In Which I Make a Fuss About Yogurt and Shoelaces
It was the shoelace that did it. It completely ruined my day. ...Okay, maybe something small like a shoelace isn't enough to ruin my day entirely. But it did tick me off.
I work in retail. I work in a music store, where we sell shoelaces to tie to guitar straps for people who don't have two strap knobs on their guitars. These strings are kept right above the row of straps, in a neat little line.
The shoelaces that got to me were in the section of reeds for woodwinds. It looked like a customer had picked them up, carried them over to look at reeds, decided they didn't want them after all, and then left it there. Which was, literally, only five steps away from where they got them in the first place.
Five steps away and you couldn't take the time to put them back?
I saw something similar that very night in Wal-Mart. I was looking for fresh fruits and vegetables. As I was looking at pears, I accidentally knocked a box down behind the display where I couldn't reach it. I tried to pick it up and put it back, but when I realized I couldn't reach it, I stood up - and saw that someone had just dumped the lunchables they didn't want in a box of pears.
In another store, I saw a pack of frozen yogurt that someone had just left to go bad on a shelf of room-temperature goods. It was melting into a puddle on the metal shelving, in the noodle and canned goods aisle.
Really? Are you so lazy that you're going to leave stuff you don't want, that could go bad, for someone else to find? Because you don't want it?
Really?
After seeing the shoelaces and the lunchables while I was shopping, I made a choice. I had a bag of cherries I'd decided I didn't want. The produce was all the way on the other side of a Wal-Mart superstore. I walked all the way back, and put them in a display of cherries. It took me less than two minutes.
I had to put those shoelaces back where they belonged. Is it my job? Yes. Yes it is. But what if I hadn't found them there? What if I hadn't found them there, and that was our last one? What if a customer had come in and wanted them, but left angry or upset that we 'didn't have any' because it wasn't where it was supposed to be? In that situation, the customer could have gotten what they wanted and left happy. But it wouldn't have happened that way, all because one person didn't put the shoelaces back where they belonged. Now imagine that you were that unhappy customer. Pretty annoying, isn't it? You could easily have gotten what you wanted, if only that last person had put them back where they belonged - five steps away.
I didn't mind putting them back where they belonged. I shook my head a little bit, but it wasn't having to put them away that bothered me.
It was the inherent laziness. They didn't take the five steps and two seconds to put them back, but instead set them where they were and left them there. The thoughtlessness of people who leave refrigerated foods to rot because they're too lazy to go and put them back.
That bugs me.
Are we really so lazy and selfish?
If we're so cavalier about that, what else is falling by the wayside? If we're so selfish and lazy that we'll set an item that's worth a few dollars on a shelf and leave it there, then why should any of us believe we're to be trusted with bigger things?
A small thing like refusing to put away an item we've discovered we don't want is a symptom of a bigger issue.
Why? Why did it get left?
Because someone didn't want to put it back. Why didn't they want to put it back? Because it would take too much time? Because they were too busy? Because they didn't feel like walking all the way back to where they found it?
These reasons all stem from one, and it's one that most people probably wouldn't want to admit, even to themselves.
Selfishness.
Selfishness with their time, selfishness with their energy. They refuse to take the two minutes (or less) it would take to put something back, because they want to hoard their time and energy. They don't want to expend a few minutes of their time making life easier or cheaper for some unnamed and faceless stranger. They don't want to walk to the other side of the store and put their item back where they found it, because they're thoughtlessly acting only for themselves.
Yes, I am making a big stink over shoelaces and yogurt. No, I don't think it's ridiculous.
If you're going to be so selfish and stingy with your time that you can't take five minutes (or, in some cases, five seconds) to put back what you've gotten out, then I have a hard time believing you'll come through for others when things get really difficult. I don't foresee you doing very well.
Or, to be more accurate, I see you doing very well at what you have been practicing for days, months, years. And if that thing you've been practicing is laziness or selfishness, then those are the traits you will display when it matters. You will have spent years, in some cases, decades, building a habit, and habits can't just be tossed to the side when they no longer suit you. It's not that simple.
When you discover that the orange juice in your hand isn't what you want, an immediate mental exchange takes place. You don't want this. You don't need this. But the refrigerated aisle where you picked it up is four aisles away. There's an empty space on the shelf next to the cereal. It would be so easy to just set it there, wouldn't it?
Some people go no further than this. It's easier, therefore it's what they do.
What they fail to realize is that that orange juice, if left there, will spoil. They will have wasted the store's money, they will have wasted a perfectly good carton of juice, they will have wasted the effort of every worker that helped put that carton in their hand, all because it's easier than putting it back.
Is that a good reason?
Forty percent of the food in the US alone goes uneaten. Yet there are hungry children all across the nation.
Is ease a good reason to drop refrigerated items in places where they will rot?
Is ease a good reason to make the lives of employees harder by forcing them to track down purposely misplaced items and return them to their places? Those of us who work in retail are already dealing with the people who come in and swear at us because they didn't get exactly what they wanted, due to no fault of ours. We don't need to clean up after people *cough*children*cough* who, for some unfathomable reason, seem incapable of putting one thing back where it belongs.
I understand some people have physical limitations. There is, however, an alternative to just dropping whatever you don't want someplace it might never be found. And that is taking it up to the cashier, telling them you no longer want the item, and asking them politely to put it back. At least then you will have demonstrated the courtesy of recognizing the existence of the people who have to clean up after you.
It's time to grow up, people. Stop leaving things where they don't belong because you were too lazy to put them back. For everything you just drop someplace, there's a person who's going to have to put it back, or pay for the waste. Get over your desire to do nothing, get over your 'they can deal with it' attitude, and just get over yourselves. Because that's the real problem, isn't it?
