Decided to stay put in case of escalation...

I bet seeing WildAlaska in a thong would have cleared the whole store....:eek:

But, then again... WildAlaska might have gotten a date from the raging nut!
 
These days, somebody would have taken video of the whole scene using their cell phone, and Wildalaska would've ended up on Youtube, so who knows how many dates he'd have been offered? [EVIL grin] But I bet it would've distracted the guy with the attitude about showing ID to get his beer. ;-)
 
You definitley made the right decision by not escalating the disagreement and waiting to make sure nothing happened to the clerk. Good Job :cool:.
 
You did well, KingEdward. Reassuring the cashier about a job well done was the most important thing you did. :cool:

Alaska, what's your thing with spandex thongs. The less I know about a man's underwear, the better. :eek:
 
WildAlaska said:
Now me, I would have ripped off a Dew from the pack, torn off my clothes down to my spandex thong

Otaku said:
Why do I have an image of Machoman Randy Savage in my mind?


That right there, folks, is the funniest mental image I can recall in quite some time.


Tacky, yet delightfully unrefined.:eek::D
 
I was in a similar situation recently at, surprise, Wal-Mart as well. My brother and I were going to go fishing, and he needed a license, so we were at the Sporting goods desk in the back.

It was about 7 or so in the evening, and there was a young fellow in front of us, late twenties to thirtyish. He was fairly fit looking, maybe 5'9", trim, had a folding carpenters knife on his belt. Hat on his head, head appeared to be shaved clean underneath. I couldn't tell if he was/had been sick, or if it was just shaven.

There was some sort of problem with the transaction that required a Manager to override. The clerk, a 17-18 year old girl had paged for a CSM to come back to the sporting goods counter. I didn't think much of it, figured a CSM would be over in a minute and we'd all be on our way. After several minutes she either paged or phoned the office. I've forgotten the order it went down in, but I think she paged for a CSM twice, and seemed hesitant to page again, and so she called the office, I think again twice. We stood there for probably close to ten minutes though. By then I was getting ******. :) At the CSM though, for leaving the girl hanging like that. I'd been watching the guy all this time and I was getting more and more antsy for a CSM to GTF over there and resolve it, he was making me nervous.

Unlike KingEdward's though it wasn't an outward show of anger or verbal abuse. He was quite and feigning politeness. Or trying to stay polite. But you could see he had a certain tension in him, he was wound up and getting more so as time went on. It was building and he was just holding it in.

I'm sure a lot of us do that, but he was making me nervous. I don't know what it was, but he was getting me pretty taunt and wound up myself. In reflection part of it was his funny way of standing mostly very still. Try doing that for minutes on end, it's not natural. Towards the end he did start pacing around a bit, I don't remember if he was clinching his hands into fists while standing or not, but I do remember him thumping the counter a time or two with a closed fist about 8 min in or so. He was still very contained though, in that it wasn't really directed at anyone.

I didn't have a CCW on me. I had a Ti-lite, I always carry a knife, but in a tool capacity. Sure they will act as a self defense weapon if you have to, but that's not why I carry them and they aren't what I turn to first. In this case I just reclined myself on the shelf of baseball bats behind him and watched. If the SHTF I had a nice bat all picked out, and I was also trying to act as a barrier between him and the bats, kind of keep them out of sight out of mind, no need to tempt the fellow.

It blew over very uneventfully though. At the end of the ten minutes or so, he suddenly told the girl very politely, "I'm sorry, I know this isn't your fault, but I just don't have time to deal with this right now" and walked out the automotive exit. My intuition was he knew his boundaries and had reached a point where he wanted to leave before the CSM showed up and he reacted by ripping his head off or otherwise going ape on him.

The clerk processed my brothers license and we left, there was still no CSM in sight at that point. I was a bit drained myself, typical letdown from a stressful situation, and was tempted to wait for the CSM and let loose on him myself but I figured stupid is as stupid does. If he keeps up that bad of service he might learn putting the baseball bat display on the shelf by the checkout counter might not be such a good idea. :rolleyes:

I really felt that the CSM had put the clerk in danger by taking so long to respond. I also felt I had been put in danger by proxy. I was not a happy camper when I left. :mad:
 
don't know what it was, but he was getting me pretty taunt and wound up myself. In reflection part of it was his funny way of standing mostly very still. Try doing that for minutes on end, it's not natural. Towards the end he did start pacing around a bit, I don't remember if he was clinching his hands into fists while standing or not, but I do remember him thumping the counter a time or two with a closed fist about 8 min in or so. He was still very contained though, in that it wasn't really directed at anyone.

Gawd dude you ought to see me when I have to wait unecessarily, I make that guy look like hes a yogi....I would run your hinkymeter off the scales and I am a scruffy, nasty looking creature on top of it with the personality of a constipated badger when I am in a good mood;)

WilddontshootmeatwalmartokAlaska TM

O did I mention....THE BIG VICTORY :)
 
Unlike WA, I don't wait... I tell the "clerk" "nebbermind, I will git the CSM my dern self!" And off I go... I look fer a fancy button down shirt and snag 'em!
they often seem to appease me just to keep their throat intact... It is either me or I will sic mrs.hogdogs (virtually a hungry bulldog with a yappin ankle biter 'tween her and a feed dish...) on 'em!:D:eek: And TEE-RUST MEEEEE... that irate beer buyer don't wanna keep her from getting her goods across the laser so her milk don't get hot!!!
Brent
 
Everytime I go to walmart there is no customer service in any department I need help in.I got in trouble by a store manager when I bought a bicycle for my son and the one he wanted was on the top metal rack.

