No More Sharing With Strangers

Have you ever had one of those encounters with another person that leaves you shaking your head as you walk away? I had one recently that blew my mind.

I went to Walgreens yesterday, on my way home from work, to pick up the advertised DeMet’s Turtles (mmmm caramel!). They are on sale for $.99 and I have coupons for $1.50 off each one. Score for free candy! The problem was that I couldn’t find them.

In the candy aisle, I smiled and chatted a moment with a woman who was also on a mission to find the advertised candy. We each looked for a few minutes and across a couple of aisles when she stopped to ask an associate where they were located. To which the associated responded by pointing to a display directly in front of us. I’m particularly proud of my observatory skills, as you can see.

Anyway Since the woman and I had a fun little chat while looking for the Turtles, I took out my coupon pouch and decided to share one of my coupons with her. Who doesn’t love free candy? She looked at it and said “Thank you. You must know how poor I am.” I just laughed as I put my purchases in my cart and said “Aren’t we all? That’s why I get several copies of the Sunday paper and clip coupons so that when good deals like this happen, I can stock up.”

Without missing a beat, the woman says “Well, I’m getting two boxes, can’t you just give me another one?” I have to be honest here I wanted to snatch my coupon back out of her ungrateful hand. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while probably know where I stand on people who walk around with the attitude of entitlement.

Seriously, it was such a small thing. I shared because it brought me a smile to do it. Not because I owed her something. When she responded as though I should give her more than I initially offered, it thoroughly pissed me off.

After I made my purchases, I went out to the parking lot in time to see that “poor” woman’s business suit clad body sliding into a gigantic shiny SUV and make a phone call on her iPhone as she pulled out into traffic… which, of course, irritated me even more.

The moral of the story? Never offer to share coupons for stuff you’re going to get for free. No wait, that’s not it. Hmmm Oh yeah The moral is, be grateful for gifts, even small ones. Nobody owes you anything in life. So, when they offer you something unsolicited, it’s just ugly to ask for even more.

Er *end rant*