Pissing off a baby boomer at Home Depot

[RobinFinderson]

The other day I went to Home Depot to pick up some plumbing fittings. I brought a couple of plumbing fittings of my own with me, to make sure that I got the correct pieces that would pair with them. After spending way too long going through incorrectly sorted boxes of fixings, I found what I was looking for and dropped them into my helmet along with the fittings that belonged to me. Waiting in line at the cash register, I knelt down to open up my backpack, and I sorted the fittings, placing the unpurchased fittings onto the conveyor belt, and my fittings into my backpack. There was an older looking man in line behind me.

As I am paying for the pieces, the oldish man says to me, loud enough for the cashier to hear, "I just watched you put four items into your backpack without paying for them." I looked him in the face and replied, "That is none of your business," pausing after the "your" as I barely stop myself from adding the word "*#cking." The old man say back, "Yes it is my business, because I happen to be law enforcement." I reply, "You are full of crap, and that makes you a liar, so between the two of us, you are the only one who has been dishonest." He looks over the cashier and says, "I saw him put what looked like four items into his backpack." By this time the cashier has already swiped my card for the purchased items. I look her in the eye, smiling, as the machine prints out my receipt. She hands me the receipt, no questions asked. I turn to the old fool and say, "Maybe if you run after me you can copy down my license plate." Then I leave him to think that I was a thief and that the young cashier didn't care enough to stop me.

I don't have a lot of patience with baby boomers. They tend to piss me off, being part of what I consider to be the lamest, most pathetic, greediest, most selfish, judgmental, and lazy generation this country has ever produced. Clinton and Bush 2 are the baby boomer presidents. I realize there are exceptions to the rule of my generational disdain, but this man's nosy presumptuousness made it easy for me to classify him as one of the worst sorts of boomers. I could have easily set this man's mind at ease, by simply stating the truth, but I made the other choice instead.

[cougjunkie]

Wow this post makes you look like everything you hate about Baby Boomers. The guy thought you were stealing he said something, good for him.

[Coach McGuirk]

poor choice by you. I appreciate the man saying something. Too often people see wrong and let it go. You could have handled it better, but you already stated that.

This looks to be a troll, so have fun discussing it with others.

[RobinFinderson]

As a general rule of thumb, I believe in common courtesy. When a stranger starts a conversation with an accusation, I no longer owe the person anything. I don't know how a person is supposed to bring up that he thought a person stole something. Maybe he should have just brought it up with a security person. I don't know. But when a person accuses me of something, I don't owe him a polite defense.

The doors leaving the Home Depot are also the location of the other thing I do that pissed off some people here before. When the line to get out of the HD is long, because the rent-a-cop at the door is flagging every receipt with his yellow marker, I will always bypass the line. Screw Home Depot. They have my money and I have my items, and our business is complete. No law compels anyone to stand in line to get their receipt checked by a rent-a-cop, and if Home Depot isn't going to hire enough security to get people out the door without waiting in line (this usually happens after a fifteen minute wait in line at the cash register), then that is their problem, not mine.

I think I give common courtesy freely enough to be considered a generally courteous person, but I also think there are places where folks give common courtesy where they shouldn't (like in the line to get out the door at Home Depot), and a little uncommon discourtesy would help push corporate policy in the right direction (if everyone walked past the line, HD would eventually hire enough rent-a-cops to handle the crowd, or they would abandon the annoying practice all together.)

[Shaka]

I think you blew it. You should have just offered a quick explanation and left it.

[SCcoug]

The doors leaving the Home Depot are also the location of the other thing I do that pissed off some people here before. When the line to get out of the HD is long, because the rent-a-cop at the door is flagging every receipt with his yellow marker, I will always bypass the line. Screw Home Depot. They have my money and I have my items, and our business is complete.

I hate this as well. In those instances it seems as though the guy at the door doesn't just wave people by with their receipts but has to go item by item as the line gets bigger.

[RobinFinderson]

I think you blew it. You should have just offered a quick explanation and left it.

Faith would probably agree.

[Shaka]

Faith would probably agree.

