump to conclusions about the intent of others, but when I stop and take a deep breath and really think about the situation, it just seems to me that others probably don't really mean to be rude. I can easily interpret their actions (or lack thereof) as self-seeking and conveying the notion that "others be damned", so I have to remind myself that perhaps my construal of their behavior is not entirely accurate.

Nothing infuriates my family more than is when they see able bodied people park in them and it happens all the time.
A disability isn't always visible. Could be heart or respiratory problems or other issues not noticeable to the casual observer so they look able bodied. Now if they're parking there WITHOUT a handicap sticker, then yes they are despicable and beyond rude - they're criminal.

Do you think most people are knowingly and willfully rude, or perhaps just ignorant of the way they're inconveniencing others?
True, most people are not deliberately rude. They probably just lack awareness about what's going on around them - such as other people needing to get thru. We do tend to get caught up in our own little worlds and forget there are others.

The nice thing about a thread like this one, besides to snicker at some crazy behavior, is it might make all of us give a little more thought to how we perceive others that are sharing our space. Cut them all some slack. Forgive their obliviousness.

I'd like to believe that people are merely oblivious to their inconveniencing of other people, but isn't that what rudeness is? I agree with Jen; I don't think people INTEND to be rude, but they sometimes don't seem to recognize that face to face interactions are much different than cell phone or internet interactions. We can SEE them, and their actions can affect us. For instance, I recently attended a 3D showing of Toy Story/Toy Story 2 with my GC, and a woman in the center cruised the internet on her cell phone for a full 10 minutes, lighting up the entire dark theater with her cell lights. No one said anything to her. Two weeks ago, I attended another movie with my GC in another theater and the little girl in our aisle was wearing light up shoes, which she continually kicked her feet to light up, completely distracting my GC from the movie. No one said anything, and her grandparents never corrected her. I don't think either intended to mar our enjoyment of the movie, but they did, and did not seem to care, as indicated by the duration of the activities.
Dee

Oh dear, Dee - I've been on this forum way too long, I guess. It took me several reads through your post before I stopped wondering why you were going to see kiddie movies with your General Contractor! LOL!

Jen, that's too funny. I guess GC does mean general contractor. GK? Or, maybe I should have said GD and GS. Come to think of it, my general contractor was there too, since we live in the same house.:)
Dee

As far as college kids go, I tend to give them a break mentally; after all, manners do need to be learned and sometimes to takes awhile! Of course, I could rudely awaken them to what they should be doing and help them learn: not blocking the aisles, becoming aware of who and what is around them (ie stop texting for 2 seconds) and if someone (me) is behind them speak nicely and move out of the way!

I do know some very smart people who are completely "unaware", they wear black knee socks with shorts and white tennis shoes. (stereotypes are true, they are college ph.D professors) But they are not rude at all and are kind and compassionate extraordinaire.
So, I don't always think rudeness equals unaware, some people just don't give a ____.

marybeth1 says: Nothing infuriates my family more than is when they see able bodied people park in them and it happens all the time.
hhireno says in response: A disability isn't always visible. Could be heart or respiratory problems or other issues not noticeable to the casual observer so they look able bodied.

THANK YOU for making this point, hhireno. As a relatively young person (I'm nearly 39, but on a good day pass for under 35) with multiple invisible disabilities, I get s*** on a VERY regular basis for my "crip tag" (as I've nicknamed it). Yes, I may look just fine, and maybe even rather perky, going INTO the store but coming out I may very well be concentrating only on getting one foot in front of the other back to my car without buckling into a heap in the middle of the parking lot or bawling because I'm just so exhausted and sore, especially if it's not my first errand of the day.

Just last week I had one b*tch of a woman tell me in a very arrogant tone of voice that if I weren't so fat I wouldn't need to use the scooter at the gigantic grocery store, whilst peering down her nose at the contents of the basket. It was my last errand of the day and I was a wreck but I couldn't just skip it. For one thing, I'm not gigantic - I wear an 18/20 - but for another between the meds I'm on and extreme difficulty exercising I'm doing dang well to keep myself that low. (I'm on a waiting list to get a third hour per week at the rehab pool - I can't use the regular health-club pools because they're too cold. The rehab pool is kept between ten and fifteen degrees warmer than the health-club pool, and I'd prefer it a few degrees warmer in the winter!) I was a good girl and did NOT ram said scooter into her shins or run it over her impecably-shod feet, although I was very tempted. Instead, I smiled and politely informed her that I would truly love it if I never had to put my backside on the seat of a scooter for the rest of my life, and suggested she mind her own business from now on.

