I'm so aggravated about what just happened to me in Target and since I can't call my hubby to vent, I thought this would be the best place to do so.
As I was just about to checkout, after finishing placing some Diet DP in my cart, a woman with two girls walks up to me. The conversation went something like this:
Her: I don't mean any disrespect. I'm not asking you for money or anything. But we're traveling to Virginia from Florida. Look I'll show you my license. (proceeds to pull it out) And I have all of these bruises. (I look but don't see any) I'll take you in the bathroom to show you them if you want. (Uh, no thanks) But we're trying to make it home and I would like you to help me by getting these things for us. (Pointing to her cart)
I look and see a cart full of THREE 12 packs of soda, various bags of candy, and two bags of chips.
Her: It's just to help us on the road until we get there.
My thought process went something like this: Didn't you say you weren't going to ask me for money but you have the nerve to ask me to purchase your junk food? If you're worried about getting home, why did you stop in a Jacksonville Target, not anywhere near a main highway, to purchase JUNK food? How many sodas (not diet) do you plan on drinking in a four-six hour trip?! Why would you think it's okay to ask a complete stranger to buy this shit for you? Do you really think you need this shit? (um, she was quite a large, large woman) WHAT THE FUCK LADY???!!!
I was so shocked and flabbergasted by her request that I didn't really know what to say. I gave her apologies (why I need to apologize to her I don't know but I did) and then said mumbled something and said, "no, but I can give you some cash." Dumb ass me, I know. So I reach into my purse to try to grab $2 but ended up grabbing a $5. Fuck. She saw it. So I handed it over. She mumbled a thanks, quickly walked away and bombarded some poor sap like me in the clothing section. As I was still standing there dumbfounded.
I'm such a sucker. I didn't know how to say no. Why did I feel it was my responsibility to give her my hard earned money? Mainly just to get her away from me, to be honest. But what I really wanted to do was walk up to the security guy and tell him to kick her out because she's soliciting all of the customers.
I didn't think my Sunday morning trip to Target would involve a charitable contribution to anyone but myself, and the already engorged purses of the Tar-get corporation. Now I just contributed to the obesity of someone else. (Side note: I felt so bad for her little girls. They cowered behind a rack waiting while their mom was giving her sales pitch to people. That's so unfair to them)
The more I think about it, the more pissed I become. It would have been different if she was asking for gas money or real food to feed her kids. No, she wanted me to purchase her entire cart of goods. There was at least $20 worth of junk food in there. How freaking insulting.
And the more I think about it, the more I know her story was a scam. There is no reason she would be at that Target if she was really traveling from Florida to Virginia. We're over an hour away from the main highway. Fuck. I was just scammed.
Why can't I say no to people?
9.21.2008
I'm a sucker.
brought to you by Brando at 12:36 PM
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3 thought(s) about it:
doh. I would have done the exact same thing you did. I have this nasty habit of kinda freezing and then kicking myself later for it. Dont worry, I think you did what a lot of people would have.
Ironic... I'm married to a Marine yet I dont have a backbone. Cant they issue me one?
If I gave the requested amount of money to everyone that asked me for "some change", "a dollar", "five dollars", "food money", or "gas money" on a daily basis, I would end up giving away nearly my entire income. I work downtown, and there are always homeless people, scammers, and addicts looking for people who are willing to give them a buck, aside from the few people actually trying to "earn" it by playing an instrument of some sort. And then there's the people passing out information on this or that cause or asking for signatures or holding signs with pictures of cut up babies on them (some anti-abortion group - no joke; I wanted to punch the lady holding the sign for ruining my entire day by implanting those images in my head). I've learned to become thick skinned; I end up pretending I don't hear them asking, saying a simple, "No" or "No, sorry", and keeping moving. Sometimes I feel bad for ignoring them, sometimes I feel mad at them for asking me (when I can tell they're druggies, mostly), but most of the time it just takes a reminder to myself that a) I would end up broke if I gave to all of them, and b) giving them money is giving them an incentive to maintain that lifestyle. Working downtown, saying no ends up just being one of those things you have to get used to or go broke.
I'm not as nice or as generous as you! I probably would have blown her off. Don't kick yourself for giving her money, she'll get hers one of these days for scamming people!
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