Offensive People

I just served a late-middle-aged woman whose response, when I informed her that we did not in fact sell stamps (although we do sell postcards) was a slightly sarcastic:

"Oh well that's helpful."

I have a problem with offensive people - it is not that I react badly to them - rather I am dismayed at the trail of misery and destruction these people must surely leave behind them, particularly as a result of encounters with people who are less outwardly tolerant than I.

I know people who would have responded extremely badly to this woman.

*sigh*

Nothing else to report.

LITERALLY AS I AM WRITING THIS:

Another late-middle aged woman enters in the company of a small pink-clothed child, declaiming in a loud voice:

Let's see if they have any tea-towels...

Mildly irritated that rather than ask me for the tea-towels she directed the question to the room at large (or possibly her small companion), thereby avoiding saying "please" and indeed directly addressing me personally in any way.

When I informed her of the price (£3.50) she informed me (or again, possibly her small companion or the room at large) that:

Oooh, well they're £2.50 in Wales, and they're the same material and everything...

If I were less tolerant I would have asked if they had tasteful pictures of local Stratford-upon-Avon landmarks on them. Once we had established that the Welsh alternative did not, I would have inquired as to the relevance of her comment and to the rationality of her purported desire to purchase such an item in Stratford rather than, say, Cardiff if she found the price difference so objectionable.

Fortunately I am extremely tolerant and she did in fact purchase one.

There's one born every minute.