So last night my girlfriend and I went for a late night walk and stopped in at the store and got an ice-cream each. The other customer in the store was on his phone talking quite loudly (as most North American's I've come across seem to do, he was American or Canadian, not sure) about the stock market and the ASX and a whole lotta bullshit, especially considering it was 9pm at night and he was in gym clothes and really should be leaving business to business hours. So anyway, this guy goes up to the counter with his three cans of energy drink and an iced-coffee (healthy anyone?) and continues to talk his crap on the phone without so much of a 'hello' to the store clerk. He 'asks' to pay with his card by gesturing his card in the direction of the Eftpos terminal, still without saying anything to the store clerk, and still talking his crap on his phone. The only time he said anything to the clerk weas when he almost demanded 'Can I get my tax receipt for that!' - then continued to take his sweet ass time at the front of the line while he put his purchases into his bag then left, still talking crap on his phone.
I was pretty close to tapping him on the shoulder and saying something like 'Hey buddy, you know it doesn't hurt to show a little courtesy and actually converse with the guy serving you' - but seeing as it was an issue to do with manners, I wasn't sure if interuppting his stupid phone call would be worse. In the end I didn't say anything to him and my girlfriend and I ended up having a bit of a laugh with the clerk about how much of a deuche bag this guy was....
I really got me thinking, at what stage in society did we get to the point where we don't even have to talk to the person offering us a service, even if he is only selling us a drink. I've seen a few stores with signs at the desk saying they won't be served if you are talking on your phone. I would really like to see that kind of thing becoming implemented everywhere.
Where has people's manners gone?
