Monday, August 31, 2009

Sense of Entitlement

My girlfriend works at a Walmart, a nice one in OV. She’s always had an unconditional dislike for work, but the one thing that she always complains to me about are the people with food stamps; she says she can’t get over their sense of entitlement.
About a week ago she told me that she recognized a girl and a guy that she was checking out to be some people she’d known from high school. She had never really spoken to them throughout school but had always observed certain things about them. She remembered that they would always make out with each other in the halls and were always asking the cafeteria lady to put nacho cheese in their Funyun bags. Eventually, she told me that one day she observed that the girl was pregnant and later heard that both the girl and the guy had dropped out.
Well two years later here was Kiley and these two people she recognized from school. The girl was holding a baby and the guy was loading groceries on the belt. The girl recognized Kiley too, and asked how she was doing and what she was up to. Kiley explained how she was busy working 32 hours a week and was a full time student at the U of A. Kiley said she looked over at the guy and then at the belt and saw a pile of groceries which included, steaks, sodas, chips, and, donuts. Among all these was a Xbox 360 and 2 or 3 games. But it wasn’t any of her business, so she asked what they had been up to since high school. The girl said that they had gotten married shortly after their kid was born and were now collecting unemployment checks. Both of them had worked various odd jobs during the past two years but either one of them saw them as careers so they quit. Now they were just collecting unemployment checks and watching TV at his mother’s house.
Kiley finished ringing them up before the conversation could progress any further. Then Kiley said, "alright your total is 450 dollars. Cash or Credit?"
"Oh we have food stamps." the girl then swiped the food stamps card.
"Alright now you have 300 dollars remaining for the Xbox and DVDs. Cash or credit?"
"Cash" and then the guy handed over about 300 bucks to Kiley without any discretion or hesitation.
Kiley looked at the money that was in her hand for a moment before putting it in the register. She then tore the receipt and was handing it over to them when the guy came back with two Monsters.
"Forgot something" the guy said jokingly. Kiley rang up the Monsters and told them their total was 3 dollars and asked if they were going to pay with cash or credit.
"Oh", the girl laughed awkwardly "Food stamps" and she swiped the card again, but the total still said 3 dollars. The girl swiped the card again, and a couple more times, each time gradually becoming more irritated and confused.
"Oh, the food stamps must not cover the Monsters; kind of like how they don’t cover alcohol." Said Kiley, Unembellished from politeness.
She told me that the girl and guy looked dismayed and offended as if she had some nerve to deny them the Monsters they wanted and took the them back to the refrigerator and left without saying goodbye.
The next man in line came up. He had loaded his items on the belt while the girl was struggling with the card, exerting the only form of work she would do for the Monsters.
"Good" the man said, "Us tax payers don’t need to pay for their energy drinks."

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