OT: Holiday Shopping... In The Spirit

[T-Bone]

Funny Story from Last Week....

I was at Best Buy looking at CamCorders for Christmas and the store was a buzzin with Christmas shoppers. I got the info I wanted for the camcorder I was looking at and went to check out with my headphones and DVD. The guy in front of me was a scraggly looking dude that looked like he slept in his car and had a slight odor to him. He had a smaller flat screen TV, DVD Player, some DVD's and other miscellaneous trinkits. She was ringing up his items and he got out a checkbook and started writing and before he could even get the words "Best Buy" written on them, she already had told him that she'd need to see ID with that. The guy ignored her and kept writing. The total was $600+. I glanced down and it looked like the guy had starter checks although I couldn't see perfectly. He wouldn't look up at her. She asked for ID again and he just stood there and said that he shouldn't need to show it. I could see it in his checkbook, and I knew that she could as well, but he slammed it shut. She asked one last time and said she couldn't accept a check without an ID and pointed to a sign. He got a little pissy and asked "Do you want to make this sale or not?" and she politely answered, "sure, but I need to see an ID"... He picked up his checkbook and told her "Fuck Off, I'll go somewhere else"... She "POLITELY" told him as he walked away, "Have A Nice Holiday Yourself, Sir"...



Talk about holding your composure in a hostile environment... I gave her kudo's for her holding her tongue. I snickered a little and asked her "Is that short for, Fuck Off Yourself?" and she just giggled.... "Something like that". Aparently, they've had a fair share of people like that this year.

I left the store with my stuff and went next door to Target to look through toys and there the asshole was picking up stuff in their electronics department as I walked by. I saw they also had some of the same camcorders that Best Buy had, so I went over into the electronics section. A sales guy came over to me to assist and I made a reference (hint hint) to the asshole and the incident at Best Buy ad pointed him out. Next thing I knew, there were a few workers paying special attention to him. I left and went to the toy area with Ashlynn and found some toys. I went up front to check out and there's the jackass in a bitch-fest, stomping out the front door

As I walked out, the sales guy I had talked to was standing there with a manager looking guy and I said, "Lemme guess... No ID?" and the same answer as Best Buy... No Check's without an ID. The manager guy was going to call the rest of the nearby stores with the info and the nice picture of him the security cameras got. They said Thanks for the Tip and I went home... I'm a weenie






On a side note:


I have to say that Holiday shoppers are some pretty rude jackasses sometimes. I went to 4-5 stores that day, and many of the people I saw picking up stuff couldn't even put it back correctly if they chose not to get it. All the stores were in shambles to say the least and there were plenty of workers trying to keep things tidy, but it seemed it was all in vain. People were knocking clothes off the racks with carts, looking at what they'd done and then just walking away, one lady's kid tore open a toy and all she did was throw it back on the shelf, leaving a few pieces of it on the floor as she left, etc... People are pretty self centered this time of year....

I did my part by helping a nice lady by jump-starting her car. How could I not? She was parked nose to nose with me at Sears and had a barely cranking battery. She was on the phone with the Towing company and I walked over with jumper cables. She didn't want to be a bother... NONSENSE!!! It takes all of 30 seconds to hook them up and get the car going. So... I hooked them up, She cranked the car up and tried to offer me money, and I couldn't accept it. I did point out that the Sears car care center was right around the corner and she could get her battery looked at or replaced there. She hadn't even thought about it. She vas very thankful and polite when she left and she pulled around the corner to have them check it out for her. That was my good deed that day...

[Voyager]

This is what she should have done to the guy:

[Blueskies]

Dear Diary..today I.... ...j/k
... your right about the rudeness T..it gets beyond ridiculous... and good on ya for doing a good deed.

