Sunday, October 18th, 2009...6:44 pm
Saturday Night’s Alright (For Expectorating)
The new wrinkle in the balls that are my work life is this, I have been sentenced to the Saturday night shift. Now I won’t pretend that I had an active social life and this is killing it, but I am generally off on Sundays and Saturday night was the one time I could go out and feel like an almost normal person with a sort-of weekend. Poo.
As an example of how different weekend customers are from weekday, I give you this:
Sat and Sun usually include some cooking demos/sampling, and yesterday was no exception. As I got my zen on by chopping a truckload of flowers, I watched the world go by; many of “the world” congregating around the free food. I had to laugh at the aggressive way people were using their bodies to ensure that no one would get to the miniature portions of things they could normally care less about, before they did. I was enjoying the absurd comedy when something caught my eye. It happened so quickly that I couldn’t be sure what happened until I looked down. A well-dressed woman elbowed (well, technically, oversize pursed) her way to the front of the herd. She pushed her way back out, looking victorious, holding a tiny bowl that contained a tiny bite of food and a tiny spoon. Outside of the pack, she used the micro-utensil to shovel the whole sample into her mouth. She then made a sour face like a toddler forced to eat yucky vegetables, bent over, and spit the sample onto the floor. Spit. On. The. Floor. She then turned from the food loogie she had deposited on the tile, set the tiny bowl and spoon on a produce table, and walked away from the whole mess.
Look, it’s not that a weekday customer WOULDN’T do that, but I’ve found that people tend to behave better in a store they frequent daily for things that they need, as opposed to someone who breezes in while bored to turn her nose up at things, including free food (have you seen me? I have never in my life turned my nose up at complimentary vittles). And I sure as heck don’t want to spend my Saturday nights catering to these people.
12 Comments
Twitter: homesliceva
October 18th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
oh man. saturdays??? really??? that’s so wrong. and food loogies?!?!? if some of these people are actually my neighbors, i’m going to have to shoot myself.
October 18th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Think that’s bad, try shopping on old folks day…. man, those codgers are feisty… And sad to say, I am one. Want to really experience pushy? Try the Golden Corral on Sunday afternoon, you would think it was some of these folks last meal, come to think of it, it might well be. Still, I try to be courteous to the associates even though I am hopped up on pain killers. Bet you didn’t know that Vicodin causes nasty mood swings. Seems to add to my “old timers” too. Now… What were you talking about????
October 18th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Oh yeah…. Sorry about your Saturdays….
October 18th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Geez, that’s pretty bad any day of the week, much less Saturday night- wtf ever happened to manners?
October 19th, 2009 at 5:28 am
Well, if you work where I think you work, the pumpkin pie that was offered this weekend was extremely dismal. Too much fake cinnamon (cassia bark). I didn’t spit, though.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:31 am
Oh, how I would love to see your shop install security cameras and a humongous jumbo tron. Can you imagine the look on well-dressed woman’s face as her food loogie debacle is replayed, in slow motion, repeatedly, for the entire store to see?!
October 19th, 2009 at 9:45 am
…and I vote for Instant Replay.
Food sampling should not be a spectator sport.
October 21st, 2009 at 1:16 pm
All your stories from your job take place at the drug store I worked at for a year or so back in high school. Makes them even more entertaining than they already are. Thank you for your observations from behind the counter. I love it.
Amy
November 1st, 2009 at 11:12 am
New reader – just found your site via Twitter and loving it! So, I think I know where you work, and although this might seem mild in comparison, I was there one Saturday (or was it Sunday?) where I watched a guy eat his weight in pound cake samples. He would get a piece, walk away, circle the bakery, come right back and get more, again and again. As if no one could tell what he was doing. I wanted to hand him some money and tell him to just buy a friggin’ cake already! Free samples are great, but like Halloween candy, the food’s right there for you when you want it, Mr. Grownup.
(Disclaimer, I do love me some Halloween candy).
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:31 am
I hope you think about these.
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/one-hundred-things-restaurant-staffers-should-never-do-part-one/?em
November 6th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
I agree! I used to work in a smoothie shop and weekend customers were a lot more uppity than the weekday joes and janes. A lot of them have too much free time on their hands. I worked at a bookstore before that and the weekenders really liked to challenge authority.
December 19th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
twojams-
How am I just seeing this? You are proving me right and I LOVE to be right! Seriously, though, it’s a frigging sample, not your geedee meal, mmmkay? Tiny Reese’s are my favorite. Welcome to my blog.
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