u/spookygoose212

After working a stressful day at my own retail job I stopped into a small store I’ve never worked at but have shopped before and started shopping.

Went in there, was loudly (politely) greeted by a worker (it was super quiet in there, I was very much greeted as a customer and the music was off) and was one of maybe three customers in there at the time. I had gone in there for a keychain so I immediately walked over to the display and squatted down to shop the lower part of the display.

A woman in my age range who looked between late 20’s-early 30’s walks up to me while on the phone talking VERY loudly about nothing and confidently stomps over and, in the most hey-girlie-valley girl accent loudly asks “oh my gosh! Um, exxxx-cuuussseeee meeee!!!?? DO YOU WORK HEREEEE?” And I, wearing a sweater from an old-old job with the logo of a totally unrelated company and also not in the color or style of the employees uniforms of this store loudly exclaimed “Nope!”

I wasn’t trying to sound rude (I’m not sure if my tone came off as too direct so maybe i did) but internally I was mildly annoyed at how OBVIOUSLY I wasn’t an employee and i was in a but if a rush and fresh off my own busy day.

She goes “OH.” and turns away a bit flabbergasted and annoyed I wouldn’t help her anyway. On the phone (which was on speaker this whole time) a man on the other end full-on belly laughs and lets her know what a fool she made of herself (I’m thinking perhaps they were on a FaceTime?) and I’ve never felt so validated, like instant karma.

No offense to this lady, she was nice enough just annoying in tone and oblivious to her surroundings, but man I’m glad the guy pointed out the exact reasons I’ve listed here as to why she came off so oblivious and entitled.

I miss seeing all my friends post every silly thing they’re up to. I liked sharing what plants we were all growing in spring and what dinner we learned how to cook and seeing all of their accomplishments and proud moments of their kids and spouses and hobbies.

I miss connecting in a way that was no pressure because it wasn’t a direct message to someone but more just thrown out there so anyone on my friends list who felt like checking in could do so in a really casual way we could all stay in touch.

Now it’s been exposed (not that we didn’t know there was, but it clearly goes much deeper and more sneakily than maybe we all knew) that the internet is full of some really sketchy creeps, nastier people than ever, fake AI profiles, even more scammers, and companies somehow pushing even more advertisements to the average person who very soon won’t be able to fill their car with gas or buy essential groceries let alone buy something unnecessary.

I feel like everyone is either feeling to “paranoid” to be public (totally fair because it’s clearly not paranoid if it’s true), had a lot going on in their personal lives or the state of the world stressors, or just abandoned it for similar feelings as me where it’s just kind of died.

I’m just sad about it. I miss the culture of how it once was in my small corner of the internet. It makes the big world feel so tiny again. I know it was never perfect but I miss the whimsy.