Courtesy versus the lack of

While at Target the other night, I noticed a new thing to be annoyed by while shopping. I'm always amazed by people's lack of courtesy or public decorum when they are in the middle of a store. My mother taught to watch around me, always knowing the whereabouts and movement of the people around me. Having witnessed many things in malls and stores, there must be some mothers who didn't see this as part of proper child-rearing.

Last Saturday I was standing in front of the socks at Target. You know, they have some cute socks! Anyway...while searching for the ones I needed, a noise kept piercing through the normal store sounds of music, cart squeaks and kids yelling for their mom. I looked to my right and saw a woman. I could tell by the mouth movement she was chewing gum. No biggy until I watched her make a bubble, pull it back into her mouth, then pop it. I had found the source of the noise.

You might think, Mindy, come on, it's only a bubble. People, I've never been around someone who popped so many bubbles in a row, so loudly! It was a constant stream of pop...pop...pop, pop...pop...pop, pop...pop... And she never noticed the MANY times I glanced her way, hoping it would cause her to stop.

Maybe it's the vigor of youth...or something...but how difficult is it to slow down as you approach the end of an aisle, as not to run into someone crossing your path in the main one? I know you have to stick your cart out into the aisle some so you can see if it is clear to go, but if you do this action slowly, you give the other person time to stop or slow down themselves. Otherwise, you end up running over someone, and if you are said youth, you never look back or even notice there was someone there.

This might be something unique to me, I don't know. I try to follow road rules when choosing each side of an aisle to travel down. Wouldn't it make sense to stay to your right? That way you avoid running into people or carts.

Talking on the cell phone seems to bring out the loud voice in people. Please remember that most of your fellow shoppers don't want or need to hear about your plans to go downtown tonight or the details of the show you played last week in Austin, Texas. Use the same level of volume as if the person was right next to you, because in essence, they are. That little cell phone of yours can pick up lots of noises, and seeing as how your mouth is right next to the receiver, it probably has NO trouble relaying your voice to the other person's ear. :)