Great comeback!

What do you mean by cleaning the til?

I am hearing more and more of these sorts of confrontations at retail establishments. It's usually over mask wearing. SIGH I hoped once the election was over people would settle in. Sorry, I remember well the stress rude customers cause.

“What's wrong with people?”

My sister and I had this very same conversation on the phone yesterday. There is no filter, no manners, no standard of being decent, accountability, decorum, etc.

Ladies, you are awesome!

Isn’t a till a cash register? I see our cashiers at the grocery store take their own tray of money out of the register when one takes over for the other. Did the customer mean sanitize it due to COVID? No matter, the customer was completely out of line. Good for you for thinking so quickly. I’m usually left sputtering in situations like that.

I suspect a lot of this is lock-down rage. Lost jobs, lost financial security, lost relationships, children not in school, having to wear uncomfortable masks, uncertain future (way worse now) build up anger and aggravation to the point that some people can't control it. It's not acceptable but understandable that some will act out their emotions. It would be much better if they went to the gym and worked out their emotions in a healthy manner.

It would be much better if they went to the gym and worked out their emotions in a healthy manner.

I'm not sure how healthy that would be, as gym use seems to be one of the cautioned Covid spreader activities.

Liira, I'm so glad you stood up for yourself and did this, you are an inspiration!

I don't think we can blame all of it on the pandemic. Some people are just flat mean, spiteful and hateful. And they think the world is out there to accommodate them.

The pandemic has given people the freedom to show their true selves. I also say it has brought out the ugly in people.

Liira, you handled the customer perfectly!

I agree about people being just flat out rude "and" mean! It takes so little to be nice...yet they choose otherwise.

I once was told by a customer "I" should buy some Tony's pizzas. They were on sale for $1. I said I make my own pizzas from scratch. The guy replied, "I could DO YOU 3 times in the time it takes YOU to make a pizza." Weird....rude....and weird...no pandemic back then...

Gotta hand you a round of applause on that one, amylou!

There is so much hateful anger and real outright fear in our society as of this moment in time. When combined with that which resides already, it is only to be compounded.

Having worked in retail for some years, I know that it is not uncommon for disgruntled customers to blame all manner of grievance on the store employees. These employees have very little power over anything pertaining to product or company policy. It is way above their pay level, for sure. But, they take the brunt of it at times.

Good call on calling the manager as you should not suffer cruelty lightly. Hugs to you!

I hope they got good pictures of the woman assaulting that young clerk and they are now laying charges against her! Glad you were there to roundly tell her off Amy!

Plus it was a double assault! Possibly giving him covid plus the yogurt .

I agree the woman was out of line, but calling her a begger because she had a WIC voucher was as well. You didn't have a clue about her circumstances that led to her having that. Too wrongs there to my thinking.

I’ve worked retail and call centers in my past. It’s astonishing what people will say.

But I can’t get past Mr Three Times. Was he insulting himself?😂

Liira, that was an amazing comeback.

Norar, read the post again, Amy was accused of calling her a begger, not that she actually did.

"Can you believe this?!?!" To which I replied, "A beggar being a chooser? Yes. Yes I can believe it. I'm looking right at it." She quoted herself saying it.

Edited to add that if I misread that, I apologize.

By cleaning my till, I mean the belt that you put the groceries on. The couple asked me to clean it before they put their groceries on it and I sprayed down the belt and let it run a few times, then wiped it down. It was still a bit wet and I told them it needed to evaporate. It was waiting the minute for it to evaporate that got the man irritated. We clean the belts the way Alberta Health Services recommends we do.

Lira, good for you ! I can't think of a better response ! hope his jaw dropped when he realized what you were doing.

Amylou, good response to someone who was selfish, rude, and clearly had no manners.

Ladies, I'm proud of both of you for standing up to rude bullies.

Oh, I see, liira. Yes, I’ve been asked to wait a moment for the belt to dry. Makes sense, why would we put our cardboard cereal boxes on a wet surface. He was out of line. I‘ll bet their car ride home was icy!

Lira. how strange language is used in different countries. Here a till is a cash drawer in a register. In the US, what you call a till would be a "checkout counter"or just counter.