Like what you read? Support me on Facebook! You can also buy my most recent book, Isomorph, here. :)
I work in retail. I work in a music store, where we sell shoelaces to tie to guitar straps for people who don't have two strap knobs on their guitars. These strings are kept right above the row of straps, in a neat little line.
The shoelaces that got to me were in the section of reeds for woodwinds. It looked like a customer had picked them up, carried them over to look at reeds, decided they didn't want them after all, and then left it there. Which was, literally, only five steps away from where they got them in the first place.
Five steps away and you couldn't take the time to put them back?
I saw something similar that very night in Wal-Mart. I was looking for fresh fruits and vegetables. As I was looking at pears, I accidentally knocked a box down behind the display where I couldn't reach it. I tried to pick it up and put it back, but when I realized I couldn't reach it, I stood up - and saw that someone had just dumped the lunchables they didn't want in a box of pears.
In another store, I saw a pack of frozen yogurt that someone had just left to go bad on a shelf of room-temperature goods. It was melting into a puddle on the metal shelving, in the noodle and canned goods aisle.
Really? Are you so lazy that you're going to leave stuff you don't want, that could go bad, for someone else to find? Because you don't want it?
Really?
After seeing the shoelaces and the lunchables while I was shopping, I made a choice. I had a bag of cherries I'd decided I didn't want. The produce was all the way on the other side of a Wal-Mart superstore. I walked all the way back, and put them in a display of cherries. It took me less than two minutes.
I had to put those shoelaces back where they belonged. Is it my job? Yes. Yes it is. But what if I hadn't found them there? What if I hadn't found them there, and that was our last one? What if a customer had come in and wanted them, but left angry or upset that we 'didn't have any' because it wasn't where it was supposed to be? In that situation, the customer could have gotten what they wanted and left happy. But it wouldn't have happened that way, all because one person didn't put the shoelaces back where they belonged. Now imagine that you were that unhappy customer. Pretty annoying, isn't it? You could easily have gotten what you wanted, if only that last person had put them back where they belonged - five steps away.
I didn't mind putting them back where they belonged. I shook my head a little bit, but it wasn't having to put them away that bothered me.
It was the inherent laziness. They didn't take the five steps and two seconds to put them back, but instead set them where they were and left them there. The thoughtlessness of people who leave refrigerated foods to rot because they're too lazy to go and put them back.
That bugs me.
Are we really so lazy and selfish?
If we're so cavalier about that, what else is falling by the wayside? If we're so selfish and lazy that we'll set an item that's worth a few dollars on a shelf and leave it there, then why should any of us believe we're to be trusted with bigger things?
A small thing like refusing to put away an item we've discovered we don't want is a symptom of a bigger issue.
Why? Why did it get left?
Because someone didn't want to put it back. Why didn't they want to put it back? Because it would take too much time? Because they were too busy? Because they didn't feel like walking all the way back to where they found it?
These reasons all stem from one, and it's one that most people probably wouldn't want to admit, even to themselves.
Selfishness.
Selfishness with their time, selfishness with their energy. They refuse to take the two minutes (or less) it would take to put something back, because they want to hoard their time and energy. They don't want to expend a few minutes of their time making life easier or cheaper for some unnamed and faceless stranger. They don't want to walk to the other side of the store and put their item back where they found it, because they're thoughtlessly acting only for themselves.
Yes, I am making a big stink over shoelaces and yogurt. No, I don't think it's ridiculous.
If you're going to be so selfish and stingy with your time that you can't take five minutes (or, in some cases, five seconds) to put back what you've gotten out, then I have a hard time believing you'll come through for others when things get really difficult. I don't foresee you doing very well.
Or, to be more accurate, I see you doing very well at what you have been practicing for days, months, years. And if that thing you've been practicing is laziness or selfishness, then those are the traits you will display when it matters. You will have spent years, in some cases, decades, building a habit, and habits can't just be tossed to the side when they no longer suit you. It's not that simple.
When you discover that the orange juice in your hand isn't what you want, an immediate mental exchange takes place. You don't want this. You don't need this. But the refrigerated aisle where you picked it up is four aisles away. There's an empty space on the shelf next to the cereal. It would be so easy to just set it there, wouldn't it?
Some people go no further than this. It's easier, therefore it's what they do.
What they fail to realize is that that orange juice, if left there, will spoil. They will have wasted the store's money, they will have wasted a perfectly good carton of juice, they will have wasted the effort of every worker that helped put that carton in their hand, all because it's easier than putting it back.
Is that a good reason?
Forty percent of the food in the US alone goes uneaten. Yet there are hungry children all across the nation.
Is ease a good reason to drop refrigerated items in places where they will rot?
Is ease a good reason to make the lives of employees harder by forcing them to track down purposely misplaced items and return them to their places? Those of us who work in retail are already dealing with the people who come in and swear at us because they didn't get exactly what they wanted, due to no fault of ours. We don't need to clean up after people *cough*children*cough* who, for some unfathomable reason, seem incapable of putting one thing back where it belongs.
I understand some people have physical limitations. There is, however, an alternative to just dropping whatever you don't want someplace it might never be found. And that is taking it up to the cashier, telling them you no longer want the item, and asking them politely to put it back. At least then you will have demonstrated the courtesy of recognizing the existence of the people who have to clean up after you.
It's time to grow up, people. Stop leaving things where they don't belong because you were too lazy to put them back. For everything you just drop someplace, there's a person who's going to have to put it back, or pay for the waste. Get over your desire to do nothing, get over your 'they can deal with it' attitude, and just get over yourselves. Because that's the real problem, isn't it?
Like what you read? Support me on Facebook! You can also buy my most recent book, Isomorph, here. :)
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