As a customer, do you confront other customers....

who are rude to clerks? What if they are being racist? I was in Subway, and this man in line in front of me was being a real jerk. He asked if the tuna salad was fresh. The clerk said yes. He then checked the label and told him that it said yesterday's date. The man was like, "what that doesn't sound fresh to me." He would say the clerk's name, Jamal, after every sentence, too (the clerk was black, the customer, white). Clerk said "we can get you today's" and was going to go back and get it, but the customer goes, "I'm still reeling from sticker shock!" :roll: He finally says I'll take the meatball sub, so I'm hoping his little show is over. He asks the clerk what his last name is, then he says oh we have some relations of that name or something. I'm thinking WTF is that about? Then he asks for oregano and is mad that they don't have it. At that time I give a pronounced sigh - one that everyone in the restaurant could hear, I'm sure. The ass of course pays no attention. His wife who is standing there just all smiley and mealy-mouthed the whole time says, he's about done, do you want to cut in front? I said, "No, that's alright," in the fakest cheery voice. I felt like I should've cut in and said something like "This is Subway, not the Four Seasons. Get your stuff and split," but I'm really not a very socially smart person and try to avoid getting into confrontations in public. I later will think of clever things I could've said. Do you confront other customers if they're being rude to waitstaff? Do you confront waitstaff that is rude to customers?

My mom was telling me about when she was in the grocery store, in line behind the owner of the local Mexican restaurant. The clerk picks up an onion, scans it, and says in very slow, enunciated words, "Do.you.have.on-ions.in.your.coun-try?" He looks like WTF, and my mom says, "He probably speaks better English than you do." :lol: He looks at her with an expression of relief.

 

No, I don't confront people like that. There's really no point. A random unknown person telling them they're wrong for treating people the way they do, is NOT going to change them one itty bitty bit.

And being a petite woman, I don't want to open up that can of worms either. I don't like confrontation.

But, if I witness something like that (which I have many times), I make a point of being extremely pleasant and bright and cheery to the person who was just stuck helping the jerk(s) in front of me.

 

And I should add that throughout high school and college, I worked in a Target-like store and was treated like sh*t on a near daily basis by customers. So, I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of people like that.

So, now that I'm no longer in retail, I do my best to be pleasant to the workers in stores. Those jobs suck enough, they don't need me giving them a hard time for no reason.

And to this day, I still find myself picking up clothes and stuff that have dropped on the floor, even though I don't work there. It's ingrained! :lol:

 

Absolutely not. I think that it's pretty pointless to confront strangers about their bad behavior in public. It could be dangerous too, but then again I'm conditioned to be wary of random assholes I encounter in public because I grew up in up Texas where concealed handgun permits are very easy to come by and a lot of angry people are "packing." I dealt with plenty of situations like the one described in the OP when I worked crappy service industry jobs as a teenager. It used to piss me off to no end, but I knew that I had to keep my mouth shut. On the bright side, those experiences gave me A TON of motivation to work my ass off as an undergraduate and grad student.

 

Well, I have the need to stand up for people who are being mistreated. I don't know why since I'm not really a people person and intentionally have only a small core of people in my life that I give a damn about. I try to put on the facade that I don't care, but inside something compels me to speak out. I guess it's a protective instinct that comes from being a woman. I've also worked retail and wasn't able to stand up for myself when dealing with really rude customers. I did once tell a customer to not speak to me in that manner (he was chewing me out for enforcing a store policy) and had him leave the store. I told the manager, and he supported me. As a fellow customer, I'm in the position that I can speak up and not be penalized for it.

I'm a petite woman, but I have very little fear. I'm stronger than I look, plus I have a lot of anger inside - I think people see that on the surface and it makes them wary of crossing me. I've never had someone want to jump me for speaking out against their rudeness. Usually they're very surprised and skulk off.