Karen's and Me

 

There has been a lot on social media about women dubbed as “Karen’s.” I have noted that the physical description of these women is usually on the lines of older, females. Sometimes they even add the adjective, short. In fact, the only part of the descriptions I’ve heard or read is that these women have short hair-cropped hairstyles.

If you don’t know already, Konnie and I are short, middle-aged women. The only difference is that we both have long straight hair, and we are polite. We’re also smart enough to know the difference between a store employee and a fellow customer, unlike a lot of these “Karen’s.”

I just wonder if they need eyes checked, or maybe their head examined, considering all the stores I’ve ever been to the employees all wear either a vest or an apron with the store logo on it and they also have a name tag, also with the store logo on it.

How can anybody mistake a customer for an employee?

I read one where a couple with a young baby were shopping together, but the baby was fussy, so the father was scurrying around getting their groceries and taking them back to his wife who was standing by their cart rocking the baby. He still wearing his coat, and not wearing anything with the store logo on it, but this rude woman ordered him to stop “helping” his wife and help her!

He wasn’t dressed like an employee! What more clue do you need that you were in the wrong woman? I mean, I am a middle-aged woman, and I’m short, but I would never accost anyone, let alone a fellow customer, to assist me.

I’m not saying I don’t ask for assistance; I occasionally do. My method is to look for the closest adult and say, “Excuse me, could you help me for one second?”

You wouldn’t believe how much help you can get that way!

Actually, I read one of those “Karen” stories where a short older woman was trying to reach something on the top shelve and this genuinely nice taller man saw her and offered to reach it for her.

She was in the middle of thanking him when another woman started scolding him for lollygagging and demanded he help her too or she would complain to the store manager and get him fired.

We all know where that went. I’ve met a lot of people like that. I’ve had tons of people offer to help me when I’m not even looking for help. There was one time, I saw what I needed, and I started to stand up out of the electric cart I always use when a woman shopping nearby ran over to me saying, “Let me get that for you!”

Of course, I thanked her, but no “Karen” showed up. I have never met a “Karen.” I’m not sure they exist here. Idaho is mostly nice people.

This brings me to the worst “Karen” story I’ve ever read was about a guy in a wheelchair. This man wore a yellow safety vest, for his safety, and the nearby store he frequented also had their cart wranglers wearing such a vest, as in out in the parking wrangling carts, but theirs had black trim and the company logo, unlike his.

Well, this guy is in the store with a basket of groceries in his lap when a “Karen” approached. At first, she tried clearing her throat to get his attention, but as he wasn’t an employee, he didn’t pay attention. She escalated to grabbing his wheelchair and spinning him around to face her.

That terrified him to the point he went into a panic attack and couldn’t respond, couldn’t find his voice, so she proceeded to push him, against his will, to the store service desk.

Luckily, he was such a frequent customer that the store employees and manager knew him. One of the salesclerks upfront called security the second he saw that woman pushing this guy’s wheelchair.

This encounter ended with “Karen” being arrested for assault because it isn’t just rude to grab an occupied wheelchair without the occupant’s consent it constitutes assault. That Karen did time.

But what I don’t get is how women who are supposed to be in my age group can be so rude? Didn’t their parents teach them any manners? Didn’t they ever learn that even stock boys and janitors deserve respect as fellow human beings?

By the way, I’m writing this post because my brother-in-law is in the hospital again, ergo Konnie couldn’t write her post this week.

I hope you get better soon, Jerry!

Happy Writing everyone!