[T-Bone]

I'm from a small town, so I don't have that Big Town rudeness some people get. She looked a little upset and was sitting in her car with the hood partially up. Not sure what she was intending to do, but if she didn't have it up, I wouldn't have known. I did hear try to crank it over and all it did was moan a little and then click. I put Ashlynn in the truck and grabbed the jumper cables. The lady was alone and "stuck", so I couldn't NOT help her. From what she explained to me, her car had been very sketchy on starting in the last month, and looking at her battery, it needed replacing. She was sure it was the same one as when the car was new, and the car was a 2002 Malibu. 6.5 year old battery? They should be replaced at 5 years. Oh well... She was very thankful for the help, but looked offended that I wouldn't accept money for helping her. I just told her Merry Christmas

[Babyblue]

What a wonderful sweetie you are.

[SherriBerry]

That was such a nice thing to do! I'm sure you made that lady's week.

It's nice to see people get involved. I'm from a small town also, so even the rudest people
are not that rude really - no one would tolerate it and everyone would hear about an
incident like that after the story made the rounds at Tim Horton's.

[Ratgirl]

Yes, nutcases galore during this time of the season. Most, if not all, are rude. I've only been out once Christmas shopping with a friend and that was enough for me.
I bought most of my stuff online and what I couldnt find for someone, I got them a giftcard.

Cool thing you did for the lady though, most a-holes around here would let you sit.

[Suzanne]

T-Bone you're a good person. I used to work at Lazarus (it's Macy's now) in the "moderate women's section" read: supposed to be mature adult women's section. Christmas time was THE WORST!! Grown women would come in and clothes would go everywhere! Don't even get me started about the dressing rooms. We're talking PILES of clothes to pick up, straighten out and hang back up on the racks because customers just wouldn't put shit back or even on the rack that was supplied for us to put it back. Pushing, shoving, bitching people trying to get things for nothing or better- return things in the Christmas crowd and being pissed because it was a year old and they couldn't get full price for it. WTF? I don't generally like malls anyway anymore but I avoid them and stores in general at this time of year. People are just rude. I live in a small town now and our friends down there would bend over backwards to help you with the simplest of things and even get mad if we need help and don't ask for it.

[Luvsaugeri]

Very good deed for sure!! It's scary to be a female alone in that situation.....you just never know.

Good on ya!!

[NealIsGod]

He should have just shown her this.

[Journey Mom]

Kudos to you for helping the lady out. I work in a grocery store. The customers make such a mess that the store has someone come in overnight to do nothing but put the place back together. The store loses tons of money because people are too lazy to put perishables they decide they don't want back in the regular aisles. And people wonder why the price of food is so high.

[jrnychick]

Kudos to you for helping out that woman! The world needs more good samaritans.

[bluejeangirl76]

She was very thankful for the help, but looked offended that I wouldn't accept money for helping her. I just told her Merry Christmas

I'm sure she wasn't offended... probably very surprised to happen across a stranger that would help her out of nothing more than plain simple kindness and goodwill. You're a good dude, T. Nothing worse than being stuck with car trouble, especially if you're a lady who doesn't know jack all about cars (like me ), and especially in mid-winter.

I've been in that position and because of that, I'm always willing to haul out my cables if I see someone in need of a jumpstart, or something. But I always go "Sure, I have cables for you, but do you know how to do it, because I can never remember what gets hooked up first, or where..."

[Arianddu]

I'm glad you got your good deed for the day, but it saddens me that she felt she needed to offer you money. What kind of world do we live in where it's become so rare that people just help each other out when needed? Even the 'pay it forward' idea kind of saddens me, because it still implies a debt instead of a gift.

Sigh. I think we need to re-embrace the original meaning of 'charity' - love and compassion for all humanity without thought of reward or favour.

[bluejeangirl76]

Even the 'pay it forward' idea kind of saddens me, because it still implies a debt instead of a gift.

I never think of it like that. I love the 'pay it forward' idea. I use it a lot!
It's like... ok, someone did something really cool for me with nothing expected in return, so why shouldn't I do the same?

Example... I have this really great friend, but a few years ago, when I still didn't know her that well, she hooked me up with every single Journey dvd (boot) she had. I had literally nothing for "trade". She said she didn't care, and that's not why she wanted to do it. She told me basically "we're friends and I want you have these, so here..."

