With that statement comes most of your rude interactions between customers and businesses. This Blanket brainless statement is the equivelant to a cop giving you a ticket then saying "have a nice day".
This morning I take Tristan (my 9yr old son) to 7-11 for some juice and a muffin before his first day of school. He was excited to start school with his new clothes and new back pack filled with nice new pencils he could play pencil wars with (he goes through thousands).
We walk into the same 7-11 that I get my coffee from most every morning. We are looking for some oj and the store clerk yells from across the store behind her counter that "your kid needs to put his pack up by the front door". "It's store policy no back packs in the store".
So how am supposed to take that??? Here was my thoughts and maybe I just belong back in a small town.
First off, the pack is brand new, full of new school supplies. I didn't feel comfortable just dropping it by the front door so any one of a thousand Florida bum loosers could grab it and go. So I stated to the clerk, "It's ok, he's with me"!
The old toothless crabby clerk yelled once again across the store and said "it doesn't matter if he is with you, you can't be in here with a pack, IT'S STORE POLICY".
NOW I'M WAY WAY WAY ANGRY. feel free to insert lots of curse words here!
So I drop the bottle of OJ right onto the floor, It was unopend and plastic so it wouldn't break, but it was a great physical way of showing how I felt. I took my son and walked up to the counter then told her she sees me in here all the G-d damn time and that I have a PERSONAL POLICY as to not letting any sorry son of bleepin person accuse or treat me like a damn comon criminal, let alone pulling that crap in front of my 9 yr old son. So then I said that since she has just broken my personal policies she could either change her way of treating me and my son or she and her company can go pee up a rope!!!
Once again, the toothless ignoramous just said "It's just store policy".
WHEN IS IT OK TO TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS LIKE WE ARE ALL CRIMINALS.
What the hell happened to good ol common sense???
I could see asking a group of teens with tattered jeans and skate boards to leave their packs. I don't agree with it because they are also inocent untill proven guilty and have rights too. But at least that would make more sense. I guess the store clerk sees a grown man with a young nice dressed 9yr old boy as a criminal threat as well.
So by now the manager (whom I always see and chat with) comes out of his office and is watching. And I told her while looking at him that the store policy is abusive to its customers and if the management can't hire anyone smart enough to see the differences in threat levels from a customer like me and my boy VS any of the Bums loitering out front of the store all day with no shirt, no job, and lots of tattoos, then I damn sure don't plan on stepping foot in this store again.
NOW AM I WRONG OR TOO SENSITIVE?
we left and went to another large convenient store whereas my boy asked me if he should take his back pack off before we left the truck. I told him "if you wanna wear it, then by all means son, you wear it". The store clerk whom I've never seen before complimented my sons hair and clothes and was super friendly. She was exchanging pleasantries with him about starting school today. Not being familiar with this store we had to walk most every isle in order to get him a nice blueberry muffin. It was easy going and a nice clean store. With me still being a little pissed off about 7-11, I told the friendly clerk what had happend at their competetors store and then told her that she would be seeing a bunch more of my boy and I because she just did a great job of earning my business. So long 7-11!!!
I think it is very important for me as a father to my son, to stand up for mine and his rights no matter how small the infringement is against us. I want him to know that he is the one who will decide how he will be treated regardless of any dumb a$$ or any dumb a$$'s store policies!!!
I personally believe this is why this country is quickly becoming such a nasty unfriendly and non free place. It's because instead of fighting back on the little injustices that are done to people by business, and government, people just keep their mouths shut and start accepting how they got treated. THAT IS BULL PUCKEY IN MY BOOK and people need to start getting off their insecure butts and take a stand. Doesn't anyone remember the saying "give an inch and they will take a mile". These little unjustices just keep getting more prevelant because people are just laying down and giving up their rights. It's sad really.
I personally believe that having to pre pay for gas is basically getting called a gas thief before I ever start pumping. For years I boycotted any gas station that had this policy. Every time I would roll up to one of those stations and the always rude clerk broke my ear drums with the outside speaker saying "its pay before you pump". I would always place the nosle on the ground and leave it there, then push the button and say. "I'm sorry but it's my personal policy not to be treated like a thief or a criminal in order to use your product, then I would leave. Now, because every other American thinks its ok that company policy dictates the clerks can imply you are a comon thief, I simply can't find a station that operates "old school". I bet in the 50's if a man would have driven up to a gas station and the attendant said the man had to pay first so as not to run off and steal the gas, the attendant would have gotten some teeth knocked out. Lord knows that's what I feel like doing.
Criminals who steal should be caught and dealt with but company policies shouldn't treat their good customers like the criminals regardless of their losses.
If it continues I really can see all resteraunts making you pay for your meal before it arrives. It just isn't right. I really mis my small town.
I'm done ranting now.
Clay
First off I completely agree with you, what you did, and the anger it brought on. And not to defend the clerk, but just to hopefully point out why it happened the way it did.
7/11 is not a white collar business for those behind the desk. If the people working there were more intelligent and more qualified they'd be working as anything else, so the idiot that treated you like that probably had the intelligence of a stupid frog (not a smart one
)
obviously the manager was just one of the above that showed up to work on time for a year and got promoted or he would have immediately put the moronic clerk back in her place and apologized to you.
and lastly this pc world we live in is hampering our common sense and thwarting any attempts to utilize our minds as anything more than space filler between our ears. If 99.9 percent of terrorists are middle easter, muslim , males between the ages of 19-30 they are the ones we should be looking at during pre flight screening right ? Wrong. That's "profiling" and is violating their rights if you believe what the liberals and special interest ethnic groups tell you.
most drug dealers are young, black, and drive Caddy's or Lexus so we should check them for drugs right ? wrong. thats singling out the blacks and makes us all racist and trying to oppress all the great black teens by asking them where a 17 year old with no job got a 70,000 car.
It's nothing more than liberals , special interest ethnic groups, and minorities telling us to ignore common sense, statistics, and sound intelligence because we might offend a terrorist, drug dealer, or common 7/11 thief for being what they are.
I empathize with you, but unfortunately your frustration is in vain. you did the right thing in my opinion, and your anger is more than justified. The only thing I would possible add is a letter to the regional manager. not that it would help or implement any sense in applying "store policy", but it's just another way to vent your justified anger and frustration.
