SOME People Need To Just Be Quiet

I was at the store, buying the weekly groceries for my family. Ahead of me in line to check out was a lady with a toddler in the seat of the cart. The toddler was looking around, and he happened to spot a case of cookies in my cart.

Toddler: “Look! Mama, Mama, look! Cookies!”

The lady turned and looked, then glanced up at me and gave a nasty sneer before turning back to her son.

Lady: *In a sickly sweet baby voice* “Oh, I’m so sorry, baby. I’d love to get cookies, but unlike some people, we can’t afford them. We have to save our money, unlike some people, so we can’t just get whatever we want.”

She continued in that vein as the line crept forward, even after her son had obviously lost interest and tilted his head back to stare up at some stray balloons near the ceiling. She kept going on and on, each time putting special emphasis on “some people” as she went. She finally trailed off when she got to the belt and started unloading her cart, and I hoped that would be the last of her passive-aggressive nastiness.

Unfortunately, once she’d unloaded everything and headed up to the check stand when the cashier started scanning, she immediately launched into it again.

Lady: *To the cashier* “Have you ever had to live on a budget? Some people haven’t, and it shows. They’ll just buy whatever they want without even thinking about it. Don’t you think it’s sad how some people are just so thoughtless?

The cashier didn’t say anything; she just sped up scanning until she could give the lady her total. The lady finally stopped talking once she paid, collected the last of her bags, and started pushing her cart away.

Cashier: *Quietly, once I get to the check stand* “I’m so sorry about that.”

Me: “It’s fine. Some people have just never learned manners.”

The lady, who for whatever reason had chosen to pause a short distance away from the line and just stand there, obviously stiffened, but when she turned to glare back at us, neither I nor the cashier was looking at her, so she eventually just turned and stomped off in a huff.