A Lovely Day At Work

To really stretch your patience, go visit your local neighbourhood supermarket, situated in the not-so-nice area, with 3 bars, and low-income, government sustained housing right next door. Better yet, go work there. That's what I did today, and do every now and then. Every day is the same; you have the grumpy people who'll complain about EVERYTHING, the grandmas you insist you be their butler, the neighbourhood drunks (and there's a lot of them!), the narcs who every now and then are so fucked that they don't realize that someone will notice them trying to walk or run out with a sixpack of beer under their arm, the kids of alcoholics who think they're really tough and rules don't apply to them, and and any other group of fucking nuisances who I might have forgotten to mention. Let's son, on today's schedule we had several men too drunk to talk, trying to buy A LOT of beer; several narcs who had to be followed around the store, in case something just miraculously ends up in their pockets; a few people too fucked up to realize that having no money on your account means you cannot buy anything;several little 10-14yr old kids of alcoholics threatening to beat me up, calling me a faggot cuz we wouldn't let them play on the slot machine (which is restricted under 15, and anyone under 15 playing on the machine is breaking the law).

That was merely today's happenings. It's like this, and worse, EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE WEEK. I'm only an extra, which means I move from store to store, 3-7 days a week. Of course, this isn't what all little supermarkets are like, but quite a few. Everywhere you must deal with threatening customers, whiners, people complaining about the most mundane shit, alcoholics, brokeass motherfuckers trying to haggle with you about the cost of beer, last minute shoppers who aren't in a hurry to leave, little babies crying and screaming, narcs misbehaving or being threatening, leaving you to worry about what they may be capable of doing in their fucked up state, social outcasts shoplifting (several times a week, 6 days in a row the police were called to the store this summer to catch shoplifters, ranging from a loot of 1.05 euros to 150 euros. I even managed to physically catch 2 of the regular narcs running past my cash register carrying beer under their jackets one lovely monday evening...), kids on the slot machine, kids trying to buy alcohol or cigarettes, swearing at you for not selling them cuz they "forgot their ID in the car" or "home", just to mention a few of the fucking annoying shitheads who one must deal with all the time in this line of work. And hey, I'm an extra. Atleast I can choose where I work. Imagine the regular workers who deal with this same crap 37.5 hours a week.

So the next time you're in a supermarket, and see any of this shit I've just mentioned, take a minute to think about the workers at the store. And please, if you see someone shoplifting, tell someone who works there. It's not too much to ask, is it?

As a final thought, remember that the person sitting behind the cash register serving you is also a human being, possibly a student just like you, trying to make ends meet. They're not that low is society; atleast they have a job...