u/DonatCotten

So a few days ago I got an older woman customer (she looked 60's-70's) at the register who had her hair dyed pink. The transaction went normally and after handing her her last bag and receipt I say "I just want to tell you I really like your hair color and think it looks good" she then raises her eyebrow gives me a funny look and says "uh okay" and walks away.

I remember feeling like shit afterwards and thinking maybe what I said was wrong or somehow inappropriate, but I'm having a hard time coming up with anything. She was at least old enough to be my grandmother so I definitely wasn't hitting on her and I was genuinely trying to be nice because I actually like when older people dye their hair unconventional colors (like Red, Blue, Green, Pink ect) so I didn't understand what I did to cause that type of reaction. I wasn't expecting anything other than a thank you at a minimum and now I am no longer going to give any type of a compliment to an older customer with unconventional dyed hair because I don't feel comfortable anymore. I just don't understand what I did here! 😔

So I was checking out a customer and he's trying to make small talk with me while I'm bagging his stuff (not helping of course!) and he asks me about the FIFA World Cup and if I watched the last game. I politely tell him I don't follow or watch sports. He has a shocked look on his face and says "What do you mean you don't watch sports? Are you really a guy or like one of those gay trans people or something?" At this point I just lose it and say " Believe it or not I'm a straight guy that doesn't like sports! We exist. also I'm busy and I've got better things to do with my time than watch a bunch of over paid athletes kick or throw a ball on for several hours. The fans are usually psychotic and that stuff bores the shit out of me and i'd rather watch paint dry on a wall than watch a game" Okay I admit my reply was very rude and it went too far but after what this homophobic loser said I didn't care.

He takes his stuff after paying with his card and then says he's positive I'm a gay or trans because no normal guy doesn't watch sports! He storms off and since this was at the end of my shift I guess I'll find out tomorrow if he called and complained to my manager about what I said.

What the hell is wrong with this guy? I don't give a shit about sports and when I told him I didn't watch the games he should have dropped it instead of insulting me for not being some hyper macho crazed sports fan. Maybe I'm not normal but I'm not going to start watching or following sporting events just to fit in.

I often see people make lists of the best or most underrated episodes, but I thought it would be more interesting to see people make a top 5 by picking one episode from each season that they feel was the best.

My picks are

Season 1 What You Need

Season 2 Nick of Time

Season 3 Two

Season 4 In His Image

Season 5 The Long Morrow

The amount of people that expect me to babysit their purchases while they either run to the bathroom or want to do additional shopping is insane. And without fail they always say they'll be just five minutes and then come back an hour later complaining their cart was moved or that I wasn't watching it for an hour! Uh no shit Karen I wasn't staring at your cart or keeping an eye on and guarding it for an hour! 🙄

Last time I checked that wasn't my job and you can clearly see I'm busy working on register scanning items and bagging for other entitled customers. I usually will try to keep an eye on someone's cart but if they tell me five minutes and don't show up anywhere close to that time (my limit is 10 minutes when someone tells me 5 which is more than fair and reasonable) Then I no longer "keep an eye" on their cart. If someone doesn't respect me enough to realize I'm busy working and keeping an eye on their cart for 10 minutes while I'm working is a courtesy then I no longer give their cart a second thought after that time passes. That customer didn't give a second thought to keeping their word with me so fair is fair. Customers sure hate it when they are on the receiving end of their indifference to others.

Working retail has really opened my eyes to just how selfish and hypocritical most people are and how they behave as if they are the only people in the world that matter. Even showing basic human decency like not blocking an isle or saying please, sorry or excuse me is completely foreign to them. And the hypocrisy is even more frustrating!

