Considering my mild case of agoraphobia and my irrational fear of inconveniencing others, I'm not the most reliable source when it comes to common courtesy. My idea of common courtesy probably seems like insanity or obsessive compulsive disorder to other people, and there is a little bit of truth to that. But despite my neurosis, there are still some things that people do in public places that drive me a little bit crazy(er than usual). I don't know if it's the added stress from the economic cluster-cuss we're facing, but I'm worried that if I don't get some of this off my chest, I'm going to hit a stranger...in public...soon. (Well, probably not. I'll probably just glare at them...or think about glaring at them). Either way, as technology increases our ability to be a one-(wo)man show, common courtesy is starting to take a back-seat to instant gratification.
***Please don't be offended by my accusatory use of the 2nd person pronoun "you," especially if you are not guilty of the impertinent behaviors I will discuss below. If you are guilty of these discourtesies, feel free to be offended and maybe inspired to be less entitled. And if you are actually offended by this, just remember that I'm neurotic and riddled with social phobias. Who cares what I think?***
1. Please stop parking your car at the front of stores in order to return movies to the Red Box. Especially if you are visiting the Harris Teeter on Eastchester Drive in High Point, NC whose parking lot was obviously designed by a struggling insurance agent. I understand that returning a movie to the Red Box only takes a few minutes so it seems inconvenient to park your car a quarter mile away just to return a movie. This inconvenience is magnified if you have pets or small children in your car. When you park your car there, it blocks the continual flow of traffic so depending on the time of day, you could possibly be affecting the traffic patterns on Eastchester Drive (a major road in High Point) with your poor decision making skills and a borrowed copy of Despicable Me. Plus, it makes it very difficult for pedestrians who are trying to use the crosswalk. Your Suburban is blocking the view so people can't see the Sonata coming towards them until they've almost stepped out in front of it. I promise that returning your movie isn't more important than a person's safety. (Unless that person is a member of the Westboro "Church." Just kidding. Kind of.) The only time this is acceptable is if you have some type of injury that makes walking impossible or painful. I'm neurotic, not heartless.
2. If you have parked your car at the front of the store in order to use the Red Box, please practice common courtesy while using this most convenient invention. If you are not familiar with the Red Box A.) I'm sorry, and B.) it's a movie-kiosk that is placed in stores with $1.00 per night rentals. It usually holds newer releases and classics, but most Red Box kiosks probably hold at least 100 titles. While I thoroughly enjoy the convenience of the Red Box, I've also seen some of the most shameless displays of impatience and anger while waiting in line to rent or return a movie. I do not condone that type of behavior, but in the enraged movie-renter's defense, it's not entirely their fault. The Red Box is like a movie store because you can rent movies from it. In an actual movie store, you are encouraged to take your time and browse through all the titles, read all the blurbs on the backs of the cases, check IMDB ratings on your iPhone, etc. However, if you are doing these things at the Red Box, that means everyone else who wants to rent a movie is waiting on you. And after about 3 minutes of browsing, they aren't just waiting on you. They've started to hate you, too. If there is no one in line behind you at the Red Box, browse away. Or if you are Will Smith in "I Am Legend" you can take your time. But if there is a line of 5 people behind you, it seems like common courtesy to have some idea of what you want to check out. Scrolling through 80 movies and reading the description of each one doesn't make sense because the Red Box isn't an actual movie store. It's a movie-kiosk that only one person can use at a time...so hustle...just a little...please?
3. If you decide to do some grocery shopping after picking out a movie at the Red Box, please practice common courtesy at the self-checkout station. First of all, there is 1 line at the self-checkout. It's 1 line that feeds into four registers. So stop trying to make it two lines or four lines. Secondly, the self-checkout is for people who are only buying a few items. If you look at the weight sensitive bagging area, there is only room for 4 bags of groceries. So ma'am, your 300 dollars worth of groceries isn't going to fit in four bags. You are in the wrong line. I understand that you left your Suburban parked at the front of the store and then spent 20 minutes looking for a movie before settling on The Lake House for the fourth time, but now my orange sherbet push-ups have melted because of you. And after they refreeze, they will taste faintly of cardboard. I know that you want to purchase your feminine products, hemorrhoid cream, and Activia without anyone knowing about it, but you're holding up this entire operation with your (surprising) modesty. This line was convenient until you showed up. The self-checkout is one of the few perks of being a single person in the grocery store. So take your 10 boxes of Capris Sun to aisle 12 where Tammi will gladly ring you up in half the time. And by the way, why aren't you at Costco?
