Bitch Stole My Toothpaste!
I knew she was up to no good. Rich-looking woman, about 50, designer purse (huge, football-shaped, and annoyingly trendy with little pictures on it), long curly hair, face with a lotta mileage. Kilométrage?
She was in front of me at the cashier at the rue de Rennes Monoprix (best described as the Target of Paris, but with a gourmet food and wine store). But, she wasn't paying, she was arguing with the cashier. The manager comes over. Ugh. Too late to move to another line.
The woman's credit card was declined, and she got huffy with the manager as if Monoprix was to blame. He wouldn't budge on whatever she wanted him to budge on (smart guy). She scowled and whipped out a 100 eu note, which she handed the cashier. I sensed that she was a scammer, and muttered something of that nature to myself in English.
Okay, my turn. Except the woman was still standing where the person being rung up typically stands, and she wasnt moving...she was fussing in her purse or something.
She finally inched her entitled ass down toward the end, where you bag your stuff that's come down the metal incline from the cashier. A difference between France and the U.S. -- you usually bag your own groceries in France. The French are fast at this. I am...always improving.
Anyway, the woman was taking forever and then some...and my stuff was being rung by the cashier...and I just knew the woman would pull something. And sure enough, I'd paid for four tubes of my favorite toothpaste, Vademecum avec blancheur et plantes, and I checked, and the bitch had walked off with one of them.
The manager was steps away, so he went and got me another, but it was the wrong one, blah blah blah, and he had to go back, and that lucky woman, she got away without me coming after her and photographing her for my blog...and sending it out to French bloggers to get it out for her fancy friends to see. Headline with the photo: The Bitch Stole My Toothpaste.
And sure, it could've been an accident. But, I'd bet you, not just $100, but 100 euros it wasn't. And people who know me well know this: I never bet unless I'm going to win.
As I said to the cashier (in French, except for the word itself), "We have a word for people like that woman in the United States: 'shifty.'"
At least this woman asks for it.
And at least this one leaves you a little note to let you know what you're being sucked for.
On a side note, maybe it's just me, but, like those guys who paint their skin silver and stand still for tourist coinage in probably every major city in the world, if I picture a meter maid in any major city in the western world, it's this woman (a better shot of her here).
Posted by aalkon at February 19, 2008 1:49 PM
Comments
Sorry you had to deal with that Amy. What a pain in the ass. Heh. I guess that "overinflated-sense-of-entitlement" thing isn't exclusive to the USA after all. o_O
Posted by: Flynne at February 19, 2008 5:30 AM
Oh that sucks. The bagging your own groceries (which we just call shopping) is a UK thing too. Come to think of it most of Europe that I've been to has it.
Only in supermarkets though.
Posted by: Simon Proctor 
at February 19, 2008 5:39 AM
I bag my own groceries, simply because the high school kids that work in the supermarket I frequent have all too often tossed the bread into the bottom of the bag, and piled cans of soup, or the fruit and veggies on top!
Posted by: Flynne at February 19, 2008 5:48 AM
What a bitch! I can't believe you didn't chase her down. It must have been her lucky day - free toothpaste and all!
Posted by: dena at February 19, 2008 8:34 AM
I'm a self check out kinda gal. Check out takes 2 minutes, unless I buy wine. Then a person has to come do a body cavity search, DNA test, retina scan and background check before I can leave the premises with my vino. Oh, USA.
At any rate, I am a huge dork and the idea of grocery shopping in France excites me as much as visiting the Louvre. So much cool stuff!
Posted by: Gretchen at February 19, 2008 9:16 AM
Actually, I think she had some deep desire to steal my toothpaste, but probably got my number, too - like, she's lucky she hightailed it into some building somewhere, because I would chase her down, take her picture, and be a big boil on the backside of her life.
Posted by: Amy Alkon at February 19, 2008 9:40 AM
Umm.. Listen... Hate to mention this... But does the beggar strike anyone else as sort of photogenically crippled, in a Dickensian, harkens-back-to-Paris'-olden-days kinda way? Gaslight, chimney sweeps, plague, etc?
Posted by: Crid at February 19, 2008 9:51 AM
One thing I am noticing more and more is how many elderly people are taking the supermarket jobs that were reserved for teenagers- bagging, deli clerks, etc. Last week I saw a woman who was in her (I'm guessing) later 60's running her ass off to get everyone their fried chicken and cold cuts, and it was really sad. Same thing goes for fast food restaraunts...
Posted by: eric at February 19, 2008 11:10 AM
Umm.. Listen... Hate to mention this... But does the beggar strike anyone else as sort of photogenically crippled, in a Dickensian, harkens-back-to-Paris'-olden-days kinda way? Gaslight, chimney sweeps, plague, etc?
Exactly why I photographed her!
Posted by: Amy Alkon at February 19, 2008 3:14 PM
I bet 100 euros the begger is a scammer. That foot? The noticably dangling cross? No, sorry; moving along.
Posted by: nancy at February 20, 2008 6:13 AM
Nancy sees what I meant....
Posted by: Crid at February 20, 2008 8:55 AM
What's wrong with retired folks taking bagger jobs? Lots of older folks don't want to work 40+ hours a week anymore but still want to be active and productive. A bagger talks to a few hundred of their neighbors a day. What better way to get some exercise (body and mind), meet your neighbors, and pay for your daily latte? Don't insult low level jobs. It's insulting.
Posted by: Laurie at February 20, 2008 10:06 AM
Well, I see what he's getting at, because low-level jobs are insulting by nature, and we like to think that everyone's a middle-manager by the time they're grey.
But I agree with you. Older people have more health to offer employers than ever before, so it' probably better to be working and paying taxes than staying in some poorhouse and having your life drift away in a sea of infomercials. I plan to spend my sunset years shoveling fries into paper wrappers and passing Happy Meals through a drive-thru window in the Pacific Northwest. My future customers are being born as I type this... If those little motherfuckers give me a hard time, they get no extra ketchup.
Posted by: Crid at February 20, 2008 11:25 AM
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