Entitlement

People irritate me. This is possibly not news to you, if you have ever in any way interacted with me after a long day at work. The thing is, I can't see any reason WHY they need to be so ridiculously irritating!

Today at work I was coming back from break, walking through the health and beauty section (also known as enemy territory when you're just trying to get back to your work area, because guests ALWAYS want to know where the toothpaste is, and yes, I have been known to answer "In the toothpaste aisle... uhhh.... A26!" switching gears in mid-sentence as I realized I was coming across as rude) and I heard a guest grumbling to her friend. Now I was working at Starbucks today, so I was in black and khaki and she didn't recognize me as an employee. As I walked by I heard her saying "I wouldn't even know where to look for them, and of course, there's no one to help you find anything!" Shockingly, I was able to help her find the latex gloves in about 45 seconds, as she was only 3 aisles away from them. My question is, did she think she was in some way entitled to have someone right there the moment she had a question? She couldn't possibly have looked for a team member herself, right?

Or how about the woman who came to my lane as I was ringing up a $400 transaction at 9:35. I had my light off, as my shift ended at 9:30, so I said to her "Ma'am, this lane is closed, would you mind going to another lane?" Her response? "Well, I guess I'll have to!" Apparently, she is entitled to be helped at the first lane with a team member at it, whether that team member has been at work for 9 hours and is trying to go home, or not.

There are other stories, other people, other scenarios. The man who made me return his giftcards and sell him different ones because the $ I wrote on them didn't look like a dollar sign to him. The woman who swore at me when her debit card got declined on Black Friday. The woman who asked if she could return a Nintendo DS because her daughter had smashed it. The man who tried to return a scratched up iPod because he "just wasn't using it." The woman who always returns pictures after developing them if they were poorly TAKEN. The countless people who are willing to argue over 5 or 10 cents. The people who order drinks and then complain because they didn't order what they wanted. 

Why can't the general public just man or woman up and take responsibility for what they do, what they need, and what they want?