I think the only time I've seen someone be rude to a clerk was a customer that was from a county where lining/queuing up is not the norm. She walked to the front of the line and snatched the item the clerk was ringing up out of her hand, pushed the rest of the persons stuff being checked out to the far end of the belt and put hers to be rung up first. Ticked everyone in line off but the clerk didn't argue with her.

I think rudeness is probably worse during this time, for all the reasons mentioned above, but I agree, there is never a reason for it, no matter which side one is on. In fact, the most intelligent put downs are when a person can get their point across effectively, but without actually using vulgarity or rudeness.

woodrose, the description of a 'till' in Alberta is not the same as in Ontario. We also only refer to the cash register as the 'till' and during this time of Covid, the 'check out counter' or 'conveyor belt' is sprayed down after each customer. But the 'till' would only be wiped after one cashier finishes their shift, in readiness for the next cashier.

Good for you Liira! Some people are just miserable with themselves.

I can remember being in the checkout line at a CVS. The woman in front of me was only buying a greeting card that she had in her hand. I started placing my items on the counter when she suddenly shoved it all off the counter onto the floor with her left arm. She glared at me and said, "WAIT YOUR TURN!" Everyone just froze and didn't know what to say or do. Finally, another employee walked over and helped me pick it all up. All I could think of was how miserable that woman must be.

Brava, Lira! And to you too Amy for putting those rude, selfish people in their places.

I would hope the store would refuse future service to the woman who threw the yogurt at the young man and crossed the plexiglass in addition in doing so. If he chose to press charges, it would be a misdemeanor, and I wouldn’t blame him one bit for doing so. Regardless of what Amy said, it was a take off on a figure of speech. The woman knew she was wrong.

We had another incident last week at the store when a young lady about mid thirties came without a mask. An older women confronted her and she explained she had a medical reason why she wasn’t wearing one. The older lady demanded to see her drivers license, her medical card and wanted to know the reason of her medical condition. The young lady said it wasn’t any of her business but older persisted. Young lady finally said, I was raped, older lady said so was I, get over it that’s not an excuse. I think at that point I would have punched the older lady, who by the way was with her husband that is a doctor. The husband told his wife to apologize and just leave her alone. Young lady asked the doctor if he still practice and what clinic he worked out of. Doctor told her and she said she would be calling the clinic to file a complaint against his wife.

"understandable that some will act out their emotions."

No it's not. Rudeness and disrespectful conduct toward others are never acceptable or justifiable.

I'm of the mind that we cannot expect everyone to act with grace and respect, unfortunately.

And I also agree so many people are at the breaking point emotionally these days. We have no idea what's going on in their personal lives.

That doesn't make it any easier to control our own reactions, and those actions described in the OP are certainly not acceptable. Kudos for keeping your cool, liira - that was a professional reaction 🙂

I never could understand why some people would take their frustration and anger out on a sales associate/cashier. It's not like they're getting paid some exorbitant salary to put up with such things. It's a.k.a. 'punching down', and is bully behavior, IMO.

Well, I don't think it's lockdown rage. It has been happening to health care workers for years. Just ask any of them. It's physical and verbal abuse. At least one of us working in my little office gets screamed/cussed at every shift. Nothing new. It's bad now that I work in a call center, makes people bolder, I think. Yesterday I listened to a man rant for 1 or 2 minutes, not letting me get a word in at all, screaming at me. I finally told him I was going to hang up because I didn't think he could hear me, and I did. No indication that he heard anything I said because he wouldn't stop yelling. We were so busy with the holiday that I couldn't just sit and listen to him with calls in the cue.

A couple hours later he called back and I was unlucky enough to get him again. He did pause to let me say a couple things here and there that time and after him ranting and me giving him options I finally ended the call and he thanked me. I didn't do a thing, nothing I could do because he refused to go to the ER.

Well, I don't think it's lockdown rage

Agree - nothing I have seen described on this and the duplicate post represents anything different from what has been going on since forever in my opinion.

I agree also. Some people are just by nature rude and churlish, regardless of world conditions. And dealing with retail sales positions seems to bring out the worst in them. They tend to treat folks in that position as little more than servants at their beck and call and to do whatever they want. 'Customer is always right', right?? Sorry.....no :-)

Worked retail any number of years myself and encountered verbal abuse many times.

