Special Snowflake Stories

[Clareish]

I wonder if something happened earlier to drive the girl to her breaking point! 

Ya know, who cares? Part of being grown up enough to drive a car is being responsible enough to keep your emotions from affecting your driving. She paid the price for letting impatience (or whatever - and if anyone mentions Asperger's my head will go 'splodey) turn her into a bad driver.

I hope she got a big fine.

Asperger's would excuse her for not knowing correct social cues and coming off as pushy or oversharing. Definitely not for screaming in rage at a bus full of schoolchildren.

I doubt it's Asperger's.  My brother has that, and while he does make the occasional social faux pas, he's a very safe driver and he doesn't throw tantrums. 

I think that's the point that Kendo was making in his comment.

[doodlemor]

I saw a special snowflake at Wegman's last night. 

In the usual Wegman's manner my store has an area of beautiful loose fresh veggies, so that people can bag their own.  Special-Snowflake-Perfect-Greenbeanus combed very slowly through the loose green beans with his fingers, touching each bean at least once, I'm sure.  He carefully chose one bean at a time for his bag, until he had what he deemed a sufficient quantity.

I watched him out of the corner of my eye as I got all of my vegetables and fruit, amazed at the length of time he spent picking over the green beans.  I had been looking at the beans earlier.  There was nothing wrong with them - they weren't shriveled or browned.

In the realm of Special Snowflakes this guy is pretty minor, but I do think he was gross.  Don't most people take handfuls of beans, and maybe throw just a few back?  He didn't look particularly clean, and he basically wiped his hands over all of the beans.

I'm not a gardener, so I don't know if fresh green beans would bruise from the picking that this guy did.  No one else could get beans very easily while he did his thing, either, if anyone still wanted any after seeing his behavior.

O_o I hope he wasn't at my Wegman's. Knowing my luck it probably was.

To me, it doesn't matter whether I'm going to adequately sanitize the green beans later, which I am. It's just that I don't like the thought of someone's hands all up in my food like that. Plus, now I have no choice but to touch the same beans that he egregiously wiped his hands all over.

I see a lot of SS people in Wegman's. People leave full carts in random spots, seemingly abandoning them, and then get huffy if you try to scoot them a millimeter out of the way. Other people push and shove to get wherever they're going, and I've heard more than one irate businessman griping on his bluetooth about "the crush of people in here" or "everyone is here at this store, ugh it's soooo crowded." Yes, because obviously no one else is going shopping at 5 p.m. on a weekday but you, sir.

This was the Wegman's on McKinley in the Buffalo, NY, area.

[Otterpop]

I saw someone in a market I don't frequent (was in the area on business) pawing through a loaf of bread like that.  She had her hand inside the wrapper and was touching all the pieces to, I guess, determine if it was fresh.  I was so grossed out I left the store without getting anything.  If it had been MY local supermarket I'd have said something, but I felt like a stranger in a strange neighborhood and no one else seemed to care.  I won't be going back.

[Adelaide]

With respect to hands touching produce prior to purchase being icky, how does one suppose produce is picked, boxed and/or put into bulk bins?

It's just a mental thing for me. It's not the touching but the rubbing all over it that gets to me.

[Jones]

Years ago I had a brand new roommate. I became quite ill, threw up a lot. Lost almost 10 pounds that week. She was the one doing the cooking. Turns out she hadn't washed her produce at all because it was Organic, and she reasoned that meant she didn't have to wash off pesticides, ergo she didn't wash it at all...even if it wasn't to be cooked (veggie tray and a salad, plus she always had a bowl of fruit on the counter).

Oh was I mad.

[Elfmama]

Years ago I had a brand new roommate. I became quite ill, threw up a lot. Lost almost 10 pounds that week. She was the one doing the cooking. Turns out she hadn't washed her produce at all because it was Organic, and she reasoned that meant she didn't have to wash off pesticides, ergo she didn't wash it at all...even if it wasn't to be cooked (veggie tray and a salad, plus she always had a bowl of fruit on the counter).

Oh was I mad.

Guess she wasn't aware of how organic fruits and veggies are fertilized...

