A Lecture from Walmart

[CyclingSam]

Adoramapix. You can print pictures from home, come in three days, and they aren't the glorified inkjets u get at the instant booth. Btw, anyway knocking the old lady for working at Walmart.....tacky. she sounds really annoying, but holding your noses up is even more so.

I never knocked her as a person, just her behavior. Others here have made assumptions about her wage and status. Honestly, she appeared to have managerial authority over other employees, but I do not know. I suppose next time I could strip down the facts and not disclose age, gender, or location.

 

[Trenor]

The lady gets $3 a WEEK?
I really really hope you are joking. Because if this is true, she has every right to be snappish.
Though i don't approve of her sticking her nose in other people's business, i think OP handled it politely. No need to bash the lady because she makes less money and has an undesired employment.
I would be annoyed and ticked off as well, but i would keep my reply focussed on her giving unsollicited advice, i would never stoop so low to lash out at her working in walmart.

She makes more than 3 dollars a week. No one has made that amount at any job since my grandmother was a young girl. It was just him using her job (and lower wage) as a means of demeaning her.

What the lady did was wrong. She can be told so without you needing to act just like her. It amuses me to see people using bad behavior to try to correct someone else's bad behavior. It's like a parent that uses bad language telling their kids not to do so. I once saw a parent screaming at their kid for screaming. How could anyone think that would help anything?

I would have told her that tarantulas were no more dangerous then most other pets. Thanked her for my photos and went on my way. Then explained to my kid why the lady was wrong in her thoughts primary due to her lack of information and understanding.

The OP handled it well and at the same time set a good example for his kid. Which to me was much more important than dissing some woman at Walmart.

 

[boina]

I had something similar only it wasn't a stranger.
I was called to the office at work when my boss learned of my hobby and was told not to expect any sympathy or support if I needed any time off over my 7 weeks paid sick leave if you get bitten,
Me being me my response was less than funny apparently (in my head it sounded funny) I calmly said if at my age I need help to administer pain killers or antihistamine tablets then I really am in trouble and for the record I'm more likely to die of boredom in a meeting with you.

I was given a conduct warning on my file for 6 months for my attitude towards my superior this was almost extended to 12 months after I stated that because he had a name badge didn't make him my superior.
Btw he got fired 18 months ago for being useless at his job whereas I'm currently in my 14th year

OMG, I'm so lucky with my boss. He let's me keep my snakes (i.e. 2 adult boas) in my office and fully approves of my Tarantula hobby. He'd even let me keep some of my Ts in my office, but other employees threatened to quit if that happened. So he asked me to run a tarantula blog for the employees on company time. If you sign up for it (and he was the first to do so!) you get an email with a pic and some tarantula related factoid from me once or twice a week. It's been running for nearly two years now and the subscribers have only increased.

But really - no I wouldn't have been able to stay polite with that woman. Btw, I'm an old lady - or at least a somwhat old lady - and they aren't all like that

 

[Jeff23]

OMG, I'm so lucky with my boss. He let's me keep my snakes (i.e. 2 adult boas) in my office and fully approves of my Tarantula hobby. He'd even let me keep some of my Ts in my office, but other employees threatened to quit if that happened. So he asked me to run a tarantula blog for the employees on company time. If you sign up for it (and he was the first to do so!) you get an email with a pic and some tarantula related factoid from me once or twice a week. It's been running for nearly two years now and the subscribers have only increased.

But really - no I wouldn't have been able to stay polite with that woman. Btw, I'm an old lady - or at least a somwhat old lady - and they aren't all like that

If the arachnophobic person didn't fumigate our building non-stop I would love to have a tarantula at work with me. I haven't told anyone there about my hobby, but a few people probably suspect it since I don't hide my website browsing when I do get a break time.