Stuff like this happened even before Covid. I usually try not to interact with those type of people. There was a woman in line ahead of me at the brand new Subway at the new Walmart a couple of years ago. I can't remember what she was grumping about, but she looked at me like I would support her or something. I backed up a little cause I didn't want to be a part of the conversation. She walked off. The checkout guy was looking down so I told him "That lady was bit grumpy." He said "What?" I repeated it. He and the other guy working there both laughed. It lightened the mood. They gave me a discount on my sandwich.

I would like to comment about the woman who was raped. For some that is a very legitimate reason not to wear a mask and the woman who was confronting her should have shut the H____l Up at that point other than to say that she was sorry that it had happened.

Norar, I dont need to know her circumstances on how she got on the dole to know that she assaulted a kid because she was not able to get her choice of free stuff. Maybe you don't understand. I did not go up to this woman and bully her for being on WIC. Frankly, I don't care. She is an adult who should have basic common sense to realize that a teen cashier (or an adult one for that matter!) cannot change the rules and restrictions of government programs. I was pointing it out to her in a way that was meant to bring her down a notch and insult her because she was acting like trash.At least I didn't pelt a yogurt at her.. If she doesn't have that basic knowledge, she shouldn't have custody of those children she was throwing up in my face like thats any excuse for anything. She shouldn't have brought me into it at all. I did not engage first.

And did you miss what she said to me? That i am "jealous because I have to pay for my own (expletive)".? Like being on government assistance was an accomplishment and something to brag about. I dont feel sorry for anything I said to her. And I also hope she gets charges pressed against her.

As far as common sense goes, sexual assault does not make a reason for not masking, as per one of the above posts.

Common sense tells us that that privilege is mostly afforded to those who have some physical or intellectual problems. Sexual assault does not usually lead to those situations and it does not seem as if this person had any validity to claim that exemption from masking because of it. .

You did good, amylou! I would have had some concern for those kids being with such an angry mother who would lash out in that manner. That has got to be an unstable situation for those kids and they may see their mother behave that way, or worse, plenty of times.

You never know what strangers who you come face to face with are going through. I worked retail and have had my encounters with the fear and anger of strangers.

Wednesday - my understanding is that it triggers PTSD for many women, which would make it a legitimate reason.

Fortunately.....I've not seen anyone without a mask. 100% compliance in stores.

...unless their in my neighborhood.....meeting or walking with friends. Those women have I'm-special, can't-tell-me-what-to-do issues. I feel like I'm living an episode of Housewives that NEVER ENDS!

Non compliant employees as well as members of the public continue to abound in my area. I'll refrain from writing another book here to just say that at CVS this week the man working the displays was also the one checking customers out at the register. While by himself in the aisles he was pulling his mask off his nose, then pulling it up when summoned by shoppers to the register. Each time touching his mask just below where he had been breathing on it, and then touching merchandise to scan it, the register and so on. And of course touching and breathing on merchandise, into the air in the store as a whole while in the aisles - a recently arrived shopper could easily come walking unawares into his lingering and expanding breath cloud right after he had made one of his returns to the checkout.

I know that there have always been abusive people - and they certainly have 'issues' - but numbers of rage incidents certainly seem to have increased due to the stress and anxiety so many people are experiencing right now.

And you cannot ignore the examples being set by some of our so-called leaders.

IMO, most people are making an extra effort to be kind, thankfully.

Road rage should be on the decrease I'd think. Less traffic on the roads should mean less RR.

They were empty at first but later highway traffic around here seemed to pick right back up. And has remained in that state. Because, you know, the pandemic had died down and it was time to return to normal.

I wish people here would wake up. Went to Ace Hardware last Friday. One person in the store was wearing a mask. All other customers were not. Most of the workers had a bandana hanging from their necks. The 70 or 80 year old who came out to load my stuff into my car didn't even have a bandana around his neck.

Traffic is back to normal here, which is good considering lots of businesses closed permanently.

I went to pick up an early and only Christmas present for myself and left the house just after 8 this morning. While back in March and April there were less cars on the road the traffic was very light. One of the heavier traveled streets may have had 20 vehicles at the stop light and I was the last one. Normally it would have been backed up about a football field length.

FWIW, in my state, our governor wants everything to open back up and get back to business as usual, so traffic has most definitely increased.