It was Flip Flop Day at Old Navy! Flip Flop Day is a sale where all flip flops are one dollar each. It tested both my patience and sanity, as well as provided a great example of people putting themselves first. Before I clocked in, I walked around the store to assess the situation. Like a detective at a crime scene, I wanted to see what I was getting myself into. Huge cardboard boxes full of flip flops lay in the middle isle of the store, scavenging people with arms full of flip flops, were obviously too absorbed in the sale to notice very large signs that read, “Limit five per person.” Then I noticed the check out line reaching to the back of the store. Each customers face decreased in happiness from the front to the back of the line. I mumbled, “I quit”, as I submitted and clocked in.
As I walked up to the register, I felt like a lamb to the slaughter. I knew it wouldn’t be long till the angry customers and loud techno music drove me to insanity. “Find everything alright?” I said with a smile. “Yes, flip flops for the WHOLE family!” the customer cheerfully replies. Hmmm, I think, time to get yelled at, “Well Mam’” I start, “Its limit five per person.” She looks down at the dozen of her precious and fought for flip flops, her sparkly eyes turn to daggers and it was as if all hell had broken loose. “I wish someone would have told me that before I waited in your line forever!” she squawked in a sharp tone. “I’m sorry I-. “ She rudely interrupts and tells me how employees should... “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” My apathy towards the situation sets in and she seems to mimic Charlie Brown’s teacher. While in my daze, I notice my coworker Gareth outside in a flip flop costume. Good God this place is messed up…and this lady is obviously not thinking of anyone but herself; not me, or the thirty annoyed people that wait in line behind her. Returning to reality I say, “Sorry,” and she leaves. I felt a little sad for her. No, not really. All my sympathy was killed the instant she started attacking me with her words.
When it was time to leave the register and step onto the sales floor the customers were vicious. Like lions on the prowl, the store was swarming with people looking for their size and color of prized flip flops. By noon the flip flops were in scarce supply. We had only a few remaining boxes in the back, and when I took them out onto the floor I felt as though something dangerous, and possibly life threatening was about to occur. With glazed eyes of expectation the customers’ ravenously attacked the boxes. I panicked and dropped a box to the ground. Dodging under customer’s arms, I managed to escape the flip flop crazed mob. When a coworker and I stood a safe distance away, we discussed the sight. I mimic a narrator’s voice as if it were the Discovery Channel, “Feeding time in the Savannah the lions start to turn on one another when food gets in short supply.” We laugh, but quickly turn to a more deep realization. It is disturbing how one dollar flip flops can strike up such rudeness, selfishness, and make humans comparable to lions at dinner time.
Don’t get me wrong, I love to shop, but what has the world come to when something as insignificant as flip flops become a priority? When did treating an employee as though they are less than human become acceptable simply because you didn’t get your way? Is it materialism or just the lack of human compassion that people have a problem with? What drives one to the point of yelling at an employee over twelve dollar worth of merchandise? I suppose these are questions without answers. I didn’t go crazy that day at work, although I did realize how sad and disappointing it is to see how greedy and inconsiderate people can be.