My friends and I were at Dollar General when I accidentally tripped while we were shopping and…read morelaughed because it was an innocent accident. An elderly woman who worked at the store immediately yelled at us, telling us that there was a lot of glass in the store and that we needed to be careful because we were not allowed to behave that way inside the store.
I completely understand the importance of being careful in a store, especially around fragile items, and we never intended to damage anything. However, we were in an area where there was no glass around us, and I had simply tripped by accident. I felt that the situation could have been handled with much more patience, kindness, and respect, especially because we are teenagers and this was simply an innocent mistake.
Later, we reassured her that we would be careful and would not break anything. When we were leaving, we explained that we were just kids, that things happen, and that we understood her concern. We also said that if we had accidentally damaged something, we would have taken responsibility for it and paid for it.
Instead of accepting our apology, she became even more upset and began yelling at us. She called us an extremely inappropriate and insulting name, which was especially upsetting and hurtful. We were shocked that an adult working in a store would speak to us that way, especially after we had apologized and were trying to leave respectfully.
I want to make it clear that this is not a complaint about the Dollar General store itself. The store was very clean, well-kept, and overall seemed like a great Dollar General. There was also another, younger employee working there who was very sweet, kind, and welcoming to us. Our experience was specifically with this one employee and the way she chose to speak to us.
We left the store feeling very upset and embarrassed. We understand that employees have responsibilities to protect the store and its merchandise, and we would never intentionally break or damage anything. We also understand that we are teenagers and should always be respectful and careful in a store. At the same time, we believe teenagers deserve to be spoken to with basic kindness and respect. A simple request to be more careful would have been completely understandable, but the way this particular employee spoke to us felt unnecessarily harsh, humiliating, and unkind.
I am not writing this to cause trouble for the store or its employees. I simply hope the situation can be addressed, because we would have appreciated being treated with a little more patience and understanding.
