My wife and I are equals all the way. We split things right down the middle. Some things I like doing more, thus I tend to perform those tasks in greater number than her, and where I lag, she fills the gap. When it comes to grocery shopping, we both actually dislike it equally, thus we split the weekly general shopping trip to our local grocer, me going one week, and her the next. It has worked out wonderfully over the years.
Please follow me below the fold for my weekly adventure this week, and help me decide what my next step should be.
I live in San Diego, California. Nice place, lots of military, and although the split of D's vs R's is getting pretty close to neutral, this is still considered Republican territory.
On Sunday morning, after a short breakfast and shower, I headed out for my biweekly shopping spree. My wife and I frequent plenty of places to stock up on staples and other items at substantial discounts to what the local Von's grocery store provides, but there are some things that we (with our particular lifestyle) just simply have to get from a local store. With two big kids, plenty of food is eaten at our house, our weekly food budget is moderate. I would say we equal about $200.00 per week on food and staples, distributed between multiple stores, but over half to the local grocery store.
So I went thru my task, checking things I need against avilable coupons I had, made some good fiscal decisions, checked things twice, planned some meals along the way, and was almost done (only vegatables to go) when I heard some people talking. The talk went something like this:
Those f--king people are so stupid, they want the United States to supply welfare to the whole world. I can not believe how stupid they are.
So as I come around the turn, I notice that the two people talking are employees of this local store. One had helped me on numerous occassions, the other I recognized but had always avoided at check out lines. He had always rubbed me wrong, and just didn't seem as nice and likeable as many of the other cheerful checkout people.
The one that had been doing all the talking continued.
I can not believe people are so stupid to vote for a communist such as Barack Obama.
By this time they were walking past me and I said. "You better get used to it because he's going to be your next President"
They both looked a little shocked that their conversation had been overheard, and the one that had done all the talking said something to the effect that that was the stupidest thing he had ever heard.
Now all of this took place within about 20 seconds. I was vividly upset. I proceeded with my cart to the front of the store and asked to talk to the manager. I explained what I had just heard, identified via description the one employee who had offended me, told the manager that I was not purchasing anything today, and maybe never again, and left the store.
Later that day, after talking to my wife, I went back to the store and asked if the store had a General Manager, they got me a supervisor, who I explained that I had had a problem earlier, talked with someone there, but still was very upset and wanted to make sure that my experience was related correctly to the General Manager. Since the General Manager has basically "bankers" hours, I discussed my situation with this supervisor in great detail again. He assured me that the situation would be discussed with Senior Management of this store the following day. I explained that my goad was not for anybody to lose a job. I even retracted that the employee used "cuse" words after the supervisor said that they could lose their job over that simple fact.
The store did not take my name, and now I am left, again, with the feeling that I should never go back to this particular store.
I am wondering what others think of my experience, and if anybody might have a suggestion or two.