Goat Day #6: Not so sweet home Alabama
15I’m not normally one to interfere with peoples decisions, however I find myself calling people out on their bullshit more and more. Earlier today while at Costco, I notice that while unloading my kids from the car, a shiny new cart appears beside the car. Is this a gift from somebody that knows that I will need a cart, so they left it for me? I doubt it. Normally, I let it slide… not this time.
I stroll up the the car beside me, already in the process of backing out, and knock on the window. I asked the driver (lady, probably upper 40’s) politely if she would mind taking her cart back to where she got it from, as it’s probably about a foot from my car, and the area is particularly windy and also don’t be a lazy bitch.
Her reasoning was that she looked, and didn’t see one of the many cart return places that was nearby. My rebuttal was of course that she was parked in the 2nd closest spot to the store (I was in the 1st), and it was a mere 20 foot walk to put it back where it came from. She continued to spew off excuses, so I just let her have it. I did everything except move the cart behind her car so she’d have to get out and move it.
Her final response was “Well, I was going to move it, but you had to be a smart ass about it” as she drives away. No lady, I gave you several chances to be an adult, and only after it was clear you give 0 shits about anybody but yourself, did I start becoming an asshole. It was at that point I noticed her plate read “God Bless America”.
Not sure if I should have let it go, but it seems like common decency is not all that common any more.
So, you ever get into it with a stranger? Who was the asshole in the situation?
- 13 comments, 4 replies
- Comment
Please be careful. I’m a gray-haired old lady with a cane, and if I take issue with some fuckhead, I do it when other people are around. That woman is scary.
You are not the asshole, but the problem is the asshole will not get it and will continue to be an asshole, or worse, graduate to full-on fuckface while interacting with you.
This same situation with shopping carts plays out often in Louisiana too. I’ve never actually called someone out on their bullshit, but I’ve wanted to.
Special note: I see she is an Alabama football fan. Therefore, she is entitled in her mind. You will not convert her with logic or decency.
Thank you. I am so happy you said something. I get quite aggravated myself with things like this but am too much of a confrontational chicken-shit to say anything. Plus where I live, I’m likely to get shot so it’s often best to keep my opinions to myself. I am very happy to see that there are people out there still who will stand up to folks who only think about themselves and no one else. This world has gone down hill very rapidly and kindness/thoughtfulness have been some of the first things to go. I make it a point to go out of my way to do those simple little things that have slipped by the wayside lately (hold a door for someone, or ask if they’d like me to return their just emptied cart for them) and I also try to make a big deal out of thanking anyone I see who does anything kind (holds a door/picks up something that was dropped) for me or someone else just to maybe help ingrain those kinds of behaviors in the future. I look forward to reading this topic and I hope there are more positive outcomes than negative.
@qwerty82
/giphy princess and the frog y’all from Shreveport?
@djslack Haha, nah I live in North Minneapolis. We get to the play the “was it fireworks or gunshots” game all summer up here
Side note: 2 days ago while on a late night run to McDonalds (don’t judge me) for a frappe, I saw an employee screaming at kids outside. On my way in, I overheard a lot of the conversation. The 17 year old worker was reaming them for being disrespectful, not cleaning up their mess etc. While I understand his frustration, the language he was using towards these customers was brutal. At one point I heard him saying that he doesn’t give a shit about his fucking job (I understood it as him not caring if he got fired for speaking his mind). Kudos to him for teaching some other kids respect, but in that situation, it really was overkill. He did apologize to me, gave me a free drink, and told me he was “raised to be respectful”… plus the music they were playing was my jam - Don’t Stop Believing. I was okay with it.
Also, I’m not in Alabama, I’m in the mid-west. The Costco driver was most likely just passing through.
You expect too much from your fellow mouth breathers. Lower your expectations and you will be much happier amongst the lesser beings with whom you share the planet.
The bright side is that being in her 40s, the chances of her bringing even more crotch fruit than she already has into the shallow end of the gene pool are slim.
/giphy honey badger don’t care
I once had someone push a cart next to my car door, blocking it so I couldn’t even get out. I don’t think they were intentionally barricading my door, but come on! I climbed out the passenger side and parked it behind their car. They didn’t see it until they had already hit the cart. Then I yelled about how it sucks when people leave their carts in the parking lot. She finally got out and pushed it to the return.
I normally park at the end of the parking lot, furthest from the entrance. You’re gonna walk a mile-and-a-half while you’re in the store, so adding another 150 feet to the trek isn’t a huge deal in the grand-scheme of things. I find the people that park out there, if any, are normally more considerate.
I’ve found that the older I get, the filter from brain-to-mouth has become shorter. I have no problem letting the ass clowns around me what I think of them. So far, no one has shot me
I’m the kind of person to always return my cart. I always hold the door for people. They’re just basic elements of human kindness and consideration that are disappearing quickly from society. I’ve spoken up many times, particularly about shopping carts. Most recently, it was when I rounded the corner behind the local Giant market and saw a guy pushing a cart up to the curb in front of his car. (Parked at the blue circle on the map.) I stopped and asked him if he was really too lazy to take it back to the front. There are no cart corrals on the back side there. He angrily told me that it wasn’t his cart. At that point I thought maybe I was being a bit rude and that he was leaving and that the cart was just sitting there so he was actually being slightly helpful by getting it out of the middle of the parking lot. I drove on to a parking spot near the front of the store. I was in the store for a few minutes when lo and behold, I turn around and see the same motherfucker actually in there shopping. I forced myself to walk away before I confronted him and it got ugly. I was right in the first place, he was too damn lazy to bring the cart with him as he was walking to the store.
I like Aldi’s because of the quarter carts. More often than not, I’ll pick up a cart from somebody unloading. I don’t know why more stores (looking at you Wal-Mart) don’t use a similar system.
I have often thought about confronting those throwing their cigarette butts out the car window. No only littering but a fire hazard on a dry summer day. Buy I figure it is 2% they’ll change, 40% they’ll just keep going and 58% I’ll end up on the ground bleeding.
@mollama As property manager, I’ll tell you smokers throwing their butts on the ground really irk me. I used to be a smoker, so I kinda understand it, but smoking is a nasty habit.
@mollama @therealjrn This was the result of someone throwing their cigar or cigarette in the mulch at a local bar/restaurant last year. There had been a large deck on that side.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/Cigarette-caused-fire-popular-Barnabys-pub-Havertown.html
Your post made me think of this video that’s been making the rounds on social media.
haha… good for you. Recently at Walmart in Hartselle, someone parked BEHIND (or in front of, however you look at it) the buggy bin, blocking off most of the lane. A bunch of us waited to see who the idiot was but they didn’t come out of the store for a good while so about 40 of us other customers all parked our buggies around their car blocking them in. I did take pics but can’t find them at the moment.