As much as I hated to, I stopped by Wal-Mart on my way home from work this evening to pick up rechargeable batteries. When I walked up front to check out I ended up in line in the self-checkout lane. I made my way up to the head of the line when I observed a middle-aged man slipping up through the adjacent checkout. He cut between the self-checkout kiosks and parked himself at the checkout where a lady was almost finished. Anyone who knows me knows that's a HUGE pet peeve of mine and a sure way to piss me right off. So, naturally I spoke up.
"Excuse me, sir!" No response. "Excuse me, sir, but the line starts back HERE!" "Sir, there are people waiting in line!" He turned and looked at me and said, "I'm waiting in line right HERE."
I shook my head, and walked up to where he was standing. "Sir, there are people waiting in line. Please get in line with everyone else!" He wanted to continue to argue, repeating that he was waiting in line right there. I met his gaze, not blinking and not backing down. Every time he said he was waiting in line right there I repeated that there were people who were waiting in line and he needed to get to the end of the line. Finally he grudgingly stepped aside and said, "Fine, go ahead". I said, "Sir, you still need to get in line with everyone else." He again said, "Go ahead in front of me." I said, "Sir, I'm not going to crowd this lady who is trying to check out. Please go and wait in line like everyone else!"
Finally, one of the Wal-Mart Customer Service Managers came over and asked the man to get to the end of the line. As she was leaving, the lady who was checking out on the register the man was trying to claim whispered, "I'm glad you said something." After I checked out, the Wal-Mart employee who was watching over the self-checkout lanes smiled and said with more feeling than normal, "Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart and please come back soon!" I stopped and apologized for the altercation, and she explained that she was training and didn't know what to do so she was glad when the senior employee came over and told the other man to please get in line. The whole time, I was respectful and never appeared angry but I was tired and I wasn't going to let someone just waltz up and jump in front of everyone in line. I have no idea, maybe this person was some local big shot or something (as I said, he was a well-dressed middle-aged man) but I don't care who he is. He is no better than anyone else and he can wait his turn.
The scary part was that since I came there straight from work I didn't have my gun on me. If he had followed me into the parking lot to kick my ass I would have just had to either hold my own in a fight with him or run... I'm such a non-confrontational person, but the reason people think they can get away with stuff like that is because no one ever speaks up. |
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