However, I've been having grand fun this year responding to rude or just clueless people with Little-Susie-Sunshine, completely and unreasonably over-the-top cheerfulness. I mean sugar-coating thick enough to make you want to hurl. People seem to have the perhaps-unconscious expectation that you're going to be rude right back to them but have NO idea what to do when you just lay on the sweetness-and-light with a trowel. It's a hoot to mess with their heads. :-)

Johnmari, that is unbelievable! What a miserable life that woman must lead to feel a need to belittle and humiliate a stranger.
Dee

Johmari, I work in the disabilities field, and I have to say I am shocked at how common your experience is. People make such ridiculous assumptions.

Good luck!

Johnmari, I understand hhireno point about hidden disabilities. I have multiple Sclerosis. On the outside I don't "Look Sick". Some days I just limp other days I have to use a cane or a walker and on bad days I have to use a wheelchair. I just wanted to state that I see people parking illegally in disabled spots all the time mainly because I need to use those spots. I don't know how they sleep at night. I was just saying we don't want to be in a wheelchair or scooter. What happened to you is terrible. I have had people almost knock me over because they are in such a rush to get by me or to impatient because I move too slow. I of all people realize that disabilities come in all forms. I only mentioned my family because they see how I struggle everyday. Iguess I was just trying to bring awarness to all people with disabilities.

I've used a wheelchair consistently in the past (when severe chronic pain was not adequately treated - ok, not at all - and we did not have a car so were reliant on public transit) and from time to time I still rent one when going somewhere where normally one would be doing a lot of standing and walking and there is expected to be a shortage of places to sit (like the home shows they have in local arenas), and I have to say that I found/find it a H*LL of a lot easier to be a "socially acceptable disabled person" when on my own wheels (as opposed to a store-provided scooter or wheelchair) - people can SEE the disability (the wheelchair), therefore it exists to them. I use a cane about 2/3 of the time right now, my PT and paindoc want me to use it only when I really must because it can cause compensation strains/injuries even when properly fitted and used, and I see a very distinct difference in how people behave toward me WRT things like handicapped parking when I have my cane than when I don't, although there are still those twerps (usually elderly) who are clueless enough to insist that I can't possibly need either my parking tag or my kick-@$$ purple paisley cane :-) because I'm "too young". *eyeroll* I suppose I should be glad I don't look how I feel because young children would run away screaming, people would be keeling over with heart attacks, I would leave a swath of destruction behind me everywhere I went! LOL

I did get a hand-me-down wheelchair off Freecycle so that I wouldn't have to rent one for the aforementioned uses but the clunker was so heavy I couldn't maneuver it even on a smooth, flat surface so I re-Freecyled it. :-(

I have the police parking-enforcement office phone number on my cell phone, and I WILL call in cars parked in the handicapped spaces that don't have plates/tags. I do check the dashboard and seat (if I can, I'm not clambering up on some bloody Hummer) to see if someone just tossed their hang-tag onto the dash or left it on the seat instead of hanging it properly on the mirror. Where I live it's a minimum $250 and in some towns $500 (!) fine to park in a handicapped space without authorization. I goofed once, left my hang-tag in DH's car, parked in my usual space at the drugstore without even realizing my tag wasn't where it belonged and got a ticket, but I took it and my tag and my driver's license (which has a symbol on it showing that I'm an authorized tag owner) to the police station and they cancelled it right then and there.

(Mari, typing from bed... went to Yule party half an hour's drive away today and too ouchy to sleep but too tired to sit up, and next weekend I'm going to do it again! Oy!)

I parked in a handicapped spot by mistake once and got hit with a $250 ticket. I was furious and embarassed -- but what really got me was that the handicapped parking sign wasn't visible from inside my car! It was placed so high on a pole that a regular-height driver in a regular sedan couldn't see the sign (no paint on the ground) while driving or parking. I saw it from across the street on my way back -- but too late, of course.

The ones that get me are the soccer moms in their huge honking SUVs that park in the driveway at school at closing time. The vehicles are so big that you can't get around them to actually pull into the parking lot and park in any of the many unoccupied spaces. So why do these moms feel entitled to park in the bleeping driveway!