[weeblewobble]

Sis was in the holiday baking aisle at her local grocery on Thursday. (Why is it always the holiday baking aisle?)  There were two other ladies in the aisle, one with a cart and one without a cart. Sis had lots of baking essentials (powdered sugar, brown sugar, chocolate chips) plus a few weird items like kirsch and mint chips, plus decongestant medicine for her daughter.  She turned her back on her cart for a second and when she turned back around, the lady without a cart had taken it and was rolling it down the aisle!  (Fortunately, Sis keeps her purse on her shoulder at all times.)

She said, "Ma'am, that's my cart."

The woman insisted that it wasn't.  Sis pointed out the specific items in the cart, like kirsch and decongestant and politely, but firmly, took the cart handle out of her hands.  The woman stomped her foot and yelled, giving Sis a bunch of excuses such as

"I'm baking, too! I need these items just as much as you do!"

"I don't have TIME to shop for everything!  Can't you be nice and just give it to me?  Where's your Christmas spirit?"

"You're younger than me!  It's easier for you to get around the store and shop for everything again!" (The woman was in her 40s. Sis is 31.)

For a second, Sis considered just handing her the cart and re-doing her shopping, but she had about 20  minutes until she had to pick up her daughter from the babysitter's.  She refused, the lady stomped and whined some more.  And when a clerk approached, the lady accused my sister of stealing HER cart.  Fortunately, clerk overheard everything and said, "Ma'am, you can't take other customers' carts.  Please get your own cart or leave the store." 

Lady stomped off. Clerk apologized to Sis, then escorted her to an empty register and gave her a speedy check-out so she could avoid the lady.

[laud_shy_girl]

Sis was in the holiday baking aisle at her local grocery on Thursday. (Why is it always the holiday baking aisle?)  There were two other ladies in the aisle, one with a cart and one without a cart. Sis had lots of baking essentials (powdered sugar, brown sugar, chocolate chips) plus a few weird items like kirsch and mint chips, plus decongestant medicine for her daughter.  She turned her back on her cart for a second and when she turned back around, the lady without a cart had taken it and was rolling it down the aisle!  (Fortunately, Sis keeps her purse on her shoulder at all times.)

She said, "Ma'am, that's my cart."

The woman insisted that it wasn't.  Sis pointed out the specific items in the cart, like kirsch and decongestant and politely, but firmly, took the cart handle out of her hands.  The woman stomped her foot and yelled, giving Sis a bunch of excuses such as

"I'm baking, too! I need these items just as much as you do!"

"I don't have TIME to shop for everything!  Can't you be nice and just give it to me?  Where's your Christmas spirit?"

"You're younger than me!  It's easier for you to get around the store and shop for everything again!" (The woman was in her 40s. Sis is 31.)

For a second, Sis considered just handing her the cart and re-doing her shopping, but she had about 20  minutes until she had to pick up her daughter from the babysitter's.  She refused, the lady stomped and whined some more.  And when a clerk approached, the lady accused my sister of stealing HER cart.  Fortunately, clerk overheard everything and said, "Ma'am, you can't take other customers' carts.  Please get your own cart or leave the store." 

Lady stomped off. Clerk apologized to Sis, then escorted her to an empty register and gave her a speedy check-out so she could avoid the lady.

People are quite protective of carts here in the UK. However people don't tend to nick them (as far as I know.) The reason is you have to put £1 in your cart to use it (in most places.) you get it back at the end of your shop when you chain your cart back up.

Not sure if this is an SS.

I worked at a big department store, in there Cafe. We did toasted tea cakes. People would select a cake and bring it up to be toasted.

One lady hands me a cake and I go to cut it. She gets quite snippy with me.
I am "gasp" Handling her tea cake. I think she has not seen my gloves (new set for each customer)
I explain I have gloves on and they are new and this is how we handle all our customers food.
 
No, that is not good enough, they normal use the paper.

We cook the items on a sheet a grease proof paper and yes it is true, If we are busy (or lazy) and we don't have chance to change our gloves or put gloves on at all (trying to get what amounts to lose surgical cloves on damp hands is really very hard), we use the paper to hold the item while we cut it. thus not touching it.
I don't want to argue and don't see any harm in humoring her I offer to do her another one, as she is going on that she doesn't want to get sick with my germs.
 
I did not tell her that all the Cakes had been put in that nice big stack by me, wearing another pair of the cloves.
I just put the cake back on the pile (she had picked it up with tongues) when she was not looking.

