Selfishness Abounds

In order to understand some of this blog, you may want to read my two-part “Where’s the Justice?” blog, but I’ll try to reduce confusion for anyone who hasn’t read it.

In my “Where’s the Justice?” two-part blog I described how last summer, on July 3rd, the proverbial manure hit the fan. I work at my Dad’s small fireworks store, and last year we had some trouble. You see, money problems made us strike a deal with a man in the Department of Agriculture, so that we could continue selling until we could afford the firework selling permit. That deal went sour when the man went back on his word and sent the police to our store. Everything was taken, and we were left in more serious debt than we had in the first place.

So now it is officially May (and it’s finally starting to feel it because for once it’s warm out) and it’s the precursor to the biggest selling season before July 4th. This past weekend we had a few customers, which was a welcome relief because the combination of high gas prices and a troubled economy may very well mean less customers and less sales.

But here’s the bad thing: I don’t know if there’s something in the air that makes people go loopy once they set foot in our store, but there seemed to be very few customers who were easy to deal with. I had the annoying ones who ask for things that are illegal, which is a daily occurrence, so you can probably understand why that’s annoying. However, that wasn’t my biggest issue. It was the sheer selfishness of people who had seemed friendly last year. It’s like having some hidden secret revealed to you about a kindly neighbor; shocking, but sometimes you suspected something.

The most common thing I heard all weekend was either “I’m surprised you’re open” or “Do you still sell fireworks?”. Both reference the debacle of last years’ July 3rd incident. So many people just assumed that we were closed down for good. “I didn’t know where I was going to get my fireworks after that” the customer would continue. Several people said that they were really bummed about what happened last summer because they hadn’t gotten their fireworks yet.

So that’s what really bothered me. These customers were so openly selfish. They didn’t care that our business was suffering, that a portion of our lives were ruined because of that one day. They only cared that they serve their own personal interests. It amazed me, and angered me. How can people have no empathy anymore?

I wondered how I would be in the opposite situation. If a local store had closed that I really liked, I would be bummed for myself because a product wouldn’t be readily available to me, but then I would think to the owners if it were a small business. How were those owners now? Would they be able to start a new business now? Perhaps I have too much empathy, but I would care what happened to the people.

Comments and ratings are always appreciated!

Share this post on:

 •    •    •    •    •