Had a scary day at the failing Indian-run store in the area. You know, the one I blogged about where they don't listen to their customers and stock products that nobody wants? Where the last Indian owners had to sell out to the current Indian owners after 20-years of declining sales?
That one.
I made the mistake of trying to buy a box of cereal there only to notice that it had expired six months prior. I informed the management, but that cereal is still there and is now 1 year expired.
Just so you know what sort of operation we're dealing with here.
So now, I only go in there to buy cold tea (which isn't expired, and that's what I was doing there a yesterday. So I'm approaching the glass door and I see a man kneeling on the floor putting something into a backpack and talking seemingly to the person at the coffee station (but he was actually mumbling to himself).
As I open the door and greet the clerk behind the bulletproof shield (which runs from countertop to ceiling, BTW). This nutjob on the floor starts loudly screaming something in Spanish, but the way he was acting, we sensed they were insults.
Getting my tea, I approached the counter and asked the clerk (through the shield) if everything's OK and what's going on. "How long has he been yelling at you?" I ask, and that's when he tells me that he thought the crazy was shouting at me" and I'm like "nope, don't know him and never met him.
Watching Closely
So now the dude is standing up screaming at various customers in the store as I'm paying and getting very aggressive. Shouting, and gesturing with the veins in his neck straining against the onslaught. The employees are just standing there watching him. Nobody's telling him to calm down, and no one is ordering him to leave.
He steps out only to return and begin accosting the customers once again, screaming obscenities and now saying that he could kill people.
At this point I've seen enough and tell the clerk that he needs to call the police.
But he just stands there watching, and does nothing (remember, he's behind a bulletproof partition, but his customers are exposed to the maniac). As I leave the store, the sounds of this jerk echo behind me.
Turns out the guy is one of those aggressive panhandlers who open the door to let shoppers in and then demand money for his drug habit. He's also gives off vibes of being "off his meds" and acting out a psychotic episode.
These people reek of urine and fecal matter while putting their filthy black-fingernailed hands all over the hot takeaway sandwiches. Suddenly, I'm not hungry for one of those thank-you-very-much.
This is the kind of society we have here in America where people will watch (and film) a woman burning to death in a subway car, while doing nothing to help her.
The blank look on the faces of the employees in the store made me think that dude could have pulled out a knife and started stabbing the shoppers, and these two idiots would have remained transfixed, frozen in place instead of alerting the authorities (and you foreigners wonder why we need guns here in America).
Disturbed by what I saw and the inaction of the staff, now might be a good time to pause my visit to this badly-run store. The convenience just isn't worth it, and the way they're going, they'll likely be out of business 5 years from now.
This entire region is violence-prone which is why anyone who's decent is trying to get out. So if you're reading this and are contemplating moving to PA, I strongly warn you to stay away from the entire eastern half of the state.
"Go west young man" where the small towns are nicer, the area beautiful, and you don't have to take your life in your hands whenever you leave the house.