In the interest of fairness I've blown it in similar situations. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

[RobinFinderson]

I think you blew it. You should have just offered a quick explanation and left it.

I would also add that the epic generational battle, of which this confrontation was a minor skirmish, is most definitely an extension of my own disappointment in my parents, and exists primarily in my head. I've resigned myself to accept this crap-hole the boomers have left for us, and on most days I am content to simply twiddle my thumbs and wait for the lot of them to die. On most days, boomers are happy enough to merely run the government and own everything, but when some boomer gets up in my face at the home depot and accuses me of stealing, he isn't going to get a courteous response.

[Donuthole]

I would also add that the epic generational battle, of which this confrontation was a minor skirmish, is most definitely an extension of my own disappointment in my parents, and exists primarily in my head. I've resigned myself to accept this crap-hole the boomers have left for us, and on most days I am content to simply twiddle my thumbs and wait for the lot of them to die. On most days, boomers are happy enough to merely run the government and own everything, but when some boomer gets up in my face at the home depot and accuses me of steeling, he isn't going to get a courteous response.

Is that like ironing, only harder?

[RobinFinderson]

Is that like ironing, only harder?

Grrrrrrr! (corrected!)

[myboynoah]

Sounds like RF needs to be nicer to people, no matter their age, race, religion, gender, or cookie preference.

[Moliere]

The doors leaving the Home Depot are also the location of the other thing I do that pissed off some people here before. When the line to get out of the HD is long, because the rent-a-cop at the door is flagging every receipt with his yellow marker, I will always bypass the line. Screw Home Depot. They have my money and I have my items, and our business is complete. No law compels anyone to stand in line to get their receipt checked by a rent-a-cop, and if Home Depot isn't going to hire enough security to get people out the door without waiting in line (this usually happens after a fifteen minute wait in line at the cash register), then that is their problem, not mine.

I've never seen this at a Home Depot. In fact the only place I've seen this is Costco.

Oh, and if you hate baby boomers now, just wait until they are all retired.

[RobinFinderson]

I've never seen this at a Home Depot. In fact the only place I've seen this is Costco.

Oh, and if you hate baby boomers now, just wait until they are all retired.

It was actually Costco where I wrote about this happening before, where I cut past the line and tried to walk to my car. The Costco security person ran out after me and insisted on flagging my receipt, and I let her do it, but I felt a little bad because the rest of the people were still standing in line. Usually the line itself is enough of a barrier at Costco to force you to wait behind it, but in this case I was able to squeeze past the line with a couple of items in my hands. Costco is definitely the worst offender here, but it happens at Home Depot as well (only I've never had a Home Depot person chase after me after walking past the line).

[woot]

As a general rule of thumb, I believe in common courtesy. When a stranger starts a conversation with an accusation, I no longer owe the person anything. I don't know how a person is supposed to bring up that he thought a person stole something. Maybe he should have just brought it up with a security person. I don't know. But when a person accuses me of something, I don't owe him a polite defense.

The doors leaving the Home Depot are also the location of the other thing I do that pissed off some people here before. When the line to get out of the HD is long, because the rent-a-cop at the door is flagging every receipt with his yellow marker, I will always bypass the line. Screw Home Depot. They have my money and I have my items, and our business is complete. No law compels anyone to stand in line to get their receipt checked by a rent-a-cop, and if Home Depot isn't going to hire enough security to get people out the door without waiting in line (this usually happens after a fifteen minute wait in line at the cash register), then that is their problem, not mine.

I think I give common courtesy freely enough to be considered a generally courteous person, but I also think there are places where folks give common courtesy where they shouldn't (like in the line to get out the door at Home Depot), and a little uncommon discourtesy would help push corporate policy in the right direction (if everyone walked past the line, HD would eventually hire enough rent-a-cops to handle the crowd, or they would abandon the annoying practice all together.)

At Costco it's a little different, since it's in your membership contract to submit to those kinds of searches. At Home Depot, Best Buy, et al., however, one is under no obligation to submit. However, they are also under no obligation to let you continue shopping at their stores. I share much of your righteous indignation, but ultimately it's probably a losing battle.