If your wondering what I'm doing with this transit set and are at all interested in a story, grab a cuppa tea and sit down... this could take a while.
I got up this morning bright and early, feeling much better after being cooped up for this past two days and down to the store I went. This one particular store had these transit sets on sale. Why might I want a transit set and what the heck is it you might ask, k here it is... it's not for me, I didn't even know what this was until my boyfriend asked me to pick one up for him, it has something to do with surveying. The fun part was in getting this set... here's how it went:
I arrived at the store at 7:55am, the store opened at 8am. The others who were waiting for the store to open were in their vehicles, I waited right by the doors. Promptly at 8am the store opened, somehow this one man got in front of me so I was the 2nd person in the doors. The transit sets were a few steps away from the door and there was only 3 of them, it was one of those door crasher sales. I got my hands on one of the sets and two men each grabbed one. A male sales associate came over to me and told me that he needed the set I had my hands on. I told him no, I was purchasing it. He said that he had a phone in order and the lady paid for it with her credit card, excuse me... I don't think so. I told him that he couldn't do that, he said that he did and I then politely (I was polite at this point) asked him if that was the case could I get a raincheck. I told him how I was the second person in the store, I had my hands on this set before the guy behind me did and asked him why he chose me to take the set back from. He took me over to his computer never responding to my question and was checking something out. It then hit me that this was an extremely sexist thing to do. Why me instead of one of the men who were twice my size? I asked to speak to the manager.
I told the manager what had transpired, SHE did what she felt she could do, which wasn't too much of anything except write down my name and contact information should one of these sets become available ever again which was highly unlikely. I told her that I felt that her MALE salesman was extremely sexist in his choosing whom to take the set from, why me and not the 3rd person in the store? Was it possibly because subconsciously it was due to the fact that a small female won't cause a scene? That man should not have judged a book by its cover.
After conversing with the manager and getting nowhere I told her that I was going to make a quick call, I pulled out my cell phone and called my boyfriend. He suggested that I call the press because yes it was an extremely sexist thing to do. I mentioned to him that it was a good idea to call the press, they always love a good discrimination story... the manager was hearing all of this. Herb (my bf) mentioned that it was a door crasher, you have to be there to purchase this item, HOLY YA! I told him that I'd call him back. I went over and picked up one of their fliers, I went back to the manager and pointed out that in black and white is said "IN STORE ONLY", this was clearly false advertising and if that was the case not only did I have a good story for the press regarding discrimination, I also had another spin on this as being false advertising. They couldn't accept call in orders for an in store only purchase.
To make this long story shorter, the same man who took the set from me brought it back, I asked him why he chose me to take it from to begin with. He said that he just took it from the first person he approached, I asked him that if subconsciously he could have chosen me because I'm a female, he said that he'd NEVER do that... I told him that he just did and I also mentioned that this would be an excellent situation to write about for one of my university papers on gender discrimination. He apologized and as you can see I have this transit set in my living room.
Yup, rarely a dull moment in my world...now you see why Herb loves me? ;-)