 

[Vanessa]

Reading this thread, and putting a bit of thought into it, I can't remember the last time that I received a negative reaction to the tarantulas. Everywhere I bring them up to people, and surprisingly I get a lot of opportunities to, I always get a very positive reaction.
Just the other day, I had a long conversation with a store owner regarding them. They always want to look through my photos on my phone and I think he might have even started following me on Instagram.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of ignorant people out there. When you combine that ignorance with fear then the sky is going to be the limit for what kind of interactions that you have with them. I usually just use a standard response to them and walk away.
I have recently developed a new appreciation of just how much people embrace being ignorant, on many levels, and how often that goes hand and hand with them being unnecessarily rude, spiteful, and belligerent... just as it always has. I often wonder when ignorance went from something that people would have preferred to hide about themselves... to wearing ignorance like a badge of honour?
Check my signature for Marcus Aurelius' wise solution for dealing with people like that.

 

[gypsy cola]

I am going to go to Walmart now and print some photos. Worst case scenario I get some dope photos. Best case scenario I can show them how many scars I have from a cat vs what I have from tarantula. Hint... I don't have any tarantula scars.

 

[johnny quango]

OMG, I'm so lucky with my boss. He let's me keep my snakes (i.e. 2 adult boas) in my office and fully approves of my Tarantula hobby. He'd even let me keep some of my Ts in my office, but other employees threatened to quit if that happened. So he asked me to run a tarantula blog for the employees on company time. If you sign up for it (and he was the first to do so!) you get an email with a pic and some tarantula related factoid from me once or twice a week. It's been running for nearly two years now and the subscribers have only increased.

But really - no I wouldn't have been able to stay polite with that woman. Btw, I'm an old lady - or at least a somwhat old lady - and they aren't all like that

Sounds like you've got a good boss, I wish I could take a tarantula with me but as I'm constantly on the move I wouldn't benefit from the joy or disgust of other employees lol
I wouldn't mind taking Luna my 2 year old Staffordshire bull terrier though it would be good exercise for her

 

[Andrea82]

I never knocked her as a person, just her behavior. Others here have made assumptions about her wage and status. Honestly, she appeared to have managerial authority over other employees, but I do not know. I suppose next time I could strip down the facts and not disclose age, gender, or location.

I wasn't implying in any way that you were, i actually said you handled it well and stayed polite
Other comments..not so much.

 

[D Sherlod]

Good on you for handling a bad situation in A very professional way.

 

[Moakmeister]

The lady gets $3 a WEEK?
I really really hope you are joking. Because if this is true, she has every right to be snappish.
Though i don't approve of her sticking her nose in other people's business, i think OP handled it politely. No need to bash the lady because she makes less money and has an undesired employment.
I would be annoyed and ticked off as well, but i would keep my reply focussed on her giving unsollicited advice, i would never stoop so low to lash out at her working in walmart.

I was trying to sound like a standup comedian T_T

 

[Andrea82]

I was trying to sound like a standup comedian T_T

Yeah, i didn't get the joke.
I have absolutely no idea what normal is over there for salary payment. I always hear that Europe has a higher standard of living, so it didn't seem that outrageously low to be funny.

 

[Moakmeister]

Yeah, i didn't get the joke.
I have absolutely no idea what normal is over there for salary payment. I always hear that Europe has a higher standard of living, so it didn't seem that outrageously low to be funny.

Actually I first heard the $3 a week thing from a friend of mine. The two of us were screwing around with truck drivers on one of those trucker radios. One of the truckers insulted him, and he said "fam u trynna insult ME? I'm a f-ing seventeen year old kid, you're a f-ing trucker. I have a f-ing future, you don't. You f-ed up somewhere. You make three dollars a week, I can find that much money on the floor of my house". Funniest thing I've ever heard, but the point was that he was comically exaggerating his circumstances vs. the trucker's. That was what I was trying to do too.

 

[PanzoN88]

Wow, you are level headed, I am as well, but people trying to tell me what I am doing wrong when they themselves are clueless would have been reason enough to unload some wisdom.

