Sooh
Full Member
Hi there,
Just had to tell you what happened to me yesterday at my shop as I was so cross.
A group of young men came into my shop, around 24 years old at a guess and proceeded to try on several 'novelty' hats and comical wigs that we sell. They were creating quite a scene and were very noisy and then decided to have a photo/video shoot using my stock as their props. I politey asked them to "not take photographs" etc and one of the lads scoffed "why are they the crown jewels or summat?" I politely replied that "no they were not the crown jewels, but they were my stock and stock that I wanted to sell and therefore preferred them not to be mishandled as if they get soiled etc then my customers would not wish to buy them and we then have to sell them off cheap" the loudest guy in the group then retorted "well I will take a photo of you then cos you look like a big gorilla" and with that he and his mates fell into heaps of laughter. I said he was very rude and he should grow up and act his age but he just continued to insult me until I gave him his and his pals their marching orders!
To be honest his childish comments did not upset me in the slightest, I think I have a developed a far thicker skin than that over the years and such playground behaviour I simply choose to rise above but what did annoy me is that the group of young men in question were of Asian ethnicity and as much as I was justified in retalliating I dare not for fear of reprisals! If I had made such an insulting or similar comment to either party in the group (which of course I would never do and I would never, ever dream of being so rude or unkind) then I would no doubt have been accused of making a racist remark and who knows what trouble that may have led to or landed me in? Please do not think I am in any way holding the whole of the Asian community responsible for this particular ignorant person's comments because I most certainly am not and I appreciate that there is good and bad amongst all colours and creeds but the incident just made me stop and think and I really was struck by the irony of the situation.
I don't know if this is how this particular group of young men usually carry on whenever someone uses polite manners to ask them not to abuse their stock or not but if so then I dread to think how they would carry on if someone was to really insult or offend them and I would imagine they would be quite intimidating to say the least!
I dont know what others think but I personally felt like I dare not retalliate in case they accused me of racial harrassment or something and so I felt forced to just stand there and take it!
Sue
Just had to tell you what happened to me yesterday at my shop as I was so cross.
A group of young men came into my shop, around 24 years old at a guess and proceeded to try on several 'novelty' hats and comical wigs that we sell. They were creating quite a scene and were very noisy and then decided to have a photo/video shoot using my stock as their props. I politey asked them to "not take photographs" etc and one of the lads scoffed "why are they the crown jewels or summat?" I politely replied that "no they were not the crown jewels, but they were my stock and stock that I wanted to sell and therefore preferred them not to be mishandled as if they get soiled etc then my customers would not wish to buy them and we then have to sell them off cheap" the loudest guy in the group then retorted "well I will take a photo of you then cos you look like a big gorilla" and with that he and his mates fell into heaps of laughter. I said he was very rude and he should grow up and act his age but he just continued to insult me until I gave him his and his pals their marching orders!
To be honest his childish comments did not upset me in the slightest, I think I have a developed a far thicker skin than that over the years and such playground behaviour I simply choose to rise above but what did annoy me is that the group of young men in question were of Asian ethnicity and as much as I was justified in retalliating I dare not for fear of reprisals! If I had made such an insulting or similar comment to either party in the group (which of course I would never do and I would never, ever dream of being so rude or unkind) then I would no doubt have been accused of making a racist remark and who knows what trouble that may have led to or landed me in? Please do not think I am in any way holding the whole of the Asian community responsible for this particular ignorant person's comments because I most certainly am not and I appreciate that there is good and bad amongst all colours and creeds but the incident just made me stop and think and I really was struck by the irony of the situation.
I don't know if this is how this particular group of young men usually carry on whenever someone uses polite manners to ask them not to abuse their stock or not but if so then I dread to think how they would carry on if someone was to really insult or offend them and I would imagine they would be quite intimidating to say the least!
I dont know what others think but I personally felt like I dare not retalliate in case they accused me of racial harrassment or something and so I felt forced to just stand there and take it!
Sue
