Gratitude

Again inspired by a conversation with a really, really good friend of mine, and interactions at my work.

I currently work at a certain un-named store, ends with "mart," and has a produce section that I happen to work at. And of course, as a produce stocker, I have the great privilege of interacting with customers on a daily basis. And without fail, I experience on a weekly basis, the following:

I'll be stocking something (potatoes, green bell peppers, what have you), and there will be a customer nearby. And this customer will remark to another customer, directly within my hearing, 'Man, this stuff is no good. It's all bad.' Sometimes they'll even say it to me directly, with this weird sort of smile, as if to say, "Hey, I'm directly insulting you/your company, but because I'm smiling, it's okay!" Alternatively, someone will look at the produce I have out, give a look of vague disgust/displeasure, and then ask me if I have anything "fresher" in the back. Of course, as a worker at ___Mart I'm not allowed to point out that the stuff I have in back came in on the exact same day as the stuff that's already out, and therefore they're getting the same stuff anyways, or the fact that they're basically complaining about quality while shopping at a store that expressly advertises their cheap prices, so instead I simply bring out a fresh box of whatever fruit or vegetable they demand. Upon re-stocking said food, usually the person will thank me, grab a few pieces of whatever they like, and leave - at which point I sigh a breath of relief and go along stocking the floors.

However, sometimes the customer will refuse any semblance of thankfulness or gratefulness, and look at the produce that I just put out: they will sigh, briefly look upwards in annoyance, and then proceed to pick over the produce that I just put out, commenting the following: "Well, I guess this will work. It's not all that great, but whatever." Almost word-for-word, usually.

And I'm not going to lie; this sucks - it brings up a lot of anger for me. Working at this store - as a whole - has put me in a place of experiencing far more disappointment, anger, frustration, and sadness than I would ever want to experience. This is absolutely true. And it sucks. And I'm not going to address the grander issues of working at ___Mart for me, because this post isn't about that. It's about the mindset that I seem to run into way more than I want to. And it's a mindset that seems to fill the very crevices of thought here in America. I don't have the exact wording down, but it seems to go somewhere along the lines of the following:

"I deserve the best, and at the cheapest prices, and if I can't get it, then I deserve to complain to everybody around me who might possibly be involved. Even if they aren't."


As IF a person can shop at ___Mart and really be surprised that substandard pricing results in substandard product - and that they're justified in complaining about that fact when they usually have two or more higher-quality grocery stores within a ten mile radius for them to shop at.

There's really no excuse. Where's the gratitude? For seven bucks - one hour of minimum wage - anyone in America can buy enough potatoes to feed themselves for three days. That's AMAZING - think about it. Only today in America can a person literally feed themselves by working just one hour every three days.  Certainly there are bills, housing, all that stuff, I agree - but I think my point is still as valid - food is cheaper today than it ever has been in most of human history; quit whining. We need more perspective these days, more gratefulness in life. No matter what happens in the future, I will be eternally grateful for the time I've spent working at ___Mart, and other past menial jobs.

Why? Because I know that when a waitress at a restaurant is late coming to my table, she might not be lazy; she very well could be dealing with a late-afternoon rush, and the manager didn't schedule enough people that night to cover the number of customers coming in, and I saw the number of cars in the parking lot and chose to eat there anyways. Because when I go to a grocery store, and the produce isn't the perfect quality that I expect, I realize that I am the one who chose to shop at that store, and have five different options (literally - I counted) to shop at if I don't like the items here, and that whining and complaining to the grocery stockers will do absolutely nothing except to make them feel bad. Instead, I will be grateful that I have twenty different restaurants to choose from (plus my home kitchen!), and five different grocery stores to shop from, and if I don't like something being sold by one place, I will happily take my business elsewhere (yay capitalism) instead of just crapping on the heads of the people working at whatever place I am shopping, complaining about the merchandise... and then buying it anyways.

So what are you grateful for?