Retail Rudeness

In the past week I've had several instances of either rude or just plain inappropriate behavior in stores and restaurants.

I just don't get it.

If the job market is so bad then why are businesses still employing people who obviously don't want to be there? Maybe it's cause the managers don't know. Because people like me don't want to be confrontational and complain, so we just go home and write about it anonymously on our blogs.

Something to ponder as I do just that.

First up was on my favorite restaurants at the beach. I went last Thursday night, effectively the 'off season,' a little before 6 pm. It was surprisingly crowded compared to most other places I encountered, but there wasn't a line for a table. I was by myself and when I asked for a table for one the host said he could seat me in the dining room or I could take a high top in the bar area. I thought about it, but I'm not the biggest fan of high tops so I asked for the dining room. He rolled his eyes and asked really? I said yes and he went off to check for a table. A few moments later the female hostess appeared and asked if I was sure I didn't want to eat in the bar.

Hadn't I already covered that? I thought we had.

So, I reiterated that I was sure I wanted a seat in the dining room and was reluctantly led to a table. I realized the reason for their hesitation - all of the two tops were taken.

But, there were four open four tops in the area of the dining room they took me too and when I came in there was no one else waiting on a table. Sure, you can make more when you seat more people at a bigger table but, I was the only one asking for a table and you can make more seating me at it than keeping it empty!

Sometimes I'm completely ok with eating out alone. Other times I feel weird about it and stick with counter service restaurants like Chipotle or Panera. It's staff like I encountered here that will make me hesitate next time I'm on my own.

The other two rude encounters were just plain old being ignored by the sales people. The worst was when I was shopping in a children's clothing store, mid-day on a weekday. When I entered the store I saw that I was the only customer in there. I headed to the back corner for the clearance section (Aunt Stacy likes a good deal!) and overheard what I first thought was a sales clerk and her (boy)friend but it actually turned out to be a male and female clerk. She was organizing clothes, he was just standing there chatting. Neither acknowledged me at all. They just kept up with their loud conversation that focused around their alcoholic beverages of choice and the word shit. Now, I'm not easily offended, but seriously - in a kids clothing store, this is what they are talking about? Surrounded by adorable onesies with duckies on the booty? No, just no. Not ok. If it were Spencers or Hot Topic, fine, sorta. But not where we were.

By the time I made my selections they were both behind the register, still primarily chatting with each other and only half paying attention to the transaction. Two more of their coworkers came out from the back and the attention to me, the customer who was trying to spend money in their store, was practically nonexistent. I had to interrupt and remind them twice when they were making errors in my transaction.

So, what would you do? Specifically at the kids store. Is it worth sending an email via their website and voicing my complaint or should I just move on and accept that customer service isn't what it used to be.

(And that I'm suddenly old for making comments like that.)