Current mood: ANNOYED
Category: ANNOYED Fashion, Style, Shopping
is a tough question. I have a bunch of pieces to be doing about all that glitters, but I'm gonna start with one story of general meanness and idiocy on the part of the supermarket chain Lidl...
Yesterday, I was in the Poplar branch of this very supermarket grabbing a bite to eat. I was starving and there were the usual long queues you come to associate with that particular shopping experience...
Well, 2 people ahead of me, was an oldish woman. From her face it looked like her life had been one of general thankless fucking toil. She looked haggard and most likely much older than her years. She sure as shit didn't have much money (few people in Lidl do), unless she was one of these who stashes it all away, lives in near poverty and is then found to have a fucking great fortune upon death...
Anyway, her shopping came to about £15 and she paid with 2 £10 notes...
And the cashier looked at one of them and said
'You can't pay wit this it's out of date!'
It was. It was an old tenner and it was a fair point. This woman had most likely been given it - as she went onto explain - and not noticed it at the time because there was a queue of people behind, and she'd not had the time to examine her change..
So, what the cashier should have then done, was return the duff note to said woman, so she could either feel embarrassed and not try pulling the trick again or take it to a bank where she could exchange it or even just turn a fucking blind eye and leave her no doubt far from generous employer to worry about it...
But she didn't, she asked the bloke on the next cashier and between them they officiated that the supermarket should keep it and request another tenner from this poor old hag...
The woman looked confused by this and eventually, once she'd understood they weren't giving it back, she handed over a fiver, the only other note she had.
Well, a bloke customer started chewing the cashiers ears off. He correctly pointed out that you can exchange out of date money at banks for an in date version. That it wasn't Lidls job to hold onto it and that it was therefore theft on their part. No-one else said anything. The cashiers started talking about 'company policy' The woman looked defeated by the very notion of getting out of bed that day, she slunk off, the man paid for his shopping and he left..
Well, when I got to the till and I noticed the woman had wandered back. She was looking like she'd just realised she'd been creamed for a tenner for no good reason..
"Why don't you just give it her back? Why's it so important to you??" I asked the cashier?
Both cashiers tried ignoring me and the issue and claiming they had to do it and there was no choice, they were just doing their job. I was on a comedown, i'd had 4 hours sleep and walked for a hour to get there. I wasn't feeling very charitable either, so i got more bothered. Eventually, one of them rang thier bell for the manager or the security guard, meanwhile everyone else stayed quiet...
Well, to keep this brief, we argued about it and they eventually offered to call the police to sort it out. It was then that I looked around to find the woman had given up and gone..
Now, though I'm about 90% sure they had no right to keep ahold of it, I didn't and don't now frankly give a whole lot of a shit what the law is on this matter.
I love scams of all kinds and practice them at all possible moments. If this old lady was trying one then why the hell not?? What difference does it make to the fucking cashiers at Lidl? Are they going to get a reward for their bravery and belief in the moral cause of stealing fucking tenners off the weak, wiley or infirm??
Probably...
It fucking annoys me though. I love this big bastard city. The longer I stay here in London, the more i love it. Just now the cultural world in particular is blowing up in my face and each day is - for the most part at least -a fucking joy...
But one thing I'll never love is these acts of petty, workaday fucking meanness, especially when the shitty little jobsworths start talking in the third person as if they themselves don't agree, that they are just doing their job....
I know it's part of it. That London's a grab, grab city, full of cheap lies and faux generosity and when it happens to you most people are going to look the other way and take a little personal guilt or pride in the fact they've seen someone try to buck the system and fail..
But it still fucking annoys me....
Anyway, enough of this bullshit, let's get back to the music...
 | Currently listening :
Very
By Pet Shop Boys |
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