Hodges said it was her 6-year-old son who noticed the slight, which hurt even more. She tried contacting the manager, but is still waiting for an apology.
"The lesson they should learn is my money helps run that store," Hodges said. "And I won't be going back."
The customer, it should be noted, didn't have a problem with the first half of the notation, but found the addition of "Big - Fat" hurtful and unnecessary.
"Big Fat Black Lady" Angered by Gas Station Receipt [News 10 ABC] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)
]]>@skubisnack624: Thank you.
]]>My point was that we can't tell weather said gravel was warranted.
]]>you can't get mad at being called fat when you are fat. If you don't like being called fat, lose some weight fatty !!
I hate when I see these odebse women driving onthe road stuffing their faces. Thats why you're fat, because you eat too much fatty!!
@squinko:
"The customer, it should be noted, didn't have a problem with the first half of the notation, but found the addition of..."
]]>If you had read my comments carefully, you would have noticed that I was sticking up for the poor folks who work in service jobs. As a society, we expect service industry workers' to coddle our fragile egos and do the tasks we are "too good" to do. And of course we want our Big Macs cheap, so we don't pay them a fair, living wage.
There are people who have no better opportunities than to work minimum wage jobs. Obviously you aspired to something better for yourself, or you would not be furthering your education. Maybe you should continue working crappy jobs in order to prove your original point.
]]>@GitEmSteveDave_ForgivesChris4ThePizza: the only thing I miss about Jersey.
]]>Are we now a society that is afraid of accurately portraying people? Give me a break.
]]>@tbax929 is back from the beach: Don't forget those guys are also probably wearing 'NO FAT CHICKS' shirts while playing World of Warcraft in their mom's basement.
]]>And if you saw her picture on the link, you'd probably agree that she is indeed a big, fat, black lady.
Again, not something I'd probably call her to her face, but if the description had a genuine clerical use, I don't see what the problem is.
]]>@2 replies by: I find it incredible that you can use the phrase sandy-vagina in the same post you claim to not be blaming the OP. Absurd.
]]>@inadequatewife: I understood what you meant. The newscaster reveals his bias that he thinks fat = ugly, so he tried to 'fix' things by telling the woman she was beautiful.
The clerk who wrote big & fat on the receipt may have just been descriptive (minus a bit of tact) about her appearance, rather than judgemental. He still shouldn't have done it though - there's a good chance someone would be upset.
]]>I'm with you here. If she didn't want this written on her receipt she had many other options:
Not drive
Drive an electric car
not be black
not be big
the list could go on and on.
]]>@GitEmSteveDave_ForgivesChris4ThePizza: what a weird thread...they still have full service gas stations in this country?
I don't mind pumping myself for the $2.25/gallon here in Atlanta.
]]>Big whoopee dog poo-poo.
If this the worse thing that has happened to her then her life has been pretty darn good.
Now, can we get back to bashing Cash-4-Gold?
]]>I would think that alone would be a great identifier. "Lady in cool pink wheelchair."
]]>The view from your ivory tower must be lovely.
]]>There are plenty of overweight women who are beautiful - gorgeous skin, eyes, hair and an ability to dress themselves in attractive, flattering clothes that minimize the "problem" areas and emphasize their curves in just the right places. But they're still fat.
]]>@nofelix: It is insulting, though. These workers shouldn't be looked down upon. SOMEONE has to do that job and we should be grateful that they do it. Would we rather these people who work in lower paid jobs decide just to not work at all because they can't get hired at a job with a better status? Maybe they are working there while going to school, maybe they lost another job and needed this one, maybe they enjoy working there.
]]>@karmaghost: My dad started at a gas station, pumping gas, over 30 years ago. Now, he works in the construction department of the same company, building those gas stations. Starting out at the bottom can be a way to get into a company, especially if you start there young or while you are in college.
]]>I'd only get mad if it were said with the intent to hurt. Even then, I'd only be mad at the intent to hurt, not the actual comment.
I'd actually be amused if the situation happened to me and the "insult" was more clever. For example, "balding white nerd" would amuse me to no end. :-)
]]>OK, so if someone needs "training" to pump gas for me, therefore I must be "trained" and since I'm not the only one pumping my own gas in my state, therefore we're more "civilized" than you are. Isn't is GitEm?
