I sell cookies. (A pointless yet depressing story)

[otherlander]

So yesterday this woman comes into the store as I'm working. So I stop rearranging cookies and fill up a box with the stuff she asks for and weigh it, and as I'm ringing up the box of eclairs/linzeir tarts/whatever, she goes, "Wow, there's so much stuff here to choose from... If I worked here I'd want to eat everything! I guess you can get away with eating this stuff because you're skinny... I wish I was skinny like you."

She was taller than me and I'm pretty sure that she weighed less than me too. I mean, I'm not "skinny," I'm average. And she was pretty obviously skinnier than I was. So it didn't really make sense. Maybe she was anorexic. Except she seemed happy. And you don't expect anorexic people to be happy. Also, she was just regular skinny, not unhealthy / malnourished skinny like you'd expect an anorexic person to be. Probably she wasn't... Because you don't have to be "anorexic" to think like that. It's just considered normal. And that's really sad.

Also, it seems that people who come into this store just feel the need to say the most nonsensical / illogical things to me. Like what she said didn't make any sense, first of all because she wasn't fat, and second of all, where is she getting the idea that I eat a lot of cookies? Then there was this guy who asked for bread, and when I put it in the plastic bag that we always put that size of bread in, he got upset that I didn't have a paper bag to put it in. And when I couldn't find a paper bag for his bread (Because we DON'T HAVE THEM) he decided it must be because I was "new" (I'm not), and therefore couldn't count change correctly, and felt the need to tell me exactly what coins I had to give him in return. And then there was a woman who, upon hearing that a roll cost 65 cents, stared at me in horror, shouted, "Oh my god, that's CRAZY!" and stormed out the door.

:crazy:

[rcrush]

1. I wish it wasnt accepted that customers can just do whatever they want.

Just because they are buying something. They act like such children sometimes.

[LisaL]

2. She probably thinks you are eating cookies all day because

you work there and are surrounded by cookies.

[Heidi]

3. The woman probably was trying to make conversation by giving you a compliment.

For a long while, I've avoided over thinking stuff that strangers say to me. Otherwise, I probably would have done something ill-advised the first time a European held me personally responsible for our current president. If you've got time to engage someone about a strange thing they've said, have at it, but I usually don't have time and just give 'em a "Thank you" or a "Huh, interesting..." and move on. :hi:

P.S. If I ever see a roll in a pasticceria here for the low, low, low price of 65 cents, I'm probably gonna and say, "Oh, my god, that's CRAZY! Give me 900 of 'em!"

[LisaL]

4. Exactly.

It sounds like the customer was just trying to make small talk. You are so skinny even though you are surrounded by all this baked goodness.
Big deal.

[billyskank]

6. Being surrounded by that "goodness" all day every day might put you right off it.

You might go home craving a bacon sandwich or something.

[justabob]

8. that was my experience

I worked at a place that had an amazing bakery (and meals) and would hear the same comments as the op. After the first month or so there (and going home smelling like the stuff you serve, even if it is good food).... you really don't want to go near the stuff. AFter six months.... not even if it is free :)

[LisaL]

11. I sure as hell wasn't turned off the goodies when I worked at a

sales clerk.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. Second that.......

Sometimes a cigar is nothing but a cigar.

A lady was making what sounds like a gracious comment.

Relax.

[Phentex]

5. I witnessed an argument over doilies at Whole Foods...

pastry section. I think it was more of a language barrier than an actual problem. A lady wanted the gold doilies that the pastries were presented on but the clerk didn't understand. The customer became irritated saying that someone in another department told her she could have some. The clerk said she didn't know what she would charge for them and that they just didn't sell them. I think she didn't realize that the lady was asking her to GIVE them to her. It resulted in a manager being called over.

I thought it was so stupid. She had to have her damn gold doilies I guess!

I feel for you. People can be so rude.

[Tektonik]

7. I work at the deli in Bristol Farms

Thank god I can escape to the back room when I get frustrated.

[skygazer]

9. People often say odd things

I think a lot of people have no real social skills so they try to make small talk and end up sounding like idiots.

I sell wine and what always cracks me up is the customers who insist they buy a particular wine there "all the time" when I've run the department for 7 years and know I've never carried it. Slays me every time. I've had people insist I go "look in the back" for it. And they won't believe me when I tell them it must have been at another branch of my store. :eyes:

[Vinca]

10. The cookie-buying lady was obviously trying to make it seem

she wasn't going to scarf them all down in the car and throw them back up when she got home.

[otherlander]

14. Well, I wasn't pissed at her or anything.

I just thought it was sad because she's the rule, rather than the exception- women who always feel that they have to worry about their weight/ go on a diet even if they're not unhealthily fat.

[undeterred]

13. Retail is crazy.

I worked in a convenience store for a while and had customers come in to buy cigarettes with pennies. I counted them and wrapped them...

[astral]

15. The guy treating you like an idiot is what pisses me off

I think it's a 'man-thing' too. But the women acting like idiots, well, they probably couldn't help themselves ;)

He didn't want anybody to see he was buying bread 'cuz he didn't wanna have to SHARE it with anybody.

[LisaL]

18. Oh he likes to keep his bread in a paper bag.

That's not a crime, is it?
:eyes:

[Arugula Latte]

16. And THAT'S why I've never had a job serving the public.

I have about zero tolerance. I applaud people who can do it, though.

[LisaL]

17. You'd be surprised how much tolerance you could get if

if you needed a job and could find nothing else.

[TreasonousBastard]

19. Sort of in that vein...

I used to get holiday candy at a great place that made most of the chocolate in the back, with a huge window so you could see them at work. Gawd that place smelled great!

One day I casually asked how they managed to stay so slim with so much temptation at hand.

"We don't-- that's why we wear these big smocks."

(btw, stopped going there when they started making all the chocolate in the factory and shipped it in)

[InternalDialogue]

20. If I were walking into a cookie shop

I'd probably be feeling guilty, because I didn't need to buy a cookie but really wanted one, or I'd be sort of guilty because, even if I didn't need one, someone else with no money could have used one and I should have bought one for them. Or even if I weren't feeling guilty, I'd be quite aware of the utter gratuitousness of my buying a cookie for myself, what with my being a person with at least enough money in my pocket to buy a cookie, living in a society that is by far the wealthiest in the world. So even that would be rattling around my mind.

And then in an effort to be more than just a cookie-grabbing consumer machine, I'd want to say something rather social to you, regardless of whether I knew you or not. But let's say I didn't know you, I'd probably immediately think of a comment related to cookies in some way, and maybe that means I'd think of how fattening one might be -- or better yet a whole lot of them -- or maybe even that since you worked at a cookie shop you might have been eating them all the time. Then I'd maybe notice that you were skinny -- excuse me, not really skinny but instead rather normal -- at which point I'd have to decide whether to overly flatter you or ignore that you probably don't eat cookies all the time. Nevermind that, I'm just awkwardly trying to come up with an unoffensive cookie-related comment, and oh hell, it's really just a cookie I'm buying and all this societal influence and pressure has caused me to say a random but subconsciously arranged set of words that mean next to nothing but are acceptable as public discourse.

So, you're really only an available target of consumer-driven, socially pressured commentary. Had she said absolutely nothing to you, then you should have felt offended. As it stands, you're an upstanding cog in the capitalist machine. Enjoy!

[rug]

21. 65 cents a roll!

:wow: