Welcome to the Lunar Eclipse edition, where nothing makes much sense but there are moments of light in the darkness. If you’re new to my Substack, the back story on Friday Bitch & Brag is here. Time to circle up, kids!
Bitch: Yesterday I found a sick, injured cat on my walk around the neighborhood and spent a few hours trying to arrange for it to be rescued and helped. I won’t go into all the details but today when I went looking for the cat, I couldn’t find it. I’m pissed at the residents who were helpful and yet not as helpful as they could have been.
Brag: While I was trying to convince the cat to come out of hiding and eat some stinky wet cat food, I met a neighbor, Lorraine*, who was out walking her two beautiful goofy dogs. She was very kind and had a good sense of humor, and I’m hoping we see each other again and get a chance to talk more.
Bitch: Guess who went to Motherfucking Harris-Teeter yesterday and nearly clocked a cashier who leapt in front of the self-checkout with her laminated UPC code to give them the senior discount? To quote Lizzo, I’m 100% that bitch. I gave her such a rash of shit that she went into hyperdrive removing the discount AND STILL wanted to make ME wrong for not wanting a discount. No, you’re the ageist overzealous twit who saw my prematurely grey hair and decided to be Captain Save-a-Grey-Haired-Ho and didn’t bother to ask me if I wanted any assistance.
Brag: I went OFF on Twitter about this repeated issue at MF’ing Harris-Teeter and a CSR got back to me via DM. My explanation:
I have been to 2 of your stores near me, one in [location redacted] and the other in [location redacted]. On multiple visits, I've had cashiers give me the senior discount without asking me first and I'm not eligible. One even told me that she saw my grey hair and assumed I was eligible. I appreciate that Harris-Teeter cashiers and other staff are trained to provide great customer service - the staffers working the aisles have been consistently helpful and friendly. However I dread shopping at your stores because of the ageist assumptions that someone with grey hair is going to automatically be eligible for the senior discount. What's worse is when I turn down the discount and tell them I'm not old enough, the cashiers want to turn it around and make me wrong for not wanting to take advantage of a discount. I've worked in customer service, but I don't believe that the customer is always right - what I do believe is that the customer never wants to feel wrong. Shopping in Harris-Teeter makes me feel like an old lady and I'm only 52, for crying out loud.
Their response:
Our cashiers should not be asking customers if they qualify for this discount- they should only be applying the discount if the customer requests it. We will follow up with management at both locations to address and review with our front end staff.
They also wanted my number so a manager could follow up with me. Nope. Not interested. Unless this company is going to lower their prices across the board so that discounts based on some ageist bullshit aren’t necessary, I’m done. I’m not going to shop there anymore.1
Bitch: Traffic was so wonky today, with people either driving recklessly or not paying attention and blocking traffic. Shout out to the jackass who cut me off, ended up at a red light right in front of me, then sat there for 20 seconds not moving when the light turned green.
Brag: I went to see some friends at their business and got to meet their new puppy. She was so cuddly and goofy, and barely sat still long enough for me to get a photo.
*Not her real name
I put this item in as a Brag because I got a response from MF’ing Harris-Teeter when I called them out. Some companies don’t bother to do anything if they get called out.