posted
(I'm not officially signing up for Hollidailies, but I am going to make an effort to post a blog entry every day in December. Here's today's.)
My son James and I ducked into Wal-Mart tonight to grab a few things, including a new game he was lusting after. (Any game he mentions is immediately followed by the phrase "that I really, really want" to the point where now we say it with him in joyous harmony)
Loaded up on dog food, cat food, some groceries, socks, and other sundries, grabbed his game of desire, and settled down to wait in the holiday rush of the entertainment area register. Also to recover from the effort of not getting nailed by the hordes of shoppers who were all apparently under the impression that wherever they wanted to steer their heavily loaded carts was the right of way. Or else we were just invisible, I didn't check. After the fifth time I hurt my shoulders pulling my cart to an abrupt halt to avoid the person rushing past me (and not one of them acknowledged my presence at any point) I decided the massed shoppers of Wal-Mart quite simply wanted to hit me with their carts so I just settled on getting in and out of there alive.
Which was why I was cheered when a pleasant looking woman excused herself and reached past us to grab a rebate or coupon or something from the register where we were waiting, then joined another woman to walk away. She was polite! The social compact still exists! My faith in humanity is renewed!
Then she stopped. And gave a disgusted grunt, and said, and I quote: "It's not in American!" She reached past us again - no "excuse me" this time -- and flipped through all the rebates. All in Spanish. I thought that was silly of Wal-Mart, and figured there was another pack somewhere. No worries.
She reacted somewhat differently, throwing the card in the air. It flipped up and came down near a large man waiting to talk to the cellphone guy. He picked it up and looked at it as the women came around to the other register to see if there was an "American" pack there (there wasn't). He responded by taking the entire pad of rebates off the rack and dropping it into the garbage can behind the registers, saying "There's what I think of that."
James and I decided that the garden register was more to our liking and left.
It is startling to see open bigotry (and rudeness) displayed like that, and it's a brusque reminder that there are idiots everywhere. It did make for an interesting conversation on the way home ("What is 'written in American,' anyway? Were the rebates supposed to be in Apache?").
It did help me understand the other shoppers, though. I really wanted to hit them with a cart.
[ December 03, 2007, 12:52 AM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
It gets even more fun when you call public idiots on their idiocy publicly. My most recent story happened in Publix (a supermarket chain in the southeast US) on a Friday night. It was pretty busy, though, no surprise there. I only had a few items, so I avoided the longer checkout lines and instead went up to customer service. Long lines there, too, but of people with two or three things or a lotto ticket or a paycheck, as opposed to a cartful of groceries.
This one jackass a line over from me had gotten up to the register, and I listened to him be a schmuck to one of the employees at the register. At first it was loudly scoffing/harumphing when the phone rang and she had to answer it (this took about five seconds), and then she had to get a set of currency for someone at one of the registers (this took about twenty seconds), and then I think she had to get a carton of cigarettes for someone else.
Tiresome, sure, but we'd been in line for no more than five minutes tops. Then the idiot gets up front and wants to cash his paycheck, and complains because he's never done that before, and Publix makes you verify stuff and fill out a card with your information. I had to do that back in high school, and it does take a few minutes.
The jackass continues mumbling and grumbling in that stupid way people get, a sort of verbal pouting. Loudly tapping his hand on the desk, jingling his keys, looking around with exagerrated facial expressions, etc. At this point he's turned my brief stay in the line from an exercise in weary tedium into a continuation of aggravation, which I thought I'd escaped for the weekend. After being unable to verify his employment (naturally, being a Friday night), he complained that he'd been there for "at least" twenty minutes waiting.
The look on his face when I told him, "Cut the bull@#%, man, you've been in this line two or three minutes just like me and everyone else here," was delightful, and almost made the exasperating experience of waiting in an annoying line worthwhile.