One time I had a woman come to my register talking on her phone the whole time not even acknowledging me or giving me an answer when I said hello or asked if she wanted a bag with her purchase. So since she is making it clear I'm not a human being in her eyes I just silently continue the transaction and when she is done paying I put the receipt on the counter without saying anything. Apparently this offended her because she called and complained saying I was rude because I didn't wish for her to have a good day! I guess she didn't like being on the receiving end of her own selfish behavior big surprise! 🙄

Anyone else have examples of customers being selfish hypocrites? How do you deal with it? I internalize everything and I definitely no longer have the view that deep down most people are good.

I recently rewatched this episode and feel it is one of the better and more underrated "message" episodes of Twilight Zone. The main character named Jackie Rhodes (played by Joe Mantell) is alone in his room and about to make the most destructive decision of his life by taking part in a hit that deep down he knows he won't get away with. He then sees a part of himself in the mirror that argues with him about all the bad decisions he's made and how he's made a complete mess of everything and pretty much wasted the life he was given. The other Jackie Rhoades in the mirror (basically the better part of him) argues with him insisting he should be allowed to take over and start making decisions because the bad self destructive version of him was about to make a decision that would completely destroy what was left of his life.

I love how the main character in this fights against changing by trying to convince himself his life isn't the mess that it is and deep down feeling he's too old and it's too late to change things. I always felt this episode could be taken either literally or figuratively meaning the man didn't argue with or see a different part of himself in the mirror, but did some deep introspective soul searching in that room.

I actually liked how the ending of the episode was very optimistic because I feel had this episode been part of a different anthology series (like Black Mirror) the main character would have had a much darker and hopeless ending with either his self destructive side winning out or him getting killed.

I think this episode is very relatable because we all have regrets as we age and that is especially true for those whose life didn't turn out the way they wanted and have more regrets than most. They convince themselves they are too old or too set in their ways to change or fix things. I loved the message that it is never too late to fix things going wrong in your life as long as you are willing to honestly address the problems and become the type of person to take the actions needed change. In Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room it shows how despite it feeling impossible to fix things or change our lives once it is set on a certain path the truth is that there is always hope. Nobody is a lost cause unless they allow themselves to be.

I've watched a ton of other anthology series such as The Outer Limits, Tales From The Crypt, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Tales From the Darkside, Love Death and Robots, Tales of the Unexpected, Creepshow (the 2019 series), Thriller, The Hitchhiker, and Night Visions.

While there are definitely some exceptions the majority of the episodes for those series I listed above had dark pessimistic endings for the episodes. Even newer ones I've not seen yet that are compared to Twilight Zone like Black Mirror apparently have mostly very dark endings. It makes things fairly predictable in a way because while you don't know exactly how things will play out you do know it won't be good!

With Twilight Zone I can watch an episode and not know for certain if it will have a happy or dark ending. It isn't even always the unsympathetic characters that have dark endings either because some episodes with good characters that were very sympathetic still had very dark or sad endings (The Long Morrow broke me 😭).

It made me realize how balanced Twilight Zone was because it had so many episodes that showed the good humanity was capable of and then you had episodes like The Monsters on Maple Street and The Shelter that did not shy away from the darker aspects of people. I actually like that balance because I feel it gives a more honest view of humanity rather than just focusing on optimism or pessimism when it comes to people.

I have so many customers that will have their total purchase be under 20 dollars and instead of using a 20 they always pay with a 100! My store also does cashback and coinstar payouts at the register so because of this and the fact customers make demands about what denomination of bills they want back (one lady wanted her $50 cash back in ten 5's!🙄) I am constantly running out of 20's, 10's and 5's! Stop doing this! It is not a flex that you pay with a 100 and if that is all you have either go to bank to break it (the bank is literally a one minute walk from my store and will break bills for non-bank customers) or use it on a larger purchase that would make using a bigger bill more appropriate.

The ATMs near the banks by me literally just give back 20's so these are intentionally going to a teller in the bank and getting a bunch of 100's which is insane. I personally don't have or keep any bill higher in my wallet than a 20 and am sick of customers complaining about finances when paying with a 100 or cursing me out since my register doesn't have money to make change because the 10 jerks before them decided to pay with a 100 in the express line for a under 20 dollar purchase! It's almost like these people actually get off on causing me problems! If you pay for a small purchase with a 100 it is not a flex I'm just going to assume you're a loser who is terrible with money.

