Point/Counterpoint: Holiday Shopping

Matt Knapp | The DailyER
Matt Knapp | The DailyER

Point: Treat retail workers with respect this holiday season

We’ve all been there: rushing around town last minute to find something you might be able to pass off as a thought-out and meaningful gift before you head home for the holidays. You’re met with packed parking lots, long lines, bad attitudes and Christmas music so loud you wish that firework that exploded near your face at uncle Roger’s Fourth of July party back in 1999 would have caused permanent hearing loss.

But did you stop and think of the people who have to deal with that all day?

Retail workers sacrifice their time to enjoy the holidays with family and friends so that you can enjoy the convenience of last-minute shopping. And, they do it with little thanks, let alone the starvation wages that they make dealing with all of the stress.

So please be considerate this holiday season. Whether you’re shopping ahead of time or finding something at the 11th hour for your unexpected cousin, it’s simple enough to be patient and thankful for retail workers’ help. Not only will they appreciate the not-so-common courtesy, you may be making their holiday just a little bit more bright.


Counterpoint: Let me speak to your manager

Gabe Cohen | The DailyER
Gabe Cohen | The DailyER

Listen, I have don’t time for this safe space, PC bullshit. I’ve got family Christmas in three hours, and I’m not going to put up with waiting in these lines with other people.

I can’t believe you’d make me, a card member at your store, wait behind all of these other people just to check out! Where are the other cashiers? And why are all of these poor people even shopping here? Shouldn’t they be at Walmart where these filthy people spend most of their food stamps on pop and Doritos?

Maybe you didn’t understand me—you look kind of foreign, anyways; I bet you don’t speak American, do you?

I. WANT. YOUR. MANAGER. Managerio? Whatever the hell you call it. I am so outraged with this store. I’m a GOLD MEMBER. HELLO? I’m never coming back here. I spend a LOT of money here, too.

Don’t you people ever get off your ass and do anything? I called here yesterday to make sure you had my blender in stock. It was the one right here in the ad that‘s on sale. And now you just don’t have it today? Who the hell is even running this store? I need to talk to them. Now.