Of Manners and Karens by Bonnie Le Hamilton

As you probably know by now, I sometimes listen to podcasts about what the internet is calling Karens/Chads. And well, there are a couple of things I don’t understand.

First off; how come all these fools can’t tell the difference between a fellow shopper and a store employee?

Think about it. How dense do you have to be not to recognize that the man wearing the blue vest with military patches and medals all over and not one shred of the store’s logo? And how blind do you have to be not to recognize a man in full military camouflage complete with name and rank clearly showing, that he is not the hired help out collecting carts?

I really don’t get that.

On my most recent trip to Wally World (as my husband always called it), at one point as I was moving up an aisle, I saw a fellow customer putting something back on the shelf. Now I knew she was a fellow customer because she had a shopping basket on her arm and wasn’t wearing that distinctive blue with yellow logo vest. Dead giveaway.

But to listen to these “I don’t work here, lady,” stories, the fact that she put something back on the shelf makes her an employee! How? In what world does putting something back you decided you didn’t want make you an employee?

And my second question is what makes these people think store employees are there to be at their beck and call? What makes them believe such human beings are nothing more than peons they can push around all they want?

Had one of these dilutional persons seen the lady I saw put that item back, she would have, upon reaching her and seeing she was standing in front of the item they were looking, demand she hand it over and possibly even insist the lady accompany them on the rest of their shopping. Such a person would even go so far as to yell at her that she needed to do her job!

Newsflash, not even the actual store employees are there to do your every bidding. These people were hired to stock shelves, clean floors, straighten up, or maybe even gather orders, but they are not there to bow to your every demand.

By the way, the lady I saw putting something back, was standing next to what I needed when I reached her. Something that is on a high shelf, and I always have trouble getting it down.

I asked her politely if she would mind handing me one of those product.

She got it down and kindly put it in my basket and asked me if I needed anything else. I told her no then thanked her for her help and said I hoped she had a nice day.

Plain and simple, I was polite.

I was equally polite a few aisles later when I found a store employee with a ladder and quite a few boxes, stocking shelves, right in front of something else I was there to get. I said, “Excuse me, I hate to bother you while you’re working, but could you hand me,” and told him the exact item I needed.

He put said item in my basket and asked me if there was anything else I needed. I again expressed my gratitude for the help and went on with my shopping while he returned to do his assigned job.

But well, that isn’t the only time I’ve been considerate of the folks hard at work in a store.

I can’t tell you how many times I move out of the way of a store employee pulling or pushing some large cart or dolly, so they can get past. I once stopped in a main aisle so an employee pushing a big cart could get across said aisle. Not that my stopping helped much, every other shopper around me kept going, as if they couldn’t see that poor woman trying to get across there.

What happened to manners? What is wrong with being compassionate? Especially to the poor folks working such hard forty-hour-a-week jobs?

I read one story where this poor fellow did work at the store, but he was in there on his day off to do his own shopping! That didn’t deter this lady; she knew he worked there, and for some strange reason felt he still had to serve her very whim even though he wasn't working at that time!

Excuse me? They are not there to serve your every whim in the first place, they certainly don’t have to put up with that when they are off the clock!

So, I really don’t get these so-called Karens/Chads. Do they really believe store or restaurant employees are, well, either their personal slaves or maybe not human, do you think?

Anyway, happy writing everyone.