So I went to Rainbow Co-op (large health food store, excuse me, communist anarchist co-op) yesterday and while I was there I remembered that I had found my receipt for an item I had returned. Long story, but basically I had returned something without a receipt and later found the receipt. When I first returned the item, I didn’t know you couldn’t return things without a receipt and so I just was asking if I could even return the item. The customer service guy took that and ran with it, calling over some kind of manager lady who gave me a stern lecture about how this was the last time she was ever going to let me do this, etc., and then taking 10% off my refund. Sheesh. I wasn’t even the one who was trying to go against the rules; I was only asking if I could even do it.

But I walked out of there with money in my hand, so I forgot about it. 

Until I found the receipt in my pocket. I have to tell you that I’m the kind of person who keeps every receipt. Only recently have I begun throwing out receipts for things like the dried longan from the Chinese store.

So on this visit to Rainbow I thought I would chance it and see if I could find the people who I dealt with on that first visit. 

No such luck.

I went to customer service where there was a tall young black guy behind the counter and a white older lady with cornrows outside the counter, talking to each other. When I came up and stood there, they both looked at me. Of course, I started babbling and they both started saying they couldn’t help me because my descriptions were too vague. Well, yes, they were. I was only looking for some authority figure from Rainbow to acknowledge that I am not a cheater and wasn’t trying to rook them out of $7.75, and then we would all have a good laugh and they would have a happy customer. But instead the black guy got all rigid, possibly about my description of the other cs guy as a “black guy,” and in very cold and dismissive language told me that there were a lot of black people [note the politically correct term here] working there and he couldn’t possibly help me because I was being too vague. And then when I opened my mouth again, he said, “Goodbye.” 

Yeeks.

Well, SOR-REEE.

I was upset, so I said, “Thank you for your patience.” Then I went to leave, but decided to go to the department and see if that the manager lady was there. Of course she wasn’t there, but a sympathetic dude was there who let me dump on him (the highly abridged version) and said he was sorry. I went back towards the front door. On the way there, I thought I better apologize to the first two for wasting their time.

Oh boy, I really like to dig myself in deep, don’t I? 

There was no one behind the counter, but corn row lady was standing there talking to another worker near the box bin by the door. So I went up and stood there. She turned to me and I said I just wanted to apologize for wasting her time. She gave a look at the other worker, and at that moment I realized she had been talking about me to him—I had also overheard a few words of what she had been saying to him. I stared at her blankly for a beat and then she said, “We just didn’t know who you were talking about. Sorry about that.” I gave her a tight little smile and walked out, hoping to cut my losses. I felt a small bit of warmth there, so I’ll give her that.

After I was outside, sitting on the bench with my sweetie while he ate some ice cream, I saw the other guy walk by inside the doors, but damned if I was going to go in there and apologize to that one. So I stayed put. But I vibrated for a while until time put some distance between me and the memory of it…

Number one lesson: Don’t harbor pride and stupidity at the same time. They ferment and cause your brain to develop blind spots. Not to mention they make you lose the connection between your mind and your heart and you have to go in and log on again and put your password in all over again.