They paged for someone to that department but after ten minutes, I said *** out load and then spotted a big metal step ladder on wheels:D I rolled the baby over climbed up and pull the bike out of the rack.Just as I got half way down the steps Some one comes along to see me on the ladder.:eek: My wife was laughing because I got caught red handed.I got the speech about the insurance and employees only yada yada yada.
 
While wildalaska is just looking for that special attention he so disparately needs I will say that it is typical for a person to lash out at authority from time to time.

Walmart has a display that says if you appear to be over 40 you will be carded. Some folks take being carded as a complement of looking younger. Others take it as an abuse of power.

I ask, even though wildalaska has no credibility, what does this thread have to do with firearms? Two pages of no firearm talk and it is still going.
 
Having worked in retail before, I find that knowing how to work the store's PA system is invaluable in these situations. The CSM and Store Manger may ignore their own employees, but it's amazing how quickly they move when a customer announces to the whole store, "Hey can we get some help in Sporting Goods? This poor cashier has called for a manger five times and I have places to go. Could we either get a manager over here or could someone give me the number to your corporate office so I can complain about the slow service in this store?"

Works every time!:cool:
 
KingEdward, it sounds to me as if you did the right thing and de-escalated the situation.

One thought, in re this comment: "like, you don't know all the facts so keep quiet and don't intervene" -- I would venture to say that in this situation, you knew all the facts you needed to know, because you saw the situation unfold from the beginning. If you had just walked in while it was happening, that would have been a different situation. But having watched it from the beginning you knew the situation well enough to figure what sort of intervention could legally & morally be made.

cloud ~

Given that most of the people posting here would be armed in such situations, and that the topic has remained strongly on the tactics one could use to defuse & de-escalate the situation so that their firearm would remain unneeded, the thread is on topic for this forum so far. It could go either way, though, so we'll keep an eye on it.

pax
 
I will say that it is typical for a person to lash out at authority from time to time.

If you see cashiers at Walmart as "authority", I can't imagine what lowly role you must play in our society.

Idiots lash out at clerks for the opposite reason, they are easy targets with no auth-or-i-tah at all. They are the only people professional bums, drunks, and crackheads have any contact with that they feel they can push around.

Hogdogs shows his true nobility by aiming his displeasure at lazy managers.
 
At the first indication that the fellow was a nut.. I would have called 911 and reported a crazy man "going off" in (store name.... location).

This is my mindset: If my failure to act (physically) right here and right this second, will result in a innocent person being seriously injured... I will take physical action against a bad-guy. This does not mean that I am going to hang around to see "what if this or what if that" is going to happen. If there is an indication of trouble(enough to alarm me), I will call 911 and get myself away from danger/trouble. It is better to have Police arrive sooner than later. That fellow could have very easily been getting any number of things out of his car. His actions from the start were unreasonable.. I admit that we all have said a thing or two when stressed that we probably should not have, but to rant and rant like this fellow is a indication to me that he has deeper issues.

I am glad that this situation worked out.. I am not saying your actions were wong, just that I "probably" would have acted different.
 
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Fortunately in NV there isn't a legal obligation to disarm for a private business posting a "no firearms" sign, they carry no weight of law.

I think many of us have had a similar situation thrust upon us, one for me happened in a 7-11 around 7pm during one Winter. Guy was yelling when I got in, apparently upset that his gas pump wasn't working. Clerk straightened it out, then the guy left. Couple minutes later as I was paying for my slurpee or whatever, he came back in yelling and cursing a storm. Proceeded straight to the clerk, I had already stepped back and out of his way. He was yelling about the pump still not working, saying the clerk put his money on the wrong pump, demanded refund, etc.

Clerk handled it pretty well, looked at dude and told him "You need to push the little button and turn it on"... Guy looked ready to explode, but the realization that his anger and issues were all his own fault quickly calmed him down and he left without incident.



These situations very rarely would produce the need for a firearm, IMHO only if the aggressor produced a weapon of his own. But the thought that I had my CCW (only had it for about 2 months prior) was very comforting.
 
correct, not physically involved.

At the time he was really seeming to boil and rock back and forth was when
I moved forward and made some noise of my own and said the comment.

I felt that had he stayed honed in on her, and only her, he was going to lash out.
 
The part of your story that made my hair stand up a little was when you said he went out to his car and came back. Glad he went for his ID card.
 
suffice it to say I had my eyes on him.

When he leaned in and was digging around in the car (which was about 75 feet away outside) the thought hit me,

"what if he comes back in with something way worse than an id card?"

that would have probably caused me to back away for a moment and
dial 911.
 
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