God, give me patience
Sometimes God tests my patience, and I take it as a lesson and offer it up to Him. But the last time this happened, I think God forgot about me because I almost reached my limit.
I do not like to use self-checkout for obvious reasons, like that is not my job. Especially when there is a store employee standing right by me watching me check out. I say if you are going to make me do the work, you just have to trust the process and me. And pay me for my work!
Anyway, a few weeks ago I as at a store and was ready to purchase my items. I could hear the self-checkout stands beeping away as I walked to the ONLY counter that had a person behind the cash register. There were a few customers in front of me, each with a couple of items. Not a big deal, so I took my place in line.
The first customers at the checkout had a TV they were buying. For some unknown reason, the checker had to have someone from that particular department come up front to verify the number or the brand of the TV that was in the box. This took forever for the employee to come from the back of the store to the front. This exchange took a total of ten minutes as I watched people from the self-checkouts roll their carts by me like a small, steady parade, but I was determined to stay in the live person line.
The next person in line had four items. Again, not a big deal, but as he was checking out his friend walked up and stood in line with him with his items! This exchange took another five to six minutes.
The person standing right in front of me had some socks, and other clothing items to purchase. The checker could not find the price tags on any of these items even though they were clearly marked. The customer was very nice and helped the checker locate the tags. Did I mention the checker was an elderly man, probably in his late 70s?
When it was finally my turn, I had been in line for approximately 20 minutes. My patience was wearing pretty thin, I can tell you, but I kept calm.
The first thing the checker said to me was I would have to pay with a card because his superior had yet to bring him the cash for his register! I assured him I was going to use a card, but what I wanted to know was why was it taking his superior so long (more than 20 minutes) to bring him the money for his register? My little checker started making small talk, and he said he had been pretty busy for the past hour. He wondered why his line was so steady, to which I replied that he was the ONLY person with a register open even though you could clearly see about 20 empty register lines that could have had real people working them. There were two self-checkout stations that had six to eight registers in each with customers checking out while the employees, about eight that I counted, stood around doing absolutely nothing. And I couldn’t believe this was during what I would consider to be a busy time for the store at 5:30 p.m. on a Friday.
Yes, my patience was tested to the limit, but my lesson learned is this—no matter how long it takes, I will stand in that line with a real person, who needs that job. And on occasion, I will use cash!
