A Front Row Seat To A Crystal Meth Meltdown.

The main advantage to working for a large, impersonal chain is the professional freedom it allows. This may seem counterintuitive, but where else would I be free to give crappy, impersonal service when and where I deem it necessary? In the anonymous world of big box retail, crappy service will get you a "meets expectations" from the general public at least 90% of the time. Coming in a close second on the advantage list is the fact that I have zero responsibility for running the store. Unlike the old days, when the drugstore owner/manager wanted the pharmacy a few feet above the rest of the store so they could keep an eye on what was going on, I happily toil away in the back concerned only about filling prescriptions in a way so that no one dies. I hire no one. I fire no one. I have little contact with any other employee other than my techs, and the lower my contact with people, the happier I am. I can still hear the store PA system though, and tonight that system broadcast the meltdown of one of those employees I know very little about.

It started off as simply annoying. An announcement every once in awhile that "I need an extra cashier....I have more than three people in line....so Bob or John could you come to the front to help me check and be an extra cashier?" Seemed like simple diarrhea of the mouth at first. Then comes "I need an extra cashier.....and I see you down the card aisle having too much fun" I can see the greeting cards from my happy little pill room, where there were two old people looking baffled as to why they had been outed over the PA. Then comes a report that she told a customer, a total stranger, that "I could use some alcohol, because it helps you see better, double vision you know."

Three randomly timed announcements of "Thank you for shopping at Wal Mart." The nearest Wal Mart is 20 miles away.

Next comes the manager in charge. And by "manager" I mean 22 year old kid working his way through college. He tells me that psycho cashier said a customer who didn't have an ID when carded was "driving without a license" and "we should have them arrested." When the manager said there was no need to start arresting our customers, psycho cashier said "I should bite you"

"You really need to send her home" I say. "This crossed the line into serious a long time ago."

"She's the only person I have after 8" was the reply.

In fairness there are other possibilities to explain the cashier's conduct besides crystal meth. It is possible that instead of taking a drug she wasn't supposed to take, the cashier didn't take a drug she WAS supposed to take. It was a busy night, so it's possible she went insane naturally. No matter what the specific cause though, she was evidently too vital to store operations tonight to lose, and meeting the service expectations of the general public around 80% of the time I'm sure.