55 Cents?!

So I pop into Duane Reade the other night to pick up some quick household items on the way home. It was just before midnight or so and I figured the place would be empty and I could just breeze in and breeze out. No such luck.

I grabbed a gallon of water, squeezed me some Charmin, broke out the Bounty and picked up a pack of some sour Jelly Bellys, then headed to the check-out counter. As I walked down the aisle, I smiled as I noticed there was only one customer in line. In and out, just like I planned, I thought... until I got within ear shot and heard this woman arguing with the cashier.

Arguing because the cashier wouldn't let her charge a 55 cent pack of gum!! 55 cents?!! You gotta be kidding me, I thought!

The cashier repeatedly apologized as she explained that the store has a '$10 Minimum Charge' policy but the woman wouldn't hear it. She was from California and there were no minimums there, she angrily explained. She never carried cash and always charged everything. She knew was being discriminated against by the cashier for being beautiful. And that's when it finally hit me that this woman was plastered. High as a kite. Out of her gourd. Probably coked up and on her way to some club and desperately in need of this pack of gum for some reason. And she wouldn't give up.

I then started to get a little pissed as this continued. Not only was she holding me up, as well as the other late night shoppers now in line behind me, but she was really being rude to this woman at the register, who was just doing her job.

Rather than get into it with her, I figured I'd just kindly step in and diffuse the situation. I reached into my pocket as fished around for change as I was gonna buy this woman her damn pack of gum just to get her to shut up and on her way. But as if sensing sudden kindness in room, the wasted woman stopped yelling and turned around, finally noticing the line behind her. She stared at us all for a few seconds, looked back at the cashier, slammed the gum down on the counter and just silently stormed out with her head down.

As I walked up to the counter I just smiled at the still-flustered cashier. "Some people, eh?", I rhetorically asked. "Dumb bitch.", she replied, but then immediately regretted it as her hand moved to cover her mouth in embarrassment. She then silently rang up my items.

I paid in cash.