I liken it to the way some people behave on the Internet, or in their cars in traffic. For some reason, sometimes, people get it in their heads that around strangers, around people they never expect to see again, they can say and do anything they want. My anecdote has no bigotry, though, just stupidity, and so is deficient in that and other ways to yours.
posted
Why not have our own language anyway? The Montenegrins have declared that Montenegrin is now a language even though it is essentially Serbian and a Serbian speaker probably has an easier time understanding someone speaking "Montenegrin" than I do understanding someone speaking English from Scotland or some other areas of the U.K.
So, just like the Army sometimes does, instead of fixing the problem we lower the standard. Then all of the silly people in the U.S. that say the "speak American" won't be wrong jk
I've had to endure an entire 1 credit class this semester talking about the rights of people to speak their own language. As one of the few Americans in the class I've come to realize that we have a different world view than the central and eastern Europeans and I understand a bit more why the US isn't always ready to jump on board all of the international human rights treaties. Some of the treaties have interesting ideas of what is a "right".
Sergeant
(Removes tounge from cheek)
Posts: 278 | Registered: Oct 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Rakeesh: It gets even more fun when you call public idiots on their idiocy publicly. My most recent story happened in Publix.
quote:("What is 'written in American,' anyway? Were the rebates supposed to be in Apache?").
*chuckles* I like that.
My grandpa, one of the sweetest, most honest, nicest men you'll ever meet always does that "why aren't they speaking American?" thing whenever he hears someone speaking Spanish (which may have gotten worse since he moved to Houston, I'm not sure about the demographics). He's never rude about it, never in your face about it, it's just something he jokes about around family. My uncle on the other hand is the in your face rudely bigoted type.
There's certainly degrees of severity.
It takes a bit for me to correct a stranger in public, as while I'm generally not meek, I'm also not overly forthright to strangers. Possibly in Rakeesh's situation I might have said something, as I feel a bit more bold when an innocent bystander is getting the business end of someone's hissy fit. I've done it once in recent memory, when I was at a restaurant and the person behind me at another table was complaining VERY LOUDLY that her food was wrong, even though she ordered what was on the menu, and from the sound of her complaint, she just hadn't read what was actually IN the item before ordering it. She then proclaimed that the waittress would not be getting a tip because of it. Against my better judgement I turned around and explained to her that A. She misread the menu. And B. If she refused to tip, then not only would the server not get paid, the server would literally be PAYING to wait on her, for several reasons relating to taxes and very low hourly pay for servers. I was going to go into a spiel and ask her how she'd feel if she worked customer service and a customer didn't like her service because of someone else's fault, and then she had to PAY to have someone be rude to her. But I decided to leave it at that, and when I left I saw that she had left a tip. Not a good one, but something.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
The only times folks speaking Spanish bothers me is when it's a group of men sitting around leering at me. Apparently, leering in Spanish makes it so I can't figure out what they're doing.
But I consider that a subset of general rudeness. It's more the being alone with a crowd of creepy men that gets to me then.
I'm also not bold enough to want to start some drama with someone being rude, but I always commiserate with the cashier afterwards. The way I figured it while waitressing, 1/4 of people are just mean and another 1/4 are vultures looking to profit from your mistake.
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Especially concerning to me is the recent idea of language regulation through the declaration of an “official language.” My own county, Spotsylvania County in Virginia, shamefully approved such a thing.
There is nothing more appalling than the degradation of language– any language– for the purposes of political gain.
I know it’s hyperbolic– I know it’s melodramatic– but I can’t help remembering the concept of language as expressed in Orwell’s 1984. That one day, all expression, all thought, all communication will be able to be summed up by two words: Big Brother. I’m afraid– perhaps baselessly– that this movement to route other languages elsewhere, is the first step to that sort of final solution.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
This is a fascinating from a socio-linguistic standpoint, whether people really are starting to call American English "American." I guess that's what we get for changing the course title from "English" to "Language Arts."
It would be cool if in "Language Arts" was like Martial Arts or Deadly Arts.
"Give me 50 sarcastic rejoinders and give them to me now!"
"Whatever, Sensei!"
But, yeah, I wouldn't dispute that from a prescriptivist standpoint, her behavior demostrated an ironic ignorance.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
While I certainly think the people in Chris' story over-reacted, I also understand frustration at not being able to obtain something you need in English.
