Impatience

Throughout the course of reading the "customers suck" LJ communities for the past couple of years, I've noticed that one of the common customer "sucks" occurs when the customer demands that everything be done NOWWWW!!! because they are in such a hurry. Only they end up wasting more time by arguing with their server/cashier over something that could've been settled in 30 seconds.  Or they put themselves in situations where they KNOW it will be crowded (e.g. fast food joint during the lunch rush hour) and then complain about having to wait. The bottom line is: these people deliberately put themselves in situations that caused delay, despite claims of being in a rush. Common sense, people? Evidently not!

My friend Kartik relayed a little something he'd witnessed today that reminded me a bit of those sucky customers: while standing in the parking lot near his car, he saw a girl rush up to her car, which was parked near his. She seemed to be in a hurry, especially as she was muttering "I'm in a rush!" to herself as she got in her car. Expecting to see her hop in and dash out of the parking lot, he was somewhat surprised to see her start the engine... and then proceed to sit there for a good 5 minutes. Warming up the engine. Of her brand new Honda. Huh? So much for that rush! Frankly, I'm surprised she didn't sit there texting on her phone for several minutes before shifting into gear and leaving.

She's lucky nobody was waiting to claim her spot! I've been on the waiting end a few times-- crowded parking lot, you spy someone getting into their car, they start the engine, and you turn on your blinker, waiting hopefully. And waiting. And waiting some more... I mean, it's one thing if they're busy loading groceries or buckling kids into their car seats. But these are people who START their engines (some of them even shift their car into reverse, which makes it worse-- seeing those white backup lights go on makes me anticipate their exit even more!) and then sit there doing God knows what.

On the flip side, I've been on the end of someone who's being waited for. When it's a situation like a crowded parking lot and I know someone's waiting for my spot, I try to do the polite thing: get out as soon as I possibly can. That text message can wait. Perusing my new purchase can wait until I get home. However, I found myself in such a situation the other day at the gas station... only there was no reason for me to hold anyone up, as the station was nearly empty save for me and one other car!

This illustration lays it out:

 

That's the gas station-- the dark blue squares are the pumps. The pink square is my car, the light green square is another customer, and the gray rectangles denote the sidewalk. The purple rectangle labeled "IP" (for Impatient Woman) represents the car of the woman waiting behind me. She pulled in from the street, and was half in the entrance, half on the street. As you can see, there was PLENTY of room to simply go around me and choose just about any other pump available-- including going around me and backing into the pump in front of me! But no. She chose to sit there and wait. I happened to be in the middle of washing my windows (something I only do when the gas station isn't crowded and full of waiting people) when she pulled up behind me. At first, there was a car at the pump to the left of me, so she really didn't have any place to go, but he left shortly after IP arrived, so I fully expected her to simply pull in through the spot he just vacated. But no. She remained where she was. 

Since it was HER choice to sit there, idling, when she had plenty of other options, I didn't feel obligated to hurry up and finish. So I went about my business as I usually do. I finished my front windshield and then moved on to my back windshield. Then I topped off my gas tank and waited for the receipt to print. 

IP got up pretty close behind me, probably trying to hint at me to hurry up so she could pull in. I ignored it, because I knew that I wasn't blocking her from any other pump or holding her up. Hell-- there was another entrance she could've used (near the pump in the upper-left corner of the diagram) if she wanted to. I was tempted to work slower than my normal pace, but decided it wasn't worth getting into a passive-aggressive war with IP. Besides, I wanted to get home. I dunno-- maybe she had some sort of weird special attachment to my pump, and only wants to get gas from THAT one? That's the best reason I can think of, sadly.Weird!