Questions that don't need to be asked.

I figured we would go super low tech today. I know I'm on tilt right now... but maybe my customer service scab could heal if people would stop asking me stupid questions.

I'm at the hardware store buying two 8 foot 4x4's. This is not one of those items where you can just take a little paper slip with the UPC on it up to the checkout stand, and they'll load it for you. You have to take the actual lumber to the register.

So - the cashier asks me if I'm buying two of them.

???

I'm trying to figure out what the cashier was thinking. Did he think I was only buying one 4x4, and I brought the 2nd one to the cashier just for exercise? Or did he think I was somehow smuggling a 3rd eight foot beam up my ass?

Okay - this is the other thing. I know this store doesn't put any bar-codes on their lumber, so I made sure to take a close in cell phone picture of the price tag and the item number. Had it right up on my phone screen so when he went to find the barcode I could just show him the price-tag.

I walk up, and the cashier starts to look confused. Because no one under 20 who works at a fucking hardware store knows what a 4x4 is. They don't even have different length 4x4's at this store.

So - I hold up my phone which has a pretty large screen. Roughly 2x2 inches. So he's not looking at a little tiny cell phone screen. This only makes the cashier ask me "what's that"?

Fuck me...!

I don't know... what could it be? It has a bar-code, item number and description. And the price.

Update: I finally got around to getting the picture off my phone.