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Actually I first heard the $3 a week thing from a friend of mine. The two of us were screwing around with truck drivers on one of those trucker radios. One of the truckers insulted him, and he said "fam u trynna insult ME? I'm a f-ing seventeen year old kid, you're a f-ing trucker. I have a f-ing future, you don't. You f-ed up somewhere. You make three dollars a week, I can find that much money on the floor of my house". Funniest thing I've ever heard, but the point was that he was comically exaggerating his circumstances vs. the trucker's. That was what I was trying to do too.

Muahahahah, those directed to truck drivers insults were an Italy classic of the '80

 

[Jeff23]

Yeah, i didn't get the joke.
I have absolutely no idea what normal is over there for salary payment. I always hear that Europe has a higher standard of living, so it didn't seem that outrageously low to be funny.

I think US law minimum wage here in the states is $7.25 per hour, but local areas (states or cities) also have their own minimum wages that exceed this (especially on the West coast where cost of living is higher - $10 - $11 per hour)

For me I am salary rather than hourly which means $3 per hour is about right when I divide my income by the hours I worked.

 

[Vanessa]

I work in the transportation industry - the hauling of gasoline to be specific - and if anyone thinks those drivers don't make good wages... they need to think again. And if you don't think that they need to have more than a couple of brain cells rubbing together in order to do that job, again... you need to think again.
If something goes wrong in my industry - with my fleet of tankers (which I am responsible for maintaining), or a mistake is made by one of my drivers - people die and entire ecosystems are wiped off this planet. It's not a joke, it is bloody hard work that young people nowadays act as if they are just too delicate to pull off, but yet have no respect for those who can.
So, the next time you're filling up your car with gas, remember that someone who did a truly honest day's work, earning money the likes of which you might never see, made it possible.

 

[Ungoliant]

Reading this thread, and putting a bit of thought into it, I can't remember the last time that I received a negative reaction to the tarantulas.

The only really negative reaction I have gotten is from my little sister, who (jokingly?) says she would stomp on it if I ever gave one to daughters. (Not that I would ever give a kid a pet without asking the parents first.)

Most other reactions just range from "that's weird" to polite curiosity. (I've always been considered weird, so that does not bother me at all.)

 

[Willuminati]

Get those lectures toooo often, unfortunately I'm not as friendly to people as I am to my pets, so they normally end abruptly following a sarcastic insult directed at his/her/their lack of openmindness and excess of ignorance

 

[nicodimus22]

I work in the transportation industry - the hauling of gasoline to be specific - and if anyone thinks those drivers don't make good wages... they need to think again. And if you don't think that they need to have more than a couple of brain cells rubbing together in order to do that job, again... you need to think again.
If something goes wrong in my industry - with my fleet of tankers (which I am responsible for maintaining), or a mistake is made by one of my drivers - people die and entire ecosystems are wiped off this planet. It's not a joke, it is bloody hard work that young people nowadays act as if they are just too delicate to pull off, but yet have no respect for those who can.
So, the next time you're filling up your car with gas, remember someone who did a truly honest day's work, earning money the likes of which you might never see, made it possible.

I've always thought that truck drivers were quite well paid. Not sure why someone would pick that as a low-income profession to rag on.

 

[Vanessa]

I've always thought that truck drivers were quite well paid. Not sure why someone would pick that as a low-income profession to rag on.

I think that maybe people who drive those smaller half tonnes doing local deliveries and whatnot, might be paid considerably lower. But, if you're talking about a guy who drives a truck that he has a radio in it, those guys make a wage that many North Americans wish they were making. I know that most of my guys are doing very well for themselves, but they earn it every single day - in the freezing cold and broiling hot and putting up with idiots on the road. It's not an easy job and there needs to be far more respect for those who do it day in and day out.
Every single item we buy, every bit of food we put in our mouths, every item of clothing we wear, has spent most of it's life on a truck before coming to you. Everything travels by truck... every single thing. Without all those 'lowly' truck drivers out there - we would have nothing. People need to respect that and respect them.