4. After ringing up your own groceries for 25 minutes, you push your cart back out to your car. If you have rudely decided that parking spots are arbitrary, this might not apply to you. But if you have parked in a designated spot on the horizon, than you might be tempted to abandon your shopping cart. In my own psychotic, over-analytical brain, shopping carts have become a symbol of our society's heightened sense of entitlement and general decline into mediocrity. The store has provided you with the common courtesy of a shopping cart. Therefore, it is common courtesy to return that cart to the store. And we don't even have to push the cart all the way back to the store. Our laziness was anticipated. Cart-return areas were created for our convenience. Now, people don't even have the common courtesy to push their carts to the cart-return area which is usually no more than 30-50 feet away from their vehicle. (I've switched from 2nd person to 3rd, because I know, dear reader, that you do not do this...it is too despicable). When they don't return their cart, some unfortunate employee has to walk around the parking lot (which thanks to the people who park at the front of the store, is a very dangerous place) collecting illegitimate carts. Or, it will sit in a perfectly good parking spot which keeps people from parking in the designated area. They might be more inclined to park their cars at the front of the store, thus creating a vicious cycle. Come on people. I bet these non-cart returners don't return library books either until they are offensively overdue. Jerks.
I feel like if every one just made these four small changes, then strangers would be less likely to hate one another.
And please forgive me for the grumpiness of this blog. Daylight savings in the spring makes me cranky. Despite the tone and subject matter of this blog, it was an absolutely beautiful day in Central North Carolina.
***Please don't be offended by my accusatory use of the 2nd person pronoun "you," especially if you are not guilty of the impertinent behaviors I will discuss below. If you are guilty of these discourtesies, feel free to be offended and maybe inspired to be less entitled. And if you are actually offended by this, just remember that I'm neurotic and riddled with social phobias. Who cares what I think?***
1. Please stop parking your car at the front of stores in order to return movies to the Red Box. Especially if you are visiting the Harris Teeter on Eastchester Drive in High Point, NC whose parking lot was obviously designed by a struggling insurance agent. I understand that returning a movie to the Red Box only takes a few minutes so it seems inconvenient to park your car a quarter mile away just to return a movie. This inconvenience is magnified if you have pets or small children in your car. When you park your car there, it blocks the continual flow of traffic so depending on the time of day, you could possibly be affecting the traffic patterns on Eastchester Drive (a major road in High Point) with your poor decision making skills and a borrowed copy of Despicable Me. Plus, it makes it very difficult for pedestrians who are trying to use the crosswalk. Your Suburban is blocking the view so people can't see the Sonata coming towards them until they've almost stepped out in front of it. I promise that returning your movie isn't more important than a person's safety. (Unless that person is a member of the Westboro "Church." Just kidding. Kind of.) The only time this is acceptable is if you have some type of injury that makes walking impossible or painful. I'm neurotic, not heartless.
2. If you have parked your car at the front of the store in order to use the Red Box, please practice common courtesy while using this most convenient invention. If you are not familiar with the Red Box A.) I'm sorry, and B.) it's a movie-kiosk that is placed in stores with $1.00 per night rentals. It usually holds newer releases and classics, but most Red Box kiosks probably hold at least 100 titles. While I thoroughly enjoy the convenience of the Red Box, I've also seen some of the most shameless displays of impatience and anger while waiting in line to rent or return a movie. I do not condone that type of behavior, but in the enraged movie-renter's defense, it's not entirely their fault. The Red Box is like a movie store because you can rent movies from it. In an actual movie store, you are encouraged to take your time and browse through all the titles, read all the blurbs on the backs of the cases, check IMDB ratings on your iPhone, etc. However, if you are doing these things at the Red Box, that means everyone else who wants to rent a movie is waiting on you. And after about 3 minutes of browsing, they aren't just waiting on you. They've started to hate you, too. If there is no one in line behind you at the Red Box, browse away. Or if you are Will Smith in "I Am Legend" you can take your time. But if there is a line of 5 people behind you, it seems like common courtesy to have some idea of what you want to check out. Scrolling through 80 movies and reading the description of each one doesn't make sense because the Red Box isn't an actual movie store. It's a movie-kiosk that only one person can use at a time...so hustle...just a little...please?
