I guess they have to be employed somewhere

You know, people in this area complain about the lack of good jobs. But the fact is, they can't even handle the crappy ones, so they really have no business expecting better.
Cases in point:
1. We go to the grocery store last weekend. I choose some kumquats for a salad. (Your salad rocks, Mothra! Thanks for the idea!) When we get to the register to pay, the girl looks at the bag and is completely mystified. I can only imagine she thought we shrank our oranges on the way from the produce department. Jeremy tells her nicely that they are kumquats. She looks over to the floor manager, who tells her they are kumquats. She then proceeds to inspect them closely, as if there will be a little sticker with the code on each individual fruit. Shockingly, she finds the code in the computer relatively quickly. I'm convinced that she probably wouldn't even consider using a "c" for something starting with a "k" sound.
2. Yesterday, we went to Target. As usual, I had to return something, and this time she gave me a gift card for the return. I also had a $1 coupon and a $5 coupon. We bring our things to the register and I hand the coupons and gift card to the cashier. Meanwhile, Jeremy swipes his debit card through the little reader. The cashier says with utter disdain, "I guess you won't be using these then." This was almost $14 we're talking about, so I said, "Yes, we are." She says, "Well, he's already paid." Now, she had not accepted the payment, and we all know they let you swipe the card at any point during the transaction. So, I said that I was sure she could cancel that out and I wanted to use the coupons. Begrudgingly, she does just that. Of course, when she tries to use the gift card, she ends up charging us for one. I said, "Look, she just gave this to me, here's the receipt." She ends up calling over this poor, beleaguered pregnant woman, who tells her that she needs to put it in as a payment (duh!) to which she replies, "I always just do it from here." Well, she must always do it wrong then. If her attitude hadn't been so combative, I probably wouldn't have even cared.
Now, I have worked enough retail to know that it is not often much fun. But I also know that the cash registers of today practically do all the work for you. It doesn't take a genius to run one of those things or they wouldn't put in self-serve stations in some stores. It depresses me that shopping at Target has actually become worse than shopping at Wal-Mart. Cleaner, but worse.