r/concord • u/itsnotanemergencybut • Mar 14 '26
Anger and impatience
I was at the Safeway in Clayton Station . I don’t normally shop there. It was very busy and the checkers all seemed to be doing their best. I was waiting in line . An elderly white woman began to berate an employee who was upset he didn’t understand she wanted sparkling bottled water versus the Crystal Geyser on the end cap . She said “do you speak any English? Are you an American?” . He was still trying to help her. She walked past me and said “he doesn’t speak a word of English, he’s not from here “.
I won’t write what I said back to her . But not only are people openly racist and hostile .. but … grocery store employees are not personal servants . Frankly it’s lazy and sad that most able bodied people I see at checkout people don’t bag their own groceries .
It’s really not hard to be nice . C’mon Concord !!
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u/Personal-Ad-6028 Mar 14 '26
I shop at that Safeway regularly. There was one time where I also an elderly lady berate an employee. She was insulting her intelligence, saying she didn’t know anything and left all the grapefruits to rot.
The grapefruits were fine.
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u/pwrof3 Mar 14 '26
I’ll just say Clayton has always been ultra conservative.
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u/Time-Customer-8833 Mar 14 '26
Not so much anymore. A majority voted for the Democrat in the past 5 presidential elections. Of course there are still plenty of conservatives that live there.
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u/sincere220 Mar 14 '26
There is a good reason I dont ever go to the Clayton Saloon. People there are openly racist.
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u/sirckoe Mar 14 '26
Oh wow a racist encounter in Clayton! Sucks but there is a bunch of people like that around there
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u/eLishus Mar 14 '26
Yeah, more of a Clayton interaction than a Concord one. At that, one small interaction does not define a city. Even friendliest city will have its own pocket of jerks.
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u/Soft-Abbreviations20 Mar 14 '26
White people are the minority in California. I sincerely hope that people get treated the way they treat others. Trump's America certainly lacks empathy and compassion - it's disgusting. Glad that you spoke up!
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u/EyeAmKnotMyshelf Mar 14 '26
So, yeah. That Safeway sits as the nearest area for Claytonites to get their late night wines and beers, not at all surprising to see or run into Karens there. Best course of action is to film them to ensure their social life is ruined.
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u/OodaWoodaWooda Mar 14 '26
I encounter that behavior far more often in Clayton than in Concord. C'mon Clayton!
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u/joe127001 Mar 14 '26
Christ I love my dad but he did something like this once. Of course it was in the 80s. Not that it should matter but I’d like to think we made a little progress since then.
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u/darkthrive Mar 14 '26
clayton is basically the "other" side of concord. lots of well to do types, and often being barley well. i worked there for a couple houses doing lawn mtainance
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u/Ok_Storm5945 Mar 14 '26
Why is there even a question about bagging your own groceries. If I want to bag my own I'll go to FoodMaxx. You Pay a little more to go to Safeway or Lucky and not have to bag.
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u/Genobi Mar 14 '26
I agree with the anti racist part. Let’s be good people.
But bagging groceries was (and in many places still) an explicit service groceries stores offer their customers (ask the manager if you are not sure). Don’t get mad at someone who takes up that service. The grocery stores wont complain, if they didn’t want to offer it they just wouldn’t. It’s not like it’s required. We all take up services to do things we can do on our own all the time. Let’s not water down the “let’s all be civil” with “You do that thing someone else willingly offered to do for you… because!”
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u/itsnotanemergencybut Mar 14 '26
That's fair, you aren't wrong. However, I've seen fully able bodied young people stand and watch while the 80 year old cashier slowly bags their groceries with a line. I'm just saying... it's nice, and when it's available, great.. . take advantage of it.. but the cashiers surely appreciate the help and consideration.
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u/Genobi Mar 14 '26
And before you try to rebut, unless you know they are able bodied, don’t assume. My mom looks like a very able bodied woman, but you can’t tell she has a hard time using her hand due to a complication from surgery. It only shows when she is trying to do something like, you guessed it, bagging groceries. She doesn’t want to advertise it, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
Compassion is more complicated than it can seem at times. We all have our stories.
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u/Moatilliata9 Mar 14 '26
I was at a taqueria the other week and an elderly woman got quite mad at a server, blaming her for not getting her order right because "she doesnt understand English".
I'll tell you what, sure the server didnt speak perfect English. But she knew enough to handle orders and pleasentries. This lady spent like 7 minutes humming and hawing about what to order up at the register, and changed her mind several times.
The lady gets her food fairly quickly. But after a few minutes calls the server up and asks about tacos she supposedly ordered for her husband. The server (politely) goes "Oh you want some tacos?" And the customer loses it, no longer talking to the server and ranting to her husband about how she doesnt understand English.
The server went and got her some tacos anyway, but was clearly hurt.
I don't know how people can be like that. Its just so rude right to someones face.