3. If you decide to do some grocery shopping after picking out a movie at the Red Box, please practice common courtesy at the self-checkout station. First of all, there is 1 line at the self-checkout. It's 1 line that feeds into four registers. So stop trying to make it two lines or four lines. Secondly, the self-checkout is for people who are only buying a few items. If you look at the weight sensitive bagging area, there is only room for 4 bags of groceries. So ma'am, your 300 dollars worth of groceries isn't going to fit in four bags. You are in the wrong line. I understand that you left your Suburban parked at the front of the store and then spent 20 minutes looking for a movie before settling on The Lake House for the fourth time, but now my orange sherbet push-ups have melted because of you. And after they refreeze, they will taste faintly of cardboard. I know that you want to purchase your feminine products, hemorrhoid cream, and Activia without anyone knowing about it, but you're holding up this entire operation with your (surprising) modesty. This line was convenient until you showed up. The self-checkout is one of the few perks of being a single person in the grocery store. So take your 10 boxes of Capris Sun to aisle 12 where Tammi will gladly ring you up in half the time. And by the way, why aren't you at Costco?
4. After ringing up your own groceries for 25 minutes, you push your cart back out to your car. If you have rudely decided that parking spots are arbitrary, this might not apply to you. But if you have parked in a designated spot on the horizon, than you might be tempted to abandon your shopping cart. In my own psychotic, over-analytical brain, shopping carts have become a symbol of our society's heightened sense of entitlement and general decline into mediocrity. The store has provided you with the common courtesy of a shopping cart. Therefore, it is common courtesy to return that cart to the store. And we don't even have to push the cart all the way back to the store. Our laziness was anticipated. Cart-return areas were created for our convenience. Now, people don't even have the common courtesy to push their carts to the cart-return area which is usually no more than 30-50 feet away from their vehicle. (I've switched from 2nd person to 3rd, because I know, dear reader, that you do not do this...it is too despicable). When they don't return their cart, some unfortunate employee has to walk around the parking lot (which thanks to the people who park at the front of the store, is a very dangerous place) collecting illegitimate carts. Or, it will sit in a perfectly good parking spot which keeps people from parking in the designated area. They might be more inclined to park their cars at the front of the store, thus creating a vicious cycle. Come on people. I bet these non-cart returners don't return library books either until they are offensively overdue. Jerks.
I feel like if every one just made these four small changes, then strangers would be less likely to hate one another.
And please forgive me for the grumpiness of this blog. Daylight savings in the spring makes me cranky. Despite the tone and subject matter of this blog, it was an absolutely beautiful day in Central North Carolina.
That really is the worst parking lot in the history of human-kind. I avoid it like the plague.
ReplyDeleteIt IS the worst parking lot ever!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, one of the few delights of pregnancy I relish is walking from row 72 past all the idiots who would rather wait 14 years with their blinker on than get some actual exercise. I imagine that as I strut (okay, waddle) my butt by them in their stupid cars with their stupid blinkers, they think "hey, if she can do it, so can I!" (Of course, I know this isn't true because people are far too dense to have that kind of epiphany, but a girl can dream)
And for what it's worth, when said car is waiting for YOUR space with it's blinker on, begging you to hurry hurry hurry so they can steal your spot....there is no greater joy than returning your cart to the cart corral 10 rows away, rather than ditching it, getting in the car, and driving away!
I might have peed a little during #3. Especially because of the Tammi reference (is a different letter painted on each of her press-on nails?).
ReplyDeleteI was at this Harris Teeter today. I had a pretty good experience in the parking lot and in the self-checkout line. There was a great selection of soup and people seemed to follow the rules of the line of self-checkout. However, it seems like that situation when somebody kind of creates their own line is a sort of mistake or accidental selfishness. The quesiton I wonder about is when you will be the person who decides to begin to tell people that they are acting out of line.
ReplyDeleteI like that your blogging about High Point.
Nate Branson