Had she just asked me to do her another using the paper as she doesn't like the gloves, I would say she was not an SS. It was the tone she used to talked to me, like I was dirty and stupid.

[NutellaNut]

The discussion about driving rudeness and having a bad day makes me remember when I may have been a SS myself.

One Sunday afternoon we had a gathering of friends at our house.  I found my diabetic cat in convulsions and yelled for help.  We poured some sugar water into her, and then a friend held her in a box while I drove to the emergency vets.  I was the one who knew the way to the vets, but I can see now that it wasn't the best idea for me to be the driver.

We came to a light just as it turned yellow then red, where we had to make a right turn.  This was a loooong light.  There was a car ahead of me with its right turn signal on, but it didn't turn.  There was great visibility, and no oncoming cars, so I don't know why they weren't turning, though of course no one is required to turn on red.  But right then, my friend said, "Oh, God, she's doing it again!" meaning my cat was convulsing, and I could literally see the emergency vet's office from where we were, but couldn't reach it because I couldn't turn.  So I beeped my horn several times in a panic until the car ahead of me turned and I could follow.  We raced into the vet and my cat was treated immediately and saved (she died a few years later from a similar incident).

I know the driver of the car ahead of me probably thinks I was obnoxious and a SS, and I wish I could apologize to them.  Nowadays whenever someone's driving annoys me I try to remember they may have a reason I don't know about.  I'm not always successful at giving them the benefit of the doubt, but I try.

[kherbert05]

People are quite protective of carts here in the UK. However people don't tend to nick them (as far as I know.) The reason is you have to put £1 in your cart to use it (in most places.) you get it back at the end of your shop when you chain your cart back up.

Not sure if this is an SS.

I worked at a big department store, in there Cafe. We did toasted tea cakes. People would select a cake and bring it up to be toasted.

One lady hands me a cake and I go to cut it. She gets quite snippy with me.
I am "gasp" Handling her tea cake. I think she has not seen my gloves (new set for each customer)
I explain I have gloves on and they are new and this is how we handle all our customers food.
 
No, that is not good enough, they normal use the paper.

We cook the items on a sheet a grease proof paper and yes it is true, If we are busy (or lazy) and we don't have chance to change our gloves or put gloves on at all (trying to get what amounts to lose surgical cloves on damp hands is really very hard), we use the paper to hold the item while we cut it. thus not touching it.
I don't want to argue and don't see any harm in humoring her I offer to do her another one, as she is going on that she doesn't want to get sick with my germs.
 
I did not tell her that all the Cakes had been put in that nice big stack by me, wearing another pair of the cloves.
I just put the cake back on the pile (she had picked it up with tongues) when she was not looking.

Had she just asked me to do her another using the paper as she doesn't like the gloves, I would say she was not an SS. It was the tone she used to talked to me, like I was dirty and stupid.

I've had to ask an employee at a deli to stop and change his gloves, but I was as nice as I could be while getting his attention before he touched my sandwich.


The person in front of me decided she wanted a peanut butter cookie. The register employee asked the employee making my sandwich to put a cookie in the other customer's bag. (Register employee had taken off and thrown away her gloves to take the money).


I quickly said, "I'm deathly allergic to peanuts. Please change your gloves before you touch my food."


The manger who had been cleaning/restocking the drink frigs stepped in and explained this was exactly why they changed gloves between every customer.


She offered me a discount. I told her that it was an honest mistake and no harm done. I'm a regular there now and have told neighbors how careful they are with food safety.


On a later trip a customer questioned them "wasting" gloves by changing the between customers. The employee on duty explained about food allergies and cross contamination. The customer made a "boy it must be hard to live with allergies that bad" comment. (Not a mean comment just a that blows my mind comment)  I spoke up and said, "Restaurants like this one make it easier."

[Virg]

NutellaNut wrote:

"I know the driver of the car ahead of me probably thinks I was obnoxious and a SS, and I wish I could apologize to them.  Nowadays whenever someone's driving annoys me I try to remember they may have a reason I don't know about.  I'm not always successful at giving them the benefit of the doubt, but I try."

The difference here is that your actions probably didn't include yelling at the other car as you passed or rude gestures.  Making a ruckus when there's a good reason (and a pet's medical emergency is a good enough reason) isn't SS behavior.

