I have lived in the OC area for many, many years (around 40, or so). I could not agree more with the previous poster. I have witnessed the transformation of the store from a typical size FL into the large store that it has become. It is large and they do have a very broad selection. For the most part the staff is helpful and other times there are some clowns who are quite the opposite. I guess the same kind of thing can happen anywhere.
I usually avoid this location because the place often has lines that are horrendous and it frequently becomes a zoo - especially in season. I made an exception tonight and went there (big mistake and as it's 'Cruisers Weekend'- on a Saturday night at about 7:30 pm), but it was no exception. There were only three registers open, all with very long lines. There were several employees milling around with apparently nothing at all to do - some of which seemed to be on something. But that's not why I'm writing this.
After getting the five items I was after, I got into the only open (notoriously slow) 'Express' line. I can only imagine how tedious the cashier's job must be, but it's as if they make a special point of putting the newest/slowest cashiers on the 'Express' line(?) at all of the local FLs. I say this because (in my opinion) this is also typical of the other FL's around here, as well. I guess one has to start someplace. Anyway, after several minutes the lady in front of me said that she had forgotten that she had a coupon for avocados and asked me if it would be okay to dash back to the produce section and get them. I replied that since the line was moving at such a glacial pace it should not be a problem. Mind you I'm still about a dozen people back from the cashier. She walked halfway across the store, got her avocados and returned, and just as I had predicted the line had not budged an inch.
Several minutes later a black gentleman (his cart loaded with well over the 'Express' line limit number of items - i.e. 12) proceeded to push his cart up to the not yet open adjacent 'Express' register, and he started to put his items on the conveyor. Shortly thereafter, a middle aged black lady arrived at the register and began logging on to it. Clearly she had instructed him to do so - I guess he was too special to wait his turn like everyone else. As I was still at the back of the other Express line I went behind this chap, but the officious little witch said that she would not be serving me because others (in the jammed up non-moving line that I had been in) had been waiting longer.
I am well accustomed to the occasional reverse discrimination that occurs locally and I am typically resigned to take this sort of ignorant behavior in stride, but I can assure if I had been black it would not have been an issue. She proceeded to ring up everyone else who was in line in front of me (including the avocado lady), in addition to several others who had come to her register and had not waited at all. I honestly felt like putting my purchases down and walking out, but by then I had come all that way.
Coincidentally, once it was my turn to get my things rung up by the incredibly slow 'Express' cashier, the other (belligerent) cashier made a point of loudly telling her next customers in line that they now needed to go to a different line. Once she completed ringing up the person she was assisting, she walked off again. I don't know what I did to deserve this kind of treatment, other than being a white male.
Perhaps it's because I just had eye surgery the previous day and was not feeling my best, I simply wanted to get in & out of there in a timely fashion and just go home. But I am personally getting fed up with the obnoxious behavior of these Af-Am jerks who seem to have perpetual chips on their shoulders, and seem to act on it with impunity.
So I will be making it a point to go out of my way before I go back to this store, even though I am a local. Having to deal with idiots like her go a long way to explain why this area is referred to by many as Trumplandia, as I suspect there are many who have had similar experiences and have had enough. read more
