This is becoming an epidemic! Not the maligning of Millennials. The actions of Millennials! I swear, before you know it, they're going to take over the niche of kids walking across our lawns! Faster than you can shake a fist at!
I dashed in The Devil's Playground on Friday, just to pick up some treats for my own special Millennials, to send them each a Halloween package. The Pony needs it more than Genius. In fact, I asked Genius if he wanted one, and he said he did, but smaller than last year's, because he is watching his sugar intake. The Pony says his Bestie snorted at that, and labeled Genius a HIPSTER.
Anyhoo...I thought I was dashing in to buy candy, and also beef jerky (for Genius). Let the record show that there was no dashing involved. I carried my umbrella because of rain, and parking way up in the last 1/4 of the parking lot. The Devil is busy on Fridays. Once inside, after bucking Hillmomba social mores and going in through the actual ENTER door...I shook my umbrella on the narrow strip of carpet, folded it, and put it inside a cart. Which I then pushed from the entry area into the actual store.
Anyone who's a regular customer of The Devil's Playground knows that the store part is separated from the cart-housing entry area by one of those stand-up thingies to beep if you try to shoplift unscanned merchandise. That stand-up beeper is in the middle of the passage, with a bench against each wall for old men waiting on their wives. So there are two pathways, a little more than the width of two carts, for people to get in and out.
I made it through that part. But just on the other side, in the store proper, was a circle of five "Associates." That's the official job title of The Devil's Handmaidens and Henchmen. They were just chatting up a storm, but not directly impeding my dash. They had some empty tall cargo carts parked near them. The kind like big shelves on wheels, that they use for putting merchandise on the regular shelves. As I started to wheel my cart/walker past those cargo carts, in the aisle between them and the seasonal items along the left entry wall, I had to stop dead in my tracks.
TANDEM MILLENNIALS AT TWELVE O'CLOCK!
Yep. Coming right toward me, like a runaway stagecoach team, were two female Millennials, perhaps early twenties in age. Could one of them drop back, to pass by me single-file? NOT-HEAVEN NO! Because they were entitled, you see. Entitled to walk side-by-side, sporting their ASSOCIATE vests and nametags, to join the other five in their circle, my dash be darned! I had to come to a full stop with my cart, until they broke apart to pass by me. No way was I going to BACK UP and let them through.
I'm pretty sure the purpose of having a store is to let customers inside to possibly buy things. Not storm at them like you're NOT-HEAVEN-BOUND on winning a game of pedestrian chicken.
Because I'm an entitled Baby Boomer, and avoid confrontation...I muttered under my breath as they passed. "Don't let ME get in your way. I'm only here to spend money." It's not like they heard me. They were too busy tossing their hair and talking about their personal lives.
3 comments:
One must never let a job get in the way of "tossing their hair and talking about their personal lives."!!
You should have kept going and made them separate sooner, being as entitled as they are. Groups of "workers" gathering near the front of stores is frowned upon out here, with front-end supervisors moving them on to other jobs quick smart.
I love that you still have benches for people to sit on while waiting for someone else. We had them here in the past and some places still have them, actually a lot of places, but usually out in the mall area. Where I worked at Coles the "in store but by the windows before you get to the checkouts and store proper" waiting benches were removed because they often held old people just coming in out of the heat or cold, and they'd sit there nattering contentedly, but not coming into the store proper to shop, which I thought was a harsh move on the part of management. For that store, the outside area was an open mall, so all the old people moved across the road to the closed mall and took any shopping friends with them.
fishducky,
That seems to be their personal motto!
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River,
I can see how that would be considered abuse of benches if no shopping ensued. This Devil's Playground has nothing within old-people walking distance, so they are definitely there as shoppers, or accompanying shoppers.
If I had kept going, I would have definitely hit those chatters. They were seasoned pros in the arena of pedestrian chicken.
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