Last week Meelie and I stopped off at K-mart after work, searching for some Pony Beads needed for a project that her 3rd grade class is doing. We took a look around and couldn't locate any beads at all. Per usual, there was absolutely no one on the floor to ask, so we meandered on up to Customer Service to wait our turn. There was a small line in front of us waiting to be served, so it was really no big deal.

Right in front of me was a lady and a little boy, that I guessed to be somewhere around the age of three. The mom had a package of socks in her hand. The little boy, being, well, little, was full of energy, but actually behaving quite well. He was pretending to be an airplane and I found the little engine noises he was making to be quite endearing. If the grins of everyone else in line were any indication, I wasn't the only one.

Finally, it was her turn and apparently, she wanted to return the socks. I'm not entirely sure of the reason why, but that's not the point. At the desk, there is a rather huge sign that stated you must have a receipt in order to return something. She didn't have it. They wouldn't let her return the socks. From there, it started to get ugly.

She began to berate the employee, using alot of language that even made my ears burn. I looked at Meelie and realized she was soaking all of this in with wide eyed wonder. The poor girl, who couldn't have been much over 20, and probably wasn't making much more than minimum wage, was doing her best to be polite and explain the policy.

During that time, I tried to distract Meelie, by pointing at the little boy, who by this time was becoming a little wild because his mother was too busy cussing out the employee. On my key chain, I have a little tiny light, that is great for using when you need to unlock your car and it's pitch black outside. I pulled it out of my purse, and handed it to Meelie, and instructed her to shine it on the floor, near the child to see if we could keep him occupied. It worked and he happily chased the light around, trying to catch it. For some reason, I thought of Peter Pan trying to catch his shadow.

At this point, the Manager came up and the woman kept up her tirade. The louder she got, the more agitated her son became. Meelie and I squatted down to his level and began to ask him questions. "How old are you?" "I love your Spiderman Tennis Shoes!" "Do you like Spiderman?" He answered all of our questions enthusiastically, and rather excitedly told us he also was wearing Spidy Undewear. I declined his offer to show us.

At that moment, the lady must have got tired of it all, and gave up. She spotted Meelie and I talking to her son. She came up, grabbed her son by the hand and stated:

"You know, you have no business talking to a child you don't know. Why, for all I know you could be some kind of pervert."

Forgive me, but I laughed.

My reply?

"You know, you shouldn't really be berating an employee who is only following company policy and using inappropriate language in front of your son. There are better ways of handling things like that." I didn't add that if she were paying attention to her son, strangers wouldn't have to. That was pretty much implied by the tone of my voice.

At this point, her face turned beet red and she picked up her son, and promptly left the store.

It turns out that K-mart doesn't carry beads, so Meelie and I headed out to the car. As I was getting into the car, the Manager came out and signaled that she wanted to talk to me.

Her: I don't mean to bother you but I wanted to say thank you.
Me: You are welcome, but why are you thanking me?
Her: Because you did what I couldn't.

Just remember that when you get angry at an employee. 95% of the time, they are only doing their job. I would bet you my next paycheck that if that woman would have been polite, she would have been able to return the socks, company policy or not.