Not because I'm bigoted, not because I'm a jerk, but because while it's not on the books as our "official" language, it is the language used in government and commerce in this nation and it is not wrong to expect that rebate coupons or whatever in a store the size of WalMart would be available in English and it's completely understandable to be frustrated when you cannot find such coupon.
I have no problem with offering them ALSO in Spanish, but English ones should be available.
Given that, I'm certain they were just out and had the woman asked for a rebate coupon in English I feel very confident WalMart could have gotten one for her. Throwing them all away was an act of extreme jerkitude on the part of the man in the story, but I do sympathize with the woman's frustration, especially in a busy time of year with lots of people running around and so much on our schedules, it does feel sometimes like the world is out to get you and even a simple thing like not being able to locate a rebate coupon you can read will send you over the edge.
Likewise, I'm sure it's frustrating for people who speak only Spanish to not find things they can read, which is why it's great to have multiple languages available. The best solution is of course, to have the items printed in both languages or to have both languages displayed side by side so it's easy for customers to locate what they need.
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posted
Unnecessary. Simple laziness on the consumers' parts takes care of that.
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Blayne Bradley
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posted
In Canada we have the interesting situation that despite being officially bilingual its hard to find a single francaphone that can speak english, and when you challenge them on that there like "Canada is bilingual you should speak French!"
And should be able to equally speak English too buddy.
When jobs ask for bilingual people they dont actually want bilignual people they just want someone whose a native french speaker and to hell with it if they cannot speak english.
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I do think Wal-Mart should have had English versions next to the Spanish ones. There was no clerk at the register at the time -- that's what I was waiting for -- and I'm sure they would have been produced with an apology. But still... geez.
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quote:Originally posted by Belle: The best solution is of course, to have the items printed in both languages or to have both languages displayed side by side so it's easy for customers to locate what they need.
This is what we do in Canada, but it's a legal requirement that such things be in both official languages. Optionally I believe some government offices also provide service in other languages depending on local demographics.
quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: In Canada we have the interesting situation that despite being officially bilingual its hard to find a single francaphone that can speak english...
I bet that as a percentage there are more functionally bilingual Francophones than Anglophones. I've never encountered someone born west of Ontario who could speak even halfway decent French, whereas I've never had communication problems with a Francophone outside of France.
And actually, Statistics Canada suggests that I'm right. For all of Canada except Quebec, the percentage of people who speak English only is 87.5%. For Quebec, the percentage of people who speak French only is 53.8%.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
It would have made me laugh if the coupons were printed in English on the other side.
Though, I must say, if Wal-mart is offering bigots, they're likely a cheaper variety than you'll find elsewhere. Hopefully, with the way Wal-Mart does business, it will ultimately make it impossible for other stores to stock bigots and remain economically viable... perhaps, they will bankrupt the world of bigots altogether. Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote:Originally posted by twinky: And actually, Statistics Canada suggests that I'm right. For all of Canada except Quebec, the percentage of people who speak English only is 87.5%. For Quebec, the percentage of people who speak French only is 53.8%.
I was wondering about that statistic before I clicked on the link. 87.5% of people speaking English only seemed rather high, but that link only measures the two official languages.
So I'd add the following clarification. I would think that a decent non-trivial proportion of that 87.5% would know another language and do not speak "English only", just not *French.*
On the same topic, if I recall, there was a pretty unfair situation in Quebec a few years back (it may have been changed via the courts). The situation was that while native Anglophones in Quebec could have their children taught in English, recent immigrants were forced to have their children taught in French *only* even if they already knew English in order to appease the French that felt they were being swamped by English-speakers, despite the fact that both are official languages anyways.
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:Originally posted by FlyingCow: Though, I must say, if Wal-mart is offering bigots, they're likely a cheaper variety than you'll find elsewhere.
Of course, it's only a matter of time before we find out that they all contain lead or some other hazardous chemical and have to be recalled.
