Holding Ground

I was standing in line at the Costco checkout. All the carts were backed up so I couldn’t easily roll my cart to the conveyor belt. Instead of carrying 20 pounds of Arizona green tea four feet, I pushed the line of carts forward to make space for mine.

Apparently, the cashier was holding the carts back with her foot because people push them and end up hitting her leg. She yelled at me (in a friendly way) not to push and explained that the line of carts hits and hurts her leg. I ignored her.

I then stood in line and she told me the store again. I looked at her with complete non-expression on my face.

When I paid for my stuff, she proceeded to tell me the spiel again. I again gave her the complete non-expression on my face. I didn’t even say “sorry,” “ok,” or anything. I think she got even more pissed.

I was about to tell her what to do to fix her problem (i.e. lecture your slacker helper to move the carts instead of lecturing each new customer), but instead, I experimented with not letting her dominate me.

I’ll never know exactly how she felt, but she sure did look frustrated.