A Rows By Any Other Name

This morning I went to Walmart to do grocery shopping for the week. There was only one checkout lane open, and Nedine (oh yes, not NAdine, but Nedine...) was working, one of your standard Walmart old ladies.

Let me just take one moment to say, I reflect on the name Nedine every time I see her. Did her parents think that changing the spelling of a relatively common name, Nadine, would make her unique and cool? Or did they just not know how to spell Nadine? FYI, "Nadine" means hope in Russian...Nedine means nothing....exactly.

I put my week's worth of groceries on the belt, and while she was checking my items out, a man got in line behind me. A man wearing your typical painter's uniform. Blue collar, salt of the earth guy in painter's pants and cap. He was purchasing two things; a can of paint, and a paintbrush. He put these items on the belt just past where my stuff ended.

As Nedine is scanning my items, she is talking to me, because I grocery shop in the early mornings all the time, and she's usually there. And also because Nedine has no ability to pick up on non-verbal cues. She is also making small talk with the painter guy.

She gets to my last item, bags it, and then turns back to the belt and picks up the can of paint and scans it. I say "that's not mine" and the painter guy says "that's mine".

Nedine immediately grabs one of the grocery item seperator bar things, and holds it up and proceeds to berate the painter guy for not using it. How else is Nedine supposed to know where one order ends and another one begins? Because Nedine is certainly not paid to deduce things. She certainly can't be expected to take note of her surroundings and then come to conclusions based on them. Oh no, only people in high level management positions are supposed to do those things. Nedine only gets paid to perform like a mindless drone, like a trained monkey. If you want Nedine to actually use her brain, you need to give her a raise.

And, um, a brain...............

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