It is actually soul crushing to work retail and see just how selfish, cold hearted, short sighted and ignorant most people are. It is very scary when you think about it because you realize that if the average person is like this then society could very easily collapse were something seriously catastrophic to happen. I genuinely think most people feed themselves the delusion that deep down they are good and no unfortunately they aren't. Most people would turn on each other without a second thought if they had to in order to save themselves even if by doing so it would lead to their own demise in the long run.

People can't even be bothered to do the bare minimum like saying sorry when they bump into someone, not block an isle or have the humility to see the world doesn't revolve around them. For example I treat the people around with basis kindness, respect, and actually consider how my actions affect other people around me and to be clear I am by no means a good person or deserve brownie points for doing those things. It takes no real time or effort to do those things and I feel there is no excuse not to. It seems most people want the benefits of living in a civilized society without actually doing their part (no matter how small) to make it work for everyone. Like I'm actually terrified of people seeing how selfish they are and I just can't look at them the same way anymore and it has had a huge impact on my mental health.

I cannot for the life of me understand how so many people are able to do shopping on a weekday morning and afternoon. I can understand the ones who are retirement age, but half the people I see at the store during 9 to 5 hours are young enough to still be working and I'm not even counting the door dash/instacart shoppers in that 50% either! And it can't be them buying stuff on break either when it isn't a few things but they have carts overflowing with stuff. I assumed the majority of people had to work 9 to 5 jobs and yet that time period is actually busier at my store on a weekday than the evening is when most people should be out of work! What is going on?

I work as a cashier at a store and since I don't drive I have to walk to work. I had one customer who shows up every so often mention he saw me outside of work. I say "oh where did you see me?" This guy mentions at my house because he now knows where I live!. He says he was driving by the street I live on and that he noticed me walking on the sidewalk while he was driving so he slowed down his car (wtf?!)and watched me as I was walking up the driveway toward the back door of the house! He then asks me why I didn't use the front door to enter my house.

The real reason I use the backdoor is I have stray animals in my backyard that I feed and am friendly with like cats and opposums (please don't judge me lol) and they will wait for me by the backdoor when I come home so I use the back door to see if they are there so I know if they are looking for food so I can help feed them.

Now I don't tell this guy this because once he mentions he actually slowed down his car and watched me walking up my driveway I shut down and don't know what to say because I am now very uncomfortable and creeped out by what he did. He then smiles and says "isn't it cool I know where you live now?"... No you fucking creep! it's not cool! I make it perfectly clear with my body language and lack of talking he has crossed a line and is making me uncomfortable he then asks me is something wrong? And I don't even reply because I'm still trying to process this. He takes his stuff and says I'm being rude and weird (yah he's one to talk!) and that maybe he'll have a talk with my manager or even go to my house and talk with whoever I live with about my unprofessional behavior(I actually now live alone because my grandpa died last year, but I'm sure as hell not telling him that I live alone!).

I am so angry, creeped out and upset by this. What 50 year old looking man tells a cashier he sees that looks like he's in his 20's that they watched him walk home and not think for a second that maybe that person would be creeped out an older person they don't even know watched them and now knows where they live?

I am so sick of people like this. Just because I wear a nametag and work a retail job does not give you any right to know anything about my personal life or where I live. I am literally a stranger walking on the sidewalk unless I am at a crosswalk there is no reason for anybody driving to pay attention to me and yet this creep felt he had a right to pry when he saw me. I honestly feel so violated by this and it really is upsetting to me because now whenever I walk home I feel uncomfortable now and feel I have to worry if some creepy and nosey customer is eyeballing me and I don't feel that is right or that I should feel I have to deal with that.