Maybe I really am too fragile for the social world

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Hey guys and gals...(woot, first OP for 2014)

I had an experience this afternoon which, I'm absolutely certain, wouldn't have shaken up an NT person as much as it shook me.

You see, I stopped at a supermarket to pick up some small needs for a single night's visit with my folks; mostly soda and Hot Pockets, but at the end of my shopping, the last thing that I'd picked up was in the bakery section: a small box of raspberry 2-bite pastries.

Well, I don't know why...maybe I was just hungry at the time, but in a rare display of gross violation of common sense, I opened the pastry box, took one out and bit into it, then put the rest back in the box. I figured if I'm gonna pay for them anyway, I might as well satiate my hunger for a bit.

Well, anyway, almost immediately after I put the half-bit pastry back in and walked to the checkout aisles, I noticed that the cashier from aisle #5 was giving me a look that made it suggest that she saw me take that bite out of the pastry. I tried my best to ignore the sick feeling in my stomach that comes with my feeling like I've been busted and walked to aisle #6 to check out and pay, but she never stopped looking at me the whole time until I put my groceries on the conveyor belt. Only then did she finally smile and understand that it was my intention to pay for it all along. But in my mind, the damage had already been done.

I guess this might have come as a side effect of getting busted for scratching up a couple of cars with my keys, but that look the cashier gave me made me feel like I'd been busted for armed robbery or something. True, I guess you could say it was my fault for not applying common sense; I should've waited until AFTER I'd paid to start eating, and to do so once I'd left the store. I only did what I did because I was hungry, but that look seemed to cry out 'you're a common thief, and I've got my eyes on you, buster.'

So in the end, you know where those pastries ended up? In the trash at my old homestead. It made me feel so sick on the inside that a total stranger would judge me like that, when all along my intentions were good, that I'd lost my appetite. I mean s**t, it's only three dollars worth of goddamn raspberry tarts, but that look just shook me to my core.

I seriously think I do have something wrong with me, if even stern looks shot my way can make me feel ill. It's the idea that anybody would think of me as a thief...a troublemaker, that causes me discomfort. Why should I care what others think of me? But I do...

So what do you guyses think of all this? Am I really so damn fragile that I can't handle ANY social interactions?

Fluttershy11

PS - I forgot to mention that my dumbf**k father used 'let it go' on me when I told him about that experience. WROOOOONG! This isn't the type of thing that I just 'let go'; I cling on to it like grim death!

i often nibble on something i have yet to purchase while i am in line at the checkout. you did nothing wrong. i hate it when people give me the stink eye but in my experience it usually has more to do with their issues and not me. Some people can just ruin your day.
keep your head held high and don't let anyone make you feel like less of a person. Next time you visit that shop go directly to that persons checkout while eating your raspberry tarts smile politely if they give you the same look poke your tongue out at them pay for them and leave.
(((HUGS)))

Last edited by salamandaqwerty on 14 Jan 2014, 5:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think you are correct that most people would not be as upset by those events as you were. But maybe they would be more bothered than you about other things?
As far as I'm concerned anything that doesn't have to be weighed is fair game to eat/drink on the way round the supermarket. It isn't theft until you have left the shop with the intention of depriving the business of money. I would say the assistant was watching you to check yo weren't going to eat one and put the box back. Maybe people have done that before.

I'm sorry this happened. It's not weird to eat something and then pay for it at the end. I've seen people go in and grab a drink like Gatorade or a water and drink it while walking around the store and then pay at the end. I'm sure this lady had a good reason for her actions, she probably saw someone steal from the store once and now she's leery about anything out of the ordinary.

People steal from businesses all the time. How was the cashier supposed to know your intent and what you were doing? They didn't do anything wrong as it appears that they saw you, but you did by breaking the packahe seal and eating something before paying. If you don't like being treated like someone breaking laws then stop breaking them.

She paid for them, she didn't break any law. And way to not be sympathetic at all. You can tell she's distraught, why try to make her feel worse?

Yes, I do acknowledge that it was my fault, and that cashier was right to keep an eye on me. And in the first place, it's not breaking a law if my intent was to pay for it. Read some responses above, they've known people (including themselves) who've eaten a little something right from a pre-bought package before purchasing it. So does that make them lawbreakers too?

It's all a matter of appearances.

The cashier has no idea what your going to do. Are you going to pay for it? Are you going to steal it?

I don't think you did anything wrong, but I also don't think the cashier did anything wrong by keeping an eye on you. It's probably store policy to visually observe any suspected shop lifters.

You are correct. My suspicions are that this market had seen some shoplifting activity recently, and that this cashier was just making absolutely sure that I wasn't up to no good, and that's okay. People shouldn't be expected to be mind readers. Sure, I'm not a thief, but how would they know? I guess I have one of those faces that seem to suggest that I'm a suspicious, shady character.