“Back in the day”- remember that term? Back in the day, grocery stores would have a multitude of workers, making the shopper’s experience an enjoyable one. Nowadays, with the downturn in the economy, positions and hours within jobs have been drastically cut.

With this in mind, many people still expect the full experience when shopping.  I was at the grocery store the other day picking up a few things, and most of the time I go through the self checkout lines.  They were very busy, so I decided to go through a full checkout counter. I noticed how the customers being checked started bagging their own groceries, until a courtesy clerk came up to finish the order. A manager came up to the clerk after they were done bagging and told them to go clean a few things, so they had to leave the checkout counter.

The cashier started ringing up the next transaction. The order got completely rung up, but the cashier then had to bag the entire order before the customer could leave. the same thing happened again on the next transaction. The third transaction started, the one before me, and about halfway through the order; the cashier asked the customer if they wanted to start bagging their items, since they would be able to get out of the checkout line faster. That’s when a disgruntled customer said, “Isn’t that your job!?”

The cashier agreed, but before she started bagging, I walked around the very abrupt customer, and started bagging for the cashier. I then said to the customer,  “She wasn’t trying to be rude, she was just trying to get you through the checkout line quickly so that you didn’t have to wait around forever to get your groceries bagged.”

He then told me that they, grocery stores, have been bagging groceries forever and asked why he had to start doing it now.  I replied jokingly, “You know that times have changed since back in the day, right?”

He got upset, grabbed his groceries, and walked away. I then looked at the cashier and apologized for the rude and lazy customers, and she laughed and said it was normal.

Why is this normal?  If we as human beings are wanting to stray away from being lazy and being more connected with our communities, why not start small and work our way up? Don’t we all like a little help every now and again?

Let’s all try to help a person trying to work with us.  There is no reason to be rude to people trying to help us with our day, and there is absolutely no reason to just stand there and be lazy when you can get up and do something about it.  I challenge you all to help someone who is trying to help others but might need a little assistance themselves, or to just get up and not just watch others do something that you yourself could easily do.