Typical

Nothing new today, I worked and got to see the psyche ward candidates known as the general public.
  
The Elderly 
It started with the old people that should not be driving anymore, or should at least be getting tested on some sort of monthly/yearly basis. It scares me to see the same old people over and over on the road pulling off scary maneuvers that could more than likely kill someone. By scary maneuvers, I mean the simple act of pulling up to a spot when going to fill up their cars at the gas station. A task that is so easy is butchered on a daily basis by elderly customers.

There are a couple of main offenders that come to mind when I think of the elderly customers. The old man who has a piece of paper plastered to his front dash that reads, "Remember to keep your eyes open." I could not think of something more frightening at the time when I first saw that. How many people are in danger when this man gets behind the wheel of a car....How about the elderly woman that literally looks like she is dead, and when backing into a spot misses another car behind her by CENTIMETERS. When asked if she was aware that she almost hit the car behind her, she replies, "What car?"

Regardless of age, I will always treat people with respect unless they show me otherwise. I take extra care to the elderly and I am as patient as I can possibly be. I think of my grandmother and how I would want everyone else to treat her with the dignity and respect that I do. They drive me nuts AND scare me, but I would never treat them any different than I would my own grandmother.

Crackheads
Next on the list was the daily crackheads that occupy our wonderful city. Easily spotted from far away, these wonderful specimens twitch, scratch, speak loud, reek of ciggarettes and present the beautifully scabbed faces when looking in my direction. Often calling out to random strangers, co workers, or myself with that patented crackhead raspy voice. Sentences usually starting with, "HEY BUDDY", "HEY BRO",  or my personal favorite of not even addressing us and yelling out random sentences,"HOW'S THIS WORK?" "DO I SCAN THIS?", "REGULAR RIGHT?"

Now I know that drug addiction is a disease, and I know sometimes it's damn near impossible to kick these terrible habits, but I truly have no patience or caring for these individuals. Going to serve one of them consists of repeatedly asking them to put their ciggarette out, followed by asking if they have their discount card and then being told to use a  bunch of gift cards with random dollar amounts on them. How do these crack heads get these gift cards? EASY! Steal items from the store, bring it to customer service and receive a gift card for the price of the product returned! The company enables these crack fiends by giving them free product form the store, or in this case, gas for their car. Card dollar amounts often show as $2.99, $4.67 etc.

Our most recent crack heads have upped the ante and started trying to sell "gift cards" to random customers. "$50 for this $100 card Ma'am!" Security had to be called because we had so many people complaining to management before I could even notice what they were doing. I swear the city is being over run by these scummy pieces of crap.

Ignorant People
Another frequent at our establishment is the ignorant people.  I would NEVER treat someone differently because of their race/religious belief/color of skin. On a daily basis we have customers of all kinds. I greet everyone the same way. To avoid any misunderstandings, I am going to keep this very general and not get down to specific races/color etc. of people. Just an understanding, this includes all people.

Just today I had a woman who had an accent give me attitude while I tried to figure out what she wanted. When all was done and the pump was started, her immediate response was, "Good boy, very good boy."(VERY condescendingly) Others give me looks when I ask them how they are doing. I've heard mutterings of skin color on multiple occasions. I have been accused of being racist because I ask  for their money before pumping so I can set their pump to the correct amount they want.

I know that some cultures act VERY different from one another. What is acceptable in some places can seem taboo in others, but when you live in the U.S.A. you should have a general understanding of how things are performed and how some actions are perceived. The language barrier can be extremely aggravating for both sides at times, but because you can't speak proper English does not give you the right to be mad at me.

 People Who Thing They're More Important Than They Really Are
The person that is always more important than everyone else. This includes people who cut lines and block others in because they have been waiting longer than everyone else. They have places to be! The people who are on their cell phone because the conversation could not wait until after they were done with gas.(get mad when they don't receive exactly what they wanted because they were not paying attention) The people who ask you questions and when you give an answer, you are wrong. "How does this work?" *You explain slowly and detailed* "No! I did that, that does not work. I never have a problem with this. It's you people and the machines."

I didn't put much time into editing this post. I was more interested in getting down the thoughts before I forgot them. I am sure in every line of business you are going to run in to people who are just plain rude and ridiculous, but working with the public is just such a different experience than working in an office job. I had a funny conversation with a customer the other day about how we could write books and make reality T.V. shows about our jobs. Any job working with the public would be entertaining to most because you can see how crazy people act when they don't get their way. I shared two stories of my own with him that would probably be RTV gold! Youtube is definitely one of those outlets that is a source of reality at it's best. Some of the videos that go viral are because of how ridiculous people act to other people. I really should look in to making the book that I had an idea for many years ago. Just collecting stories from co workers about their own personal experiences in the store. It would definitely be a fun project.