One of my pet peeves

*slight rant ahead*

I truly believe you should treat others as you'd like to be treated. I believe you should give people the benefit of the doubt, especially if they've never given you cause to believe otherwise. Obviously, in this world of ME - ME - ME, this isn't a popular belief. Oh, people say they feel this way, but they rarely practice it.

Today I witnessed one of my biggest pet peeves while waiting in line at the store. A cashier, who was young and a new employee, was ringing up this woman's purchases when she accidentally rang something up twice. Anyone who's used one of those self-check machines, or worked in the check-out line, knows how sensitive these machines can be. So the woman catches it and jumps her out over it. The young lady apologizes and fixes the error. Then she starts to ring up a vegetable that she can't seem to remember the name of. She asks the woman what the item is. The woman's response?

"It's a xxxxx! (I didn't hear the veggie name) It's good for you and if you'd eat it more often you'd know what it is!"

EXCUSE ME? Since when is it her business what someone else eats or doesn't eat. The young lady politely rings it up and continues on with her work. A moment later an experienced cashier approaches and helps her finish sacking the customers purchases. The checker hands the woman a receipt and she stands there scanning it. Then looks at the cashier and says, "I need to look this over to be sure you didn't charge me for more than I bought". The poor cashier at this point looks like she's not sure how to react. The woman finally left with her stuff and it was my turn. I did my best to be extra nice, hoping to make up for the previous customer's sour disposition.
The cashier was very friendly, but obviously bothered by what happened. The experienced cashier told her not to let it bother her (you could tell the experienced friend was pretty miffed). She then told me she was new and couldn't believe how cranky people have been today. I told her she was doing a good job and I hoped she had a better day from this point on.

Why do people have to be like that? I remember being a young person out in the workforce, new and unsure of myself. I had my fair share of jerks to deal with and it always upset me that people couldn't control their anger long enough to preform a simple task like placing an advertisement or requesting copies. I no longer get upset. Now I get ticked off and try to politely tell people when they are being rude. Obviously that doesn't work when they are your customer... but who says other customers can't come to the defense of these abused employees? I'll admit some people who have waited on me, whether it's the store or a restaurant, have been less than friendly or helpful, but I still treat them the way I expect to be treated. Maybe the next person will be the recipient of a different attitude because of our efforts to be just a bit kinder. It takes more muscles to frown that it does to smile. There must be a lot of strong faces out there...

*rant over*

I'll have a couple of product reviews for you later today.