Of course, I nabbed a few on my own eventually and sent her copies also, but I did the same thing... a lot of people have mentioned wanting this or that one, and I've sent out SO many PMs to people saying "you want it you got it, no strings..."

Which reminds me -- Nora, I didn't forget about your shirt, its in the envelope, I just have to remember to grab it on the way out the door.... and there's someone else I promised a DVD to... I didn't forget that either, the Post It note is on my monitor... I WILL do it... ran out of discs though.

[Arianddu]

Even the 'pay it forward' idea kind of saddens me, because it still implies a debt instead of a gift.

I never think of it like that. I love the 'pay it forward' idea. I use it a lot!
It's like... ok, someone did something really cool for me with nothing expected in return, so why shouldn't I do the same?

Example... I have this really great friend, but a few years ago, when I still didn't know her that well, she hooked me up with every single Journey dvd (boot) she had. I had literally nothing for "trade". She said she didn't care, and that's not why she wanted to do it. She told me basically "we're friends and I want you have these, so here..."

Of course, I nabbed a few on my own eventually and sent her copies also, but I did the same thing... a lot of people have mentioned wanting this or that one, and I've sent out SO many PMs to people saying "you want it you got it, no strings..."

Which reminds me -- Nora, I didn't forget about your shirt, its in the envelope, I just have to remember to grab it on the way out the door.... and there's someone else I promised a DVD to... I didn't forget that either, the Post It note is on my monitor... I WILL do it... ran out of discs though.

It's not an individual deciding to do it that saddens me, it's the idea that if someone does something to help someone out, they then say 'do the same for someone else one day'. And maybe saddens is the wrong word; I just wish it hadn't become so rare that people help each other out that it's become something special.

[Blueskies]

There is only one time that I recall actually telling someone to pay it forward when I did something for them and that was to let them know that they didn't have to pay me back...so I just do things for people without any expectations because it should not have to be said and I hope they will just understand that they should do something good for someone as well without needing to be told to. The pay it forward concept is a good one though, when acts of kindness are becoming more rare then promoting the idea that they should be done in return down the line .. from one person helping the other out then snowballing to the next and the next....with growth it wouldn't be rare anymore but commonplace.

[Barb]

I don't even understand why people need to write checks at stores anymore. Since the invention of the debit Visa card, I have only written checks to pay certain bills that I can't pay on line.

[Jana]

Even the 'pay it forward' idea kind of saddens me, because it still implies a debt instead of a gift.

I never think of it like that. I love the 'pay it forward' idea. I use it a lot!
It's like... ok, someone did something really cool for me with nothing expected in return, so why shouldn't I do the same?

Example... I have this really great friend, but a few years ago, when I still didn't know her that well, she hooked me up with every single Journey dvd (boot) she had. I had literally nothing for "trade". She said she didn't care, and that's not why she wanted to do it. She told me basically "we're friends and I want you have these, so here..."

Of course, I nabbed a few on my own eventually and sent her copies also, but I did the same thing... a lot of people have mentioned wanting this or that one, and I've sent out SO many PMs to people saying "you want it you got it, no strings..."

Which reminds me -- Nora, I didn't forget about your shirt, its in the envelope, I just have to remember to grab it on the way out the door.... and there's someone else I promised a DVD to... I didn't forget that either, the Post It note is on my monitor... I WILL do it... ran out of discs though.

It's not an individual deciding to do it that saddens me, it's the idea that if someone does something to help someone out, they then say 'do the same for someone else one day'. And maybe saddens is the wrong word; I just wish it hadn't become so rare that people help each other out that it's become something special.

I agree with BJG. When I do something nice for someone, it's not that I have to say that. But usually they always say they want to pay me for it or you didn't have to do this and I will make it up to you someday, and that's the segue for me to say: No need to do something for me. I wanted to do it. Just pay it forward. Everybody walks away with a smile on their face.