A Special Kind Of Unobservant, Not To Mention Rude

Back when I was in university, my friends and I would frequent the local outlet grocery store for cheap snacks between classes. I had gone there a million times without much trouble.

One day, I was picking up a small snack, as usual. The cashier told me my total, and I reached out to her with my debit card in hand. Then, she did nothing. She didn’t react. She didn’t acknowledge the card. Eventually, I told her I’d like to pay by card. I don’t think I was in any way rude or disrespectful, but she completely went off on me.

Cashier: “How was I supposed to know you wanted to pay by card?”

Me: “I was trying to hand my card over to you.”

Cashier: “Oh, so just because of that, I should know how you wanted to pay?”

Me: *Pauses* “Yes?”

She then proceeded to call me every name in the book, claiming I was stupid and rude and entitled, saying she couldn’t read my mind, and going on and on about “how was I supposed to know that?” and what a horrible person I was. I was so shocked and honestly so furious I couldn’t think straight, and I remember just staring at her like she was insane. To be fair, so were all the other customers in line and even the other cashier on duty. I left a couple of minutes later after my friend also paid, and she was still loudly complaining about me.

I ended up just avoiding her from then on. I even made a point of letting people ahead of me if her till was open when I was next in line. I do wish I had reported her to the store supervisor, but I’m not even sure that would have accomplished anything.