Thursday, May 6, 2010

Four Women, Three Coupons

She was wearing heels and had just returned from a business trip. She told the female cashier that things were “just crazy, unbelievably crazy!” And then she chuckled as she reached into her purse. She pulled out a coupon for Vitamin Water and handed it to the cashier. The coupon was scanned and the register beeped. The cashier read the coupon and then told the woman, “Oh, I’m so sorry dear. It seems this coupon has expired already.”

“Really? Are you sure?” the business woman questioned. “Shoot! My daughter printed that out for me to use. Well, who can read that tiny print anyway?”

The cashier nodded her head and agreed. “Yes, that print is much too small. These things happen! And things are so crazy for you right now. Don’t you worry about it at all. I’m sure your daughter will understand.”


The next woman was wearing flip flops had just returned from the pediatrician. She told the cashier about her baby and her husband who were waiting in the car. She smiled as she reached into her purse. She pulled out a Women, Infants and Children(WIC) voucher for baby food and handed it to the cashier. The cashier read the voucher and then told the woman, “Honey, you can’t use this! No, this is all wrong. This is for 8 fruits or vegetables and you only have 7 plus one turkey rice. This turkey rice isn’t covered, honey.”

“Oh dangit! I must have made a mistake. Is there any way you can get someone to run back and get a veggie for me real quick. Please?” the flip flop woman asked the cashier.

The cashier huffed loudly. The woman said, “I’m sorry.” The cashier rolled her eyeballs. The woman complained about the huffing and eyeball rolling. The cashier complained about having to call for a veggie baby food runner.

Things got nasty.

I was next in line. I was wearing worn out running shoes and had just come from the shower.

As the unpleasant situation continued to escalate, I turned to the man behind me in line. He raised his eyebrows to me. I raised mine back to him. I communicated my discomfort. He communicated his disgust.


When the flip flop woman was gone it was my turn to check out. In my effort to ease the discomfort I nervously said to the cashier, “I hope my groceries won’t be so dramatic.”

“Well, I’m certain they won’t be!” the cashier barked back to me, obviously still upset. She continued, “I’m going to report that woman! You’ve gotta have some responsibility! I mean for god’s sake, it said right there on the paper ‘8 veggies’. It didn’t say a thing about turkey rice. I can’t believe she tried to take me for a ride and thought I wouldn’t notice. If you’re gonna get aid like that-aid that I’m helping pay for, mind you- well I’m just sayin’—you have to have some responsibility. And not show up high to grocery shop…I’m sure she was probably high.”

The man behind me piped up, “Well, for all we know she was high but the real problem lies with the state. I mean, really, isn’t it a stretch for the state to hand out those coupon things and assume that those people will be able to read them? She obviously couldn’t.”

As if on cue, I handed the cashier my coupon for $2.50 off of two boxes of Drumstick Lil’ Drums snack size ice cream cones and prayed for a quick exit from the uncomfortable situation. I’m not normally a Drumstick consumer. Pleased, however, to see they had come out with a new, smaller size, it was that coupon that convinced me to finally buy them. I was going to surprise the boy and the teenager with these new smaller, and mother approved, ice cream cones.


As I unloaded my groceries onto my kitchen counter at home, I found my $2.50 Drumstick coupon in one of my bags. I pulled my receipt out of my purse. Sure enough, the cashier woman had failed to scan my Drumstick coupon-the coupon that convinced me to buy those cones in the first place.

I ranted to the family about the whole uncomfortable situation. I jabbered on for some time about how the cashier was nice to the fancy lady with a Vitamin Water coupon and impatient to the flip flop lady with her WIC coupon and completely forgot about my Drumstick coupon altogether.

The family responded wordlessly with the relaxed slurping of their Drumstick ice cream cones.

Finally, the boy spoke. “Well, I think the whole thing turned out great. Because, Mom, now you can take that coupon back to the store and buy us two more boxes of those cones.”

“Yah,” the teenager piped up. “And you should go back to the same checker and maybe she’ll forget again about your coupon. Who knows how many boxes of these cones we could end up with?”

I turned to the husband and gave him the “whose crazy children are these?” glare. The husband grinned back at me. “What?” he said. “I mean really…you’re the one who’s always saying we need to find the positive in every situation. ”



Check This Out!


I suppose,obviously, I should probably recommend the Drumstick Lil’ Drums snack size cones. I haven’t actually eaten one yet, but I can assure you the rest of the family gives them a big thumbs up.

The husband and I recently watched the documentary, Iron Maiden: Flight 666-The Movie on the TV station Palladia. Neither of us have been huge Iron Maiden fans in the past. I suppose the whole darkness and devil worship rumors scared me off in high school. However, after doing a bit of research, it was nice to find out that Iron Maiden is a whole lot more complex and a whole lot less evil than I had been led to believe. And as the husband and I found out, that even as “old guys”, Iron Maiden is still unbelievably talented. We accidentally stumbled upon this documentary, saw the name “Iron Maiden” and started to turn the channel. And then they started performing. We ended up watching the entire movie and then put it on hold on Netflix so that we can watch it again. If you are open to a little bit of hard rock, you definitely will want to give this one a chance.

4 comments:

sevenonsix said...

People are so ignorant and judgemental. Thank goodness we do have ice cream.

Anonymous said...

I've been in a store before and there was definitely some "pre-judging" going on when the WIC coupon came out. The cashier said, "So, how many kids DO you have?" The woman said, "One, thank you and my husband was just killed in Iraq. Any other questions?" It was quite a moment.

calimom said...

I've seen that Iron Maiden show you're talking about. It really is fantastic. They are a tight, tight band.

It's funny that you wer uncomfortable at the store. I probably would have called all three women stupid. But then, I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for writing that...I feel so frustrated, and do indeed try to kindly but firmly make a statement in those situations, or at least make some action to improve it (go make the run for the item myself). Being disabled, I know how difficult small things like that can be, and how misconceptions for simple mistakes can be. No-one except for her knows her situation, nor has the right to judge her, till they literally walk in her shoes. I thank you for simply presenting that in an open manner.