Virg

[gramma dishes]

There was a woman in front of me in line at TJ Maxx today. She had her four children with her, and was letting them pretty much run wild in the line. The line to the register is sort of blocked in by display shelves with lots of cheap impulse buy type things like nailpolish, candles, books, socks, candy, and so on. The kids were yanking socks off the shelves and tossing them, opened a pot of glitter and dumped it onto the floor, ripped a hole in the packaging of a gingerbread house, and were just being unruly in general. The mom would make the occasional halfhearted effort to stop them, but mostly just let them do whatever they wanted. She did apologize when one of the kids launched a pack of dishcloths at another customer in line, but made no effort to clean up after them or otherwise control them. I think everyone in line breathed a huge sigh of relief when they finally got to the register and left.

Many years ago I witnessed a similar event.  It was wonderful though, because when the lady finally got up to the cashier a couple of other employees appeared magically out of 'nowhere' and picked up all the items her kids had thrown around, broken, spilled, etc. and placed them on the conveyor belt with the items she intended to purchase. 

She protested, but they insisted that her children had 'used' the merchandise making it unsuitable for sale to other customers and that therefore she had effectively "bought" it.  I left before it was all sorted out, but it was quite obvious that she was totally shocked that the store had the nerve to expect her to accept responsibility for the behavior of her children and actually pay for the items they had destroyed!

[littlelauraj]

There was a woman in front of me in line at TJ Maxx today. She had her four children with her, and was letting them pretty much run wild in the line. The line to the register is sort of blocked in by display shelves with lots of cheap impulse buy type things like nailpolish, candles, books, socks, candy, and so on. The kids were yanking socks off the shelves and tossing them, opened a pot of glitter and dumped it onto the floor, ripped a hole in the packaging of a gingerbread house, and were just being unruly in general. The mom would make the occasional halfhearted effort to stop them, but mostly just let them do whatever they wanted. She did apologize when one of the kids launched a pack of dishcloths at another customer in line, but made no effort to clean up after them or otherwise control them. I think everyone in line breathed a huge sigh of relief when they finally got to the register and left.

Many years ago I witnessed a similar event.  It was wonderful though, because when the lady finally got up to the cashier a couple of other employees appeared magically out of 'nowhere' and picked up all the items her kids had thrown around, broken, spilled, etc. and placed them on the conveyor belt with the items she intended to purchase. 

She protested, but they insisted that her children had 'used' the merchandise making it unsuitable for sale to other customers and that therefore she had effectively "bought" it.  I left before it was all sorted out, but it was quite obvious that she was totally shocked that the store had the nerve to expect her to accept responsibility for the behavior of her children and actually pay for the items they had destroyed!

Years ago my mom ran a convenience store and she used to do the same thing.  Just quietly round up the damaged merchandise and add it to the customers purchase. 

[Elfmama]

Yes, there was a man arrested here in the Baltimore area for vandalism like that.  He'd go to the store and squeeze several loaves of bread, or poke holes in the wrapping. Some people -- initially even the police, IIRC -- were like "So what?  How is that vandalism?  This isn't medieval Europe where they'd hang the poor guy over a measly loaf of bread.  Surely the store can afford a couple of dollars like that.  They throw away stuff all the time."

They had multiple security videos of the guy doing it, but it wasn't until the corporate headquarters pointed out that he had destroyed or contaminated $7000 worth of merchandise that he was arrested. 

[Emmy]

Yes, there was a man arrested here in the Baltimore area for vandalism like that.  He'd go to the store and squeeze several loaves of bread, or poke holes in the wrapping. Some people -- initially even the police, IIRC -- were like "So what?  How is that vandalism?  This isn't medieval Europe where they'd hang the poor guy over a measly loaf of bread.  Surely the store can afford a couple of dollars like that.  They throw away stuff all the time."

They had multiple security videos of the guy doing it, but it wasn't until the corporate headquarters pointed out that he had destroyed or contaminated $7000 worth of merchandise that he was arrested.

I imagine if somebody pocketed something relatively inexpensive at a store, they would still be arrested for shoplifting.  I don't see why somebody who vandalizes merchandise should be let off the hook any easier than a thief.