My Single Mom Life

I have had such an incredibly long day that started out well enough at the doc's office, and then escalated into madness by the time I hit Walgreen's.

Their computers were down again, which caused me and about 7 other people to have to just sit there and hang out waiting for the store manager to figure out what to do.
It amazes me how flustered they get when the computers go down, like what did pharmacies do to fill prescriptions before computers?

And I certainly don't envy the people who work there at all.
I remember all of the years and all of the jobs in retail that I worked over the years, and I recall how crazy this time of year is, but it seems to me that people, customers, have gotten far more pushy, far more rude, and feel more entitled to things and to do things than the years I worked those jobs.
I know I haven't worked in retail or restaurants for over 8 years now, but I really don't remember people being that rude.

Like when I got told the computers were down, please have a seat and we'll figure out what to do to get your script filled and bill the insurance when the system comes back up.
I said ok and sat down, but other people decided to be completely belligerent about it.
An older man started yelling at the top of his lungs, at how no, he was not going to take a seat, he wanted his medicine right now, and no, he was not going to pay cash, he has insurance, they needed to give him his damn meds for what his usual co-pay is, and bill his insurance tomorrow or whenever the hell the computers came back up.
The pharmacist, the clerk, and the manager, were completely flustered, at a loss for words, and said they would try to call his insurance and set it up so they could do it the way he wanted without using the computers, and because they said that, 3 more people which had been sitting quietly on the chairs with me, decided they wanted the pharmacist to do that for them too.
Talk about a major hassle.
Have you ever had to call your prescription insurance just to find out if your med is covered, or for another reason?
You're on hold for like forever, and just because they are the pharmacist, doesn't mean they have like a direct phone number to speak to someone immediately, they dial the same number that we do on the back of our insurance cards.
I thought for sure one of the clerks was going to cry.

But the pharmacist, the clerk, and the manager, all called for those customers and somehow got it all approved to do it that way, and I still just sat there waiting.
I was in no rush, the teens were at school, and hey, I was getting a free show to watch, (all the crazy screaming people) so I just chilled and waited to see how they would help me.
Then after about 15 more minutes of them trying to figure out what to do for me, we all heard this beep, blip, chugga chugga noise, and what do ya know?
The computers rebooted and were back on line, so they let out this collective huge sigh of relief, a kind of nervous chuckle, and they filled my script.
They thanked me for being so super patient, and I laughed and said no worries, I'll have something to blog later.
They gave me a curious look, but rang me up and I started to the front of the store.

I wanted to buy a soda, I needed to wash down the blood pressure med my heart doctor gave me today, and so I grabbed one from the cooler and attempted to make my way to a register.
I had to step over merchandise that had been knocked on the floor by another customer.
An angry one.
I saw a store clerk trying to clean it all up, she looked like she might cry at any moment, and so I asked her if she was ok.
She started to sniffle, tears were forming, and for a moment I thought to myself, 'crap, total mistake Kat, you're gonna end up hugging some strange store clerk', and she started to tell me about the crazy, pissed off customer who threw almost every single item off of a shelf because they were completely sold out of a sale item they had listed in the flier.
It apparently, was a really good deal, max purchase 5 per customer, so every customer bought their 5, the clerks refilled the shelves over and over until they ran out, and that's when the angry lady came in.
She asked for it, they explained they were out, and she lost her marbles right there in the health and beauty aisle of Walgreen's, threw a tantrum, demanded the item, they almost had to call the cops, and then she ran her arm along a shelf and threw everything to the floor.
The same clerk who had been yelled at by the woman, now had to clean up everything from the floor, and she said that tons of customers have been behaving this way for weeks now.
I apologized for the bad day she was having, said I wish I could help you clean it all up, but as you can see, neck brace, bad back, surgery, I promise I won't make any messes at all, and I'll be on my way.
She smiled a little, thanked me for at least wanting to help her clean it, and then she opened her register at the photo center so I could check out without having to wait in the longer line.
I thanked her, wished her a good afternoon, and headed home.

I don't understand people, customers, who do that kind of stuff.
Throwing a fit, throwing things to the floor, does not somehow magically make the long sold out item appear, it just makes them look like spoiled brat children.