Kroger

Wow. My trips to Kroger will never be the same. During a brief run to my local Willow Lawn Kroger, I was bullied. Yes, my 5'10, 225 pound sunburned body was bullied while in line to cash in a voucher from the Coinstar machine. The bully was a good 6'1 and an easy 170 pounds...and at least 65 years old.

As I waited to cash my voucher, the man I speak of stepped in front of me to play lotto. It was over quickly and as he looked at his lotto numbers and began to walk away, my anger overcame my better judgement. I said "Excuse me..." loudly as I walked to the counter. The man turned and said "Can I help you?" in a sarcastic manner to which, once again, I could not resist an answer. This older gentleman had very deliberately walked in front of me and now challenged my verbal reprimand. How do I know it was deliberate? As I stood in line, I watched the man walk to the counter, look at me as I was looking at my voucher, and as soon as the line was open, he immediately stepped up to the counter. The man looked right at me and still cut in line.

"You cut in line" was my response. I was pretty pissed because the guy knew what he had done. "You weren't in line" was his response. At this point, I had already handed my voucher to the lady behind the counter, a lady who was looking a little uncomfortable at the thought of a senior citizen getting ugly with a man half his age or less, and was waiting on the cash. I looked the guy in the eye and said "You cut in line, you did it on purpose and you knew good and well I was in line. Why else would I be standing here?". The guy smirked at me, grinned and said "You weren't in line. You're wrong.".

I'm staring a moral dilemma down. Do I continue to argue with this obvious asshole and risk the issue escalating? If it escalates, what happens? A 70 year old man either pushes a 35 year old man and gets his ass beat down meaning said 35 year old man is a horrible person for beating up an old person or does the 70 year old man push said 35 year old man and proceed to beat up 35 year old man, ruining the 35 year old's life and forcing him into hiding?

"You cut in front of me and that's the skinny of it. You thought it would be ok because all you wanted was a lotto ticket and thought it would be short enough that you could get away with it. You didn't and now you are pissed that I called you out. You should drop it and move on". I thought that would end it and save my ego in the process. The old guy didn't though. "Well, in the future, I'll make sure to never do it again...".At this point, the guy is again smirking at me, a smirk that turns into a glare as he turns and walks away.

I got bullied and told off by an old man at Kroger. It doesn't get much more humiliating than that. Unless he kicks your ass.