I wound up at Wendy's this afternoon, because I needed socks. I left the house at 2:20 and headed for Walmart, because they have socks, and because--conveniently--Wendy's shares a parking lot with them and I wanted chili.
Ok, mostly I just wanted to get out of the house, but socks and chili made for a good excuse.
I sat there with my hot chili and plain ("are you sure you don't want butter and sour cream?") baked potato, minding my own business. Still, I couldn't help but overhear the woman at the counter demanding to speak to the manager. I have no idea what she was upset about, but from the tone of her voice and the venom she spit while demanding him made it pretty clear she was super pissed.
He was not in; she wanted his phone number. His personal phone number.
Wisely, the shift manager refused to give it to her, but did offer her various other numbers to call, as well as the time the manager would be in.
That apparently was not good enough. She stomped off in a huff and tried to slam the door on her way out...not so easy when the door has a slow-stop hinge. It whooshed slowly, forcing a burst of cold air to wash over me.
It was a diversion for 2 minutes. And while there were plenty of other people around, I wasn't sitting close enough to eavesdrop on any conversations. What I did was eat my chili and curse myself for sitting so close to the door, because in spite of my spiffy neon orange sweatshirt, by that point I'm pretty sure my nipples were close to be able to cut glass.
(Apologies to my kid. I'm pretty sure he thinks I don't have nipples. Or that they ever stand up and get perky.)
A few minutes later the door swung open and this very nicely dressed guy walked in; suit, tie, neatly trimmed beard. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the previously pissed off woman in the parking lot, still looking pissed off, so it didn't take much to add 2 and 2.
So yeah, I paid attention, because it might be entertaining.
He marched toward the counter, stopped about 5 feet back, and huffed, "You...you...Mexicans!" and then turned around and headed for the door.
I didn't realize I was saying it out loud, but what spun through my head and then slipped out my mouth was "What the fuck?"
He looked right at me and said rather proudly, "I said that."
"Yeah, I know. Very classy of you."
He threw the door open and left, and I watched as he walked across the parking lot and kissed his previously pissed off wife/girlfriend/hookup like he was some sort of hero.
This is the joy of living in a small town, because dammit, that was major confrontation...
Seriously.
9 comments:
Well, darn it, my Wendy's is never that entertaining!
And his comment to the employees was suppose to do what? Scare them? I'm so sure
I think he saw all those women behind the counter and got scared. because, you know, they were armed with baked potatoes and Frosties...
In my experience as a supervisor in a large-chain drugstore, whenever someone is that pissed...I give them the store mgr's name & store phone # & tell them to call the next business day if they so desire.
I always pre-empt by emailing the mgr. to let him know. The p.o.'d customers almost always never phone.
Small town...confrontation...woo hoo...excellent entertainment...and for free!!! :)
"they were armed with baked potatoes and Frosties"
::snort::
Before I die, I want to have lunch with you because all the really interesting stuff in the world happens wherever you are eating.
Ah yes, people watching at the local watering hole. You have so much fun.
Sounds like one of the adverts we had over here, where the bloke pays a hairdressers lots so he can shout at them
"I know it's not your fault that I cut my daughter's hair this badly but my wife's outside and I don't want her to think it was me who did it"
And a bit more too that I can't remember (oldish ad). I bet that's what he was up to :-) Making it look as if he was carrying out the complaint while not actually doing anything :-)
Well I guess that showed them. Too funny! This is a longish post for you, my friend, but necessarily so (nipple tangent notwithstanding), I'd say.
I hope your Christmas was good and you New Year even better. I also would be remiss if I did not tell you that I am grateful that our paths have crossed.
Happy New year!
Mike
You certainly do get to observe the weirdest people. I can't help wondering what ticked the lady off so much. Probably something that most of us would consider inconsequential.
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