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posted
It occured to me the other night that Wal-mart = Red State, Target = Blue State. Is that totally off base? Doesn't Oprah rather like Target?
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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ppoka, I don't think it's accurate because of any political reasons. Target started in Minnesota and spread from there, and Wal-Mart started in Arkansas and spread from there. So there are more Wal-Marts in the south and more Targets in the north. Target was also owned by the Dayton Hudson company, which then bought Marshell Fields, which was based in Chicago. So Target would have hit Chicago before Wal-Mart did, and Oprah is likely to have become familiar with it first and prefer it.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I thought it was because Target is more design oriented, while Walmart is more cost oriented. Anway, no biggie. It was just something that occured to me as I gazed in disappointment at the pants I bought from Target as we were running through on Black Friday.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:Originally posted by pooka: It occured to me the other night that Wal-mart = Red State, Target = Blue State. Is that totally off base? Doesn't Oprah rather like Target?
They cater to different economic demographics. The average income of Target customers is $58,000; for WalMart customers it's $38,000.
Posts: 3275 | Registered: May 2007
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Nope, it's cuz Target has always been MUCH more employee-oriented and MUCH more community-oriented than Wal*Mart. And Wal*Mart had a BAD reputation under SamWalton as far as minority hiring practices.
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WOW, that high? I didn't know both companies attracted people that far over the median individual income.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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I've seen an alternate claim that the numbers were $35,000 and $75,000. In any case, if you've got both of them in close proximity(we do here) it's clear that Target is more "upscale" than WalMart. They have a smaller selection of higher-priced products.
It's just averages though. Most of the people I know, regardless of their income level, do most of their shopping at WalMart.
Posts: 3275 | Registered: May 2007
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Yep. "If Wal*Mart were an individual economy, it would rank as China's eighth-biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada." Yet Wal*Mart shoppers are far more likely to: Complain about China's military build-up, which is being funded by Chinese trade surpluses resulting from exporting American jobs over to China. Support breaches of the Constitution and HUGE federal expenditures to "fight the War on Terror", and oppose measures to reduce the American dependence on the oil imports which fund terrorism. Etc ad nauseum... So there's an inherent irony in Wal*Mart shoppers going berserk over coupons not being "American".
Admittedly, Wal*Mart has made major improvements in most areas since SamWalton died... ...but the political divide between Wal*Mart shoppers and boycotters still lingers.
quote:You say that as though putting lead into bigots is a bad thing.
That sounds awfully violent.
Nothin' violent about sniffin' NASCAR tailpipes, and tarn near as good as moonshine fer raisin' yer brain's lead level.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I used to be so good at avoiding Walmart, but now that I have learned to sew and enjoy it, I am sucked in. I can either go just down the street to buy stuff or I can go 20 miles to the nearest fabric store. Now I have to decide which does the greater harm to the world- roundtrip 40 miles- so over a gallon of gas, plus emissions or shopping at walmart.
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Like I said, there have been major improvements in most areas since the death of SamWalton and his fanatical dedication toward turning America into a ThirdWorld country. Kinda hard to remain mad when Wal*Mart takes the lead in eg getting energy-efficient lightbulbs into people's homes.
And I ain't even about to recommend one be a limousine liberal driving his monster truck to environmental rallies, which is what driving absurdly-extra miles to avoid Wal*Mart amounts to. Treating political posturing as more important than the effects of ones actions is just further proof that ideology is for idiots.
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There are more Targets in urban areas. There are more Wal*Mart stores in Rural areas.
People in Urban areas make more money because they need more money to live in those expensive places.
Personally, I think it's lovely that poor people have a place where they can get inexpensive goods. I'm not poor and I still shop at Wal*Mart because I love the prices. You anti Wal*Mart bigots can go pay twice as much for the same junk somewhere else.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Originally posted by FlyingCow: It would have made me laugh if the coupons were printed in English on the other side.
That possibility had occurred to me as well.
quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: You anti Wal*Mart bigots can go pay twice as much for the same junk somewhere else.
It's actually very often (slightly) higher-quality junk somewhere else. But I appreciate your permission.
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