Courtesy a thing of the past

[Fox Mike]

Went to the post office today to mail Ed the KARMA he won. Going in I was ahead of a 'lady' carrying a fabric grocery bag but stopped to hold the door for her. She said nothing and hurried to the one clerk on duty. She had at least 100 envelopes ... unstamped ... that for some reason had to have each checked in individually. I guess I expected too much for her to say "You only have one thing and I will be here a while. You go ahead and send your single item." I told her and the clerk that I had other things to do and couldn't wait. I guess I was a bit unpolite but, as I was leaving, I told the lady "Ya'll have a great day!"

 

[Mobuck]

I had just the opposite happen @ Walmart (of all places) last week. A 'mature lady' (not as old as me) waved me with my 2 items ahead of her full to the brim cart. I thanked her twice.

 

[Dave P.]

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[contender]

Sadly,, some people are too "self important" to think of others.

Then, there are the good folks who do the little things that make us smile.

 

[Colonialgirl]

If I'm in line at the cashier at Walmart or Publix with a lot of shopping and someone with one/two items gets in line behind me, I always offer to let them check out first.

 

[Jeepnik]

Honestly, I think it has a lot to do with the store and the neighborhood.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Honestly, I think it has a lot to do with the store and the neighborhood.

There, I'll disagree. I believe that it has far more to do with the parents of the
individual you are interfacing with. If the parents taught manners, it carries over.

 

[eveled]

Thanks again for the book. You’ve had a rough time lately with the big storm and all. I’m sorry you had to deal with somebody like that.

As far as courtesy. I see it both ways. Some people are oblivious and self absorbed. Others go out of their way to help.

 

[Aqualung]

In my area, it's gotten to the point where folks are actually surprised when people treat them courteously.

I went to pick up a large food order from our local Chinese take-out place. I'd ordered online and I'd ordered some "extras" that didn't show up on the bill when I placed the order (extra sauce, noodles, etc). When I got to the place to pick up, the bill came up as different than what was on my order (by about $4.00), as I expected.

I said, "my online order was $xxx.xx, and this order is $yyy.yy, is it the right order? I want to make sure it's the right one."

The poor guy got embarrassed and tried to explain that I'd ordered the extra stuff and he adjusted the bill accordingly. I cheerfully told him that I fully understood about that. I just was making sure it was the right order and was just making sure there was no confused switching of orders or something like that, I surely wasn't arguing about the extra $4. I just wanted to make sure that when I got the order home, it was what I ordered and not another big order that might have been placed by someone else and gotten switched by mistake.

He looked like he was about to cry in relief that I wasn't arguing with him, screaming at him or being disrespectful.

I find that most of the time, even when there is a screw-up, confusion or a bad situation, anger, disrespect, nastiness and bad manners rarely help the situation.

Aqualung