There are Some Situations in Life That We Have The Power To Change

This past week my wife and I ventured into a neighborhood restaurant to pick up something for dinner. As we walked into the dining section, we overheard a customer placing his order for a salad. “I want tomatoes on the salad,” snuffed the man. “No! Place the tomatoes around the salad in a circle!”. As I heard this man I began to take notice at his special order request. Each time that man ordered something new on his salad, it was with an attitude of displeasure as if the young man that was preparing his meal could not build a salad the way that he wants it. This is a fast food restaurant, mind you, so you can’t expect to get a fine dining experience in a plastic container. As the young man completed the order, he told the nasty customer the total and took his money. “I don’t want a receipt!” the man mumbled. You could barely understand the guy, so the server handed the man the change with the receipt in a neat stack. “I said that I didn’t want a receipt!” snapped the man as he attempted to throw the receipt close to the face of the cashier. The receipt did not make it close to the cashier because it was still flat and could not travel the intended flight path. I was furious by this time, because no one has a reason to treat anyone this way. So I just past the young man, grabbed the receipt that he had thrown on the counter, crumble the receipt in my had as I held it up eye level with the man, and threw it in the garbage. I did this to show the customer that there was a garbage can right next to the door and that he could have just thrown the receipt away on the way out.

I took time to calm the attendant behind the counter and told him that there was no need to be upset for the remainder of his day over this isolated incident. The customer’s purpose for berating the attendant would have been successful if he had remained upset for the remainder of the day. I figured that the customer could not have had much authority at his home to be out compensating for his lack of authority by snapping at cashiers and attendants. There was no reason to treat the young men the way that the customer did. We should really strive to treat each other better.

Secondly, I wanted to explain to the young men that their situation could be changed. I wanted to tell them to make sure to further their education so that they can get better jobs. More education would allow the young men to have better jobs that would take them away from intolerable customers. This is a lesson that I learned in high school as I worked as a cashier in a grocery store. Two years of working with all sorts of people more than motivated me to continue my education. I hope that they have come to the same conclusion.