THROW YOUR COFFEE CUPS AWAY!!!

March 18, 2015

You know, it's been a while since I've done a bit of a rant in this space.  In recent weeks, I've felt no need to do such a thing as I've been more or less satisfied with...oh...79% of the way life is right now.

(We won't discuss the other 21% of Life.  That still needs attention.)

But you know, I don't make this rant on behalf of just myself...but for all of my fellow retail workers.  The cashiers, the floor workers, the overnight crew, and the maintenance crew who work hard each day.  This blog post is for all of you.

You see, there are some things about my own retail experiences that I find minor inconveniences, but I have learned not to let them bother me.  Well, bother me MUCH, that is.  Really, there's no point in stressing out about things that you cannot change.  Trust me, that is a lesson that I have had to learn the hard way.

But here's the deal.  There is one thing that really "grinds my gears", as Peter Griffin is apt to say on "Family Guy".  Something that I see happen every day I come into work that makes me really shake my head in disbelief.

In fact, I have photographic evidence of this.  Have a look.

So, yeah...I don't think that's where you put a discarded drink container.  I mean, the first thing that randomly pops through my head when I'm shopping for $10 DVD's is "oh, I have finished my drink, and I don't know what to do with the cup.  Whatever should I do?  Oh, I know!  Let's put it in the movies...who is going to know anyway?"

Well, I'll tell you who knows.  WE KNOW.  And you know who ends up having to take care of them?  WE DO!

And the sad thing is, I probably dispose of at least eight of these every shift.  So, given that I work a five day work week with eight hours in each shift, that works out to...oh...thirty-two cups a week, or a cup an hour.  Oh, and don't think it's limited to just soda containers.  They also include coffee cups, juice bottles, wrappers from Big Macs, and even a half melted ice cream cone.

Yes.  You read that correctly.  A half melted ice cream cone that melted all over a display of paint rollers.  You don't even want to know what a mess that was to clean up. 

Now, I suppose that it's easy enough to accidentally leave behind a coffee cup and completely forget all about it.  It is entirely possible to do.  But having to dispose of several cups at a time - especially cups that have already had the rim rolled up in hopes of winning the "Roll Up The Rim To Win" contest - yeah, that's inexcusable.

You see this?  That is what we call a garbage can.  And in any store that is a significant size, you can find several of these available all over the place.  In fact, in the area I work at, we actually have a trash can right next to our paint mixer.  It is extremely easy to spot!

In other words, THERE IS NO EXCUSE TO LEAVE YOUR GARBAGE ON THE SHELF!!!

Truth be told, maybe this is the old-fashioned traditionalist in me speaking here, but I wish we could go back to a time in which food and beverages are banned from places of business.  Unfortunately, this is the time in which food courts in shopping malls are getting bigger, and department stores are adding sit down restaurants into their floor plans, so I don't see that happening any time soon.

But as far as solving the problem?  I honestly only have one idea.  I wish we could charge people with some sort of coffee cup disposal fee, where if someone ditches a coffee cup on a random shelf instead of in a garbage can, we should have the right to charge people a percentage of the price of what they paid for their beverage.  Then all the money that gets collected gets split up among all the employees that were working that day.  I bet if you had to do that, you'd rethink randomly dropping empty cups all over the store.

So, to cap this blog entry off...THROW YOUR GARBAGE IN A CAN!!!

Thank you.  Rant over.