When people are ignorant/rude do you....

[Sunshine]

I'm sure we've all been in a situation where someone cuts you off in the grocery store, or someone buds in line, or PEOPLE IGNORE YOU WHEN YOU ARE STUCK BETWEEN TWO DOORS!!!

How do you react to these situations?

a)mutter nasty insults to them under your breath

b)make a comment out loud...how rude? excuse me works?

c)or straight out confront them?

Today I went to the grocery store at lunch and I went through the sliding doors, then after entering the second sliding door I got stuck between two bars that wouldn't open. So i'm standing there trying to figure out if I have to push a button or something. People are watching me...they turn their back. Then this lady tries to come through the door and I tell her to wait cause I was stuck. She went through the other doors (and I thought she would kindly tell a clerk that there was a girl stuck in the doors)and she just carried on her business and left me there.

FINALLY I FLAGGED down a guy in the meat department that finally got me out.

My theory has always been don't sweat the small stuff. But I'm getting really pissed off at all the rude people I run into these days, and I might just have to start confronting them!

[dJEd]

i would have bludgeoned her to death with a prickly pear

[MarcO]

I have found my way of dealing with these things is to not do or say anything, bottle up all that frustration inside and then one day unexpectedly take it all out on my loved ones.

[bradm]

Did you (after getting out) go to the customer service desk and complain? I would have: any set of doors that's designed in such a way as to allow a person to get stuck is not only badly designed, it's downright dangerous (consider what would happen to someone who was claustrophobic and who got similarly stuck).

Aloha,

Brad

[can-o-phish]

Hey Sunshine. Your words ring loud and clear but I think not sweating the small stuff is the way to go. Don't think it would make much of a difference to the person that you were upset with. Actually there's this great book that's a quick read aptly called "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff 'Cause it's All Small Stuff" that lends great perspcetive with life's obstacles...

Say hello to J for me!

[AdamH]

Those people in the grocery store weren't rude they were ignorant. They're the same people who rubberneck at traffic accidents, and pursue a life that is predictable. Feel sorry for them.

In either case I get through those situations by swearing under my breath, and giving people the finger behind their back. Usually nothing good is going to come out of confronting them other than a knuckle sandwich.

[phorbesie]

did you go in through the out door?

maybe they thought it served you right!

;op

i don't understand this situation...stuck between bars? what kind of door is this?!

i usually don't confront people...i might throw a displeased look their way though. but inevitably if i do something like that, i will meet the same person shortly afterward and they will do something nice for me and i'll feel guilty!

[Kaidy Mae]

Oh, poor Sunshine. Keep your chin up kiddo. I haven't quite mastered how to handle this kind of ignorance either, but I think you should find some satisfaction in knowing that you would never leave a person stranded like that.

If I ever find you stuck at the grocery store I will most certainly come to your rescue (with a Walker, Texas Ranger round house kick, no less).

[bradm]

Those people in the grocery store weren't rude they were ignorant.

I'd call them more inconsiderate than ingnorant: they acted without considering anyone but themselves.

Aloha,

Brad

[deranger]

Go to the old lady who ignored you and spit in her face. Anyone who walked by you and did nothing, kick them in the shins. Hard.

Violence does work. It relives tension, gets points across, makes enemies.

Seriously though, consider that those people see the world like an Albertan, a barren landscape of cowboys, oil and guns where every man woman and child is on their own. Rugged, rugged individualism. F_ck 'em. What goes around comes around. They suck, you do not.

But really, sometimes you're allowed to voice your frustration. Thank the old lady for helping you but do so dripping with as much sarcasm as possible. Tell her with a smile on your face you hope she dies soon, and painfully. Trip her. Slip an extra large mega tube of Monistat in her cart. Do something to embarass the living sh!t out of her. Vengence is allowed.

Edited September 15, 2005 by Guest

[Patchoulia]

Sunshine, I'm just loving your use of "bud" as a verb--you don't get a lot of that (unless you're an elementary school teacher, "to bud (in line)" is very strongly a part of their vernacular)!

hehehehhe

(((bud)))

He was budding! He budded in front of me!

I wish I was five again.

[rubberdinghy]

Brutal...I would have beat someone with a prickly pear...however, I usually say something stupid out loud. Last night I had this wicked argument with an attendent at a gas station, got to the point where I was pretty much shouting at this guy, and he was shouting back at me..."your damn logo is on this card, the logo is on your shirt, let me pay for my gas!" I had to call the credit company for approval and had the customer service rep on the phone the whole time this was happening...oh did I mention the guy at the gas station would not let me use his phone!!! I had to use my cell phone...Which reminds me I have to call and lodge a complaint...I almost threw his pen at him after I tried to steal it, but then thought to myself, shit, I'm in Jersey, he'll probably sue...