]]>'not headed for great things' is not the same as 'will not achieve great things'. They might sound similar but you shouldn't feel insulted; the former is a description of your current direction, not your final destiny.
It's fair to say pumping gas is rarely a direct route to success, but that's not to say they aren't on any route.
In the same way, a guy starting a race by running 45 degrees to the track cannot be said to be heading to the finish, but that doesn't mean he can't get there.
]]>@PLATTWORX: Tough love administered by the strangers who work behind retail counters is highly effective.
]]>@GuinevereRucker: It's the idea within society that thin = fine and fat/big = ugly.
"Big fat black lady" is insulting, and obviously so. It's the combination of the words that goes beyond normal description, and into an area in which it's obviously an insult. Like BluePlastic said, he could have written "black lady" or even "black lady, red car" (I have no idea if her car is red, I can't watch the video).
]]>@inadequatewife: The fact was that she wasn't thin, so he would be dishonest if he said she was. What he did say was that she was beautiful, which affirmed that one's beauty does not depend on how much or little one weighs.
]]>Like Katster, I found it mildly amusing, particularly in light of the foaming-at-the-mouth anti-fat contingent we've got running around the place. I'm sure they've already weighed in with comments below but I'm not gonna waste time reading them today.
]]>For some reason our society insists we live in denial that some people have a different skin color or are "big" or "fat."
]]>I don't get it. Most of the posts I have read here want to blame to Op for being fat and offended. We all like to think that we wouldn't care if someone pointed out our flaws, but I'm sure that if we receievd a receipt similar to this, we would all be upset. Not call the news upset, but not happy. Problem is perception. maybe she is losing weight, maybe she is sick, or something. Imagine if you receievd a receipt that said "skinny white, sounds gay" or "flat chested blonde girl with big nose" or even "Brunette dressed like a slut." I am going to side with be tactful for the employee regardless of your job, it's not their fault you hate your job (could be, not usually). To the offended, make a complaint and fucking move on, calling the news is a bit drastic.
]]>And you probably still don't tip do you?!? Ahhh...NJ...the state just before New York city.
]]>@inadequatewife: Um, thin is kind of equated with beauty. So instead of trying to tell her she isn't fat, he told her she was beautiful as is. Whats wrong with that?
]]>Everyone's a victim
]]>@BluePlastic:
She wouldn't have gotten any news attention.
No one throws a fit for being called armless when they are armless, armless isn't as relative a distinction as 'fat'.
But never the less, Roger's response to your inquiry is best. :-D
@ellemm: I was nearly tackled by a gas station attendent along the NJ Turnpike when I got out of my car and out of a force of habit, started pumping my own gas. The guy came over and started yelling, at which point I apoligized and said "Oh yea, heh, sorry, I forgot". The guy replied, well, it is not funny, you have to be specially trained to operate these pumps, and I could get in trouble. "Sorry, I forgot, I am from out of state (as evidenced by my non-NJ license plates). " I got back in my car, and wondered how many hours a day this guy inhales the vapors and how many brain cells he had lost because of it.
]]>While it was rude, sometimes it takes something like this to wake one up. If this person wrote "big fat" on the receipt, think of the thousands who have thought it and let her believe no one notices her size.
He may have done her a service. If she wants to see that 6 year old son grow up, she'll thank the cashier for a wake up call that could have saved her life!
]]>But the best part, by far, is the newscaster's closing comment. He tells Helen that she's "beautiful".
"Beautiful" contradicts "ugly", which the receipt didn't say. The newscaster didn't contradict or address the "big fat" by saying "Helen, you're small and thin".
Just struck me as kind of odd that he'd make any comments like that at all...
]]>Perhaps the problem here was that the lady in question wasn't supposed to ever see the slip of paper, and the clerk messed up and accidentally gave it to her.
If I accidentally saw my receipt and it said "skinny white glasses hat" I wouldn't be offended, it's just a description of what I look like (probably for some purpose of the clerk's). "Black fat lady" is just a similar description.
]]>Black? Yes
Lady? Yes
Big? Yes
Fat? Yes
Tactless? Probably, but not exactly insulting. