"You know we're living in a SOCIETY"

There is an episode of Seinfeld called "The Limo". In this episode George is at the airport waiting to pick Jerry up for a flight. George asks the man next to him for the time as he is wearing a watch. The man points into the distance and says "There's a clock over there". Shocked, George asks again with a similar results. Finally the man walks away still refusing to tell him the time and George shouts out a line which struck a cord with me...


"You know we're living in a SOCIETY!"

This line struck cord with me the first time I heard because it reflects how I feel about today's society on an almost daily basis.

As a general rule I'm not the biggest fan of "people".

"People", well, they kind of suck.

Not all people and not all the time but almost daily the universe shows me that a startling number of people are freaks, rude, selfish, inappropriate or crazy.

Since this is our blog, Kate and I have the right to vent and rant about whatever we choose. It is with this in mind that I introduce a new element to the site.

From now on when you see a post titled "You know we're living in a society" it will be in relation to a person and/or their actions which shock us. It may be a part of society that really gives us the shits.

I'll get things rolling...

Myer sales assistants.

Let me preface this by saying that I have worked in retail. I worked at Woolworths for 5 years and so that gives me the right to criticise others in the field. During my time on the checkouts I dealt with my fair share of rude customers but this post is not about them. This is about rude sales assistants. While scanning people's items or dealing with their requests I always tried to keep a smile on my face and be polite, this goes for most of the people I worked with too. For the most part I think we succeeded.

It is not hard to go to work, put a smile on your face, greet people politely and in general just be nice. This is not hard labour people, it's retail. I think someone at Myer needs to remind their staff of this.

I don't want to tarnish all Myer staff. Indeed I have come across some lovely people working there who have been very helpful...sadly they are the minority.

At every Myer I have been to I am always surrounded by snooty sales people. Why is this? You are working in Myer, people! Y0u don't own it! Each time I get to a register I have to wait until the sales people finish their chat to be served. I am then greeted with neither a smile nor a hello. I always get the "Myer One?" question which is followed by my goods being stuffed in a bag and tossed at me.

I once dared confront one of these people, politely and calmly I might add. The result was she couldn't even be bothered to listen to me and just chucked a complaint card in my direction. She refused to acknowledge that her service was anything less than stellar...this woman did not say a word to me until I spoke to her at the end of the transaction, in fact, she barely looked up.

I very rarely criticise the service I receive (to the person's face or formally) but I have decided to take a stand. A stand against bad/rude service of any kind. People: suck it up, put on a happy face for a few hours and just get on with it! If you hate your job that much, give it to one of the thousands of unemployed I'm sure would be happy to take it.

Here is a reality check for all of the following people....

1. Snooty Myer sales assistants
2. Arrogant trendy/emo teens at Universal/General Pants (side note comb and wash your hair)
3. Current checkout kids at any of the major supermarkets
4. Judgemental/apathetic waiters
5. The beyond rude woman who works at the Windsor newsagent

DROP THE ATTITUDE!

All we ask for is for you to do the following:

1. Greet us with a smile
2. Say "Hi, how are you?" even though you don't care and we know that...just ask
3. Make polite small talk, you don't have to say much but make a token effort, okay? (this does not go for hairdressers or beauty therapists...we want to relax not to make inane chitchat for an hour)
4. Treat the items we buy with a little respect. Don't chuck them in the bag and then chuck said bag at us
5. Smile (again I know, this might be tough for you emo kids)
6. Say "Thank you. Have a nice day."
7. Don't think you're better than us...you aren't

So that's my vent for the day, my attempt to bring society's flaws to the forefront. You're welcome, universe.