WHAT A FRIGGIN JACKASS!!! I had to get that off my chest.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Maybe they wanted to keep you there as a trophy customer....

I shudder when I think of how self-possessed people can be. For my part, if I were stuck in a door and nobody bothered to help, I think I'd be making all sorts of slightly-louder-than-under-the-breath comments about people's self-possession to try to shake them out of it a bit. I suppose I might also yell something about having to get immediately to my car to get to my anti-psychotic medication, with the aim of trumping people's aversion to getting involved in or making a scene (more likely, people would make still more space between themselves and the door).

Who knows. I'm feeling a bit misanthropic at present, having had to listen to Lowell Green this morning. People suck.

[ollie]

I'm also wondering how you get stuck in a door. I just can't picture it.

I think people just don't want to get "involved". Or they don't want anything to get in the way of their schedule. People in Ottawa seem particularly skittish when you start talking to them out of the blue.

[ollie]

Who knows. I'm feeling a bit misanthropic at present, having had to listen to Lowell Green this morning. People suck.

A-ha ha ha!!! Welcome to Ottawa Dave!!

[Velvet]

My favourite strategy is to try to make rude people feel stupid and/or guilty. I think most people who don't help someone in need will think about it later, and if you can spike their brain with some guilt ammo, you got 'em.

[Booche]

I knew there was a reason I havent hung out with Velvet too often in the past few months.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

People in Ottawa seem particularly skittish when you start talking to them out of the blue.

This sounds like a good setting for all sorts of mischief. I always liked those ethnomethodology experiments they used to run out of Berkeley in the 60s, where profs would send students out to try to have messed up conversations with strangers to see what sorts of reactions they would get (kind of a "see how society works seamlessly by breaking it apart at the seams" sort of thing). I'm sure that must have been an inspiration for Fight Club.

[Sunshine]

It's hard to explain these bars they have at the Loeb.

I guess it's not really a door, but after you go through the sliding doors they got it blocked off by two bars that you, or your cart, or your wheel chair have to push through - so i got through the first one ok and the second wouldn't open so I was stuck between them.

I don't even understand what purpose they serve?!?

[Paan]

Scream, pull out a knife, and yell "MOVE IT OR LOSE IT!"

[Sunshine]

Phorbsie - I was definately going through the right door. (BTW I had a weird dream about you last night...hmmm)

can'o'phish - I own the book (thanks to my dad who thought I needed it at a young age)

[Booche]

Sunshine, you know how I know you're gay? You have 'right' door dreams about Phorbsie.

[Sunshine]

Gay as a Ray of Sunshine can be!!

(and it wasn't that kind of dream!! And I know cause I didn't wake up licking the sheets - hahah )

[backbacon]

Hmm, stuck between doors/ bars, etc... interesting dillema. I can totally understnad how people just walkin on by would make you feel.

I probably would have tired to get each of them back, but have some fun while doing it. LIke maybe if I wasn't at all in a hurry... make each person who didn't help you's shopping experiance suck al little.

For example:

Maybe if you spot one of the jerks looking at bananas, pull up your cart pretty close and in some awkward jammy position close to their cart. Maybe so they have to back up and even lift their cart to move along.. With full concentration, seemingly not even noticing the person, check out the same area of bananas they are and basically just get in their personal space. THis will most likely put them in a situation where they are wondering whether they should confront you or not. Wait it out until they make the first move. Don't even get any bananas... once they move over to the tomatoes, head on over there for a bit too. I know someone being an idiot like that around me would drive me crazy!! After this strategically placed episode of moronacy you will feel like you're even and you can go seek out the old lady who was a jerk to you.

You know they'll go on home and the first thing out of their mouth will be like, "Jeez, you should have seen this lunatic at the gorcery store... first she was all boxed in between some bars in the doorway, then she was standing like two inches from me by the bananas... total head case. I tell ya!!"

Good luck!

[Basher]

This might answer your original question, as to how I handle stuff like this:

One of my pet peeves is people that stand and chat in inappropriate places - like right outside the exit of Massey Hall when 2,000 people are trying to leave. At a sold out Cake show I let my frustration get the better of me and pushed through a guy doing just that and said "great place to stand!". Moments later I was informed by a laughing Stoned Phillips that I had just shoved Canadian Idol Ryan Malcom! In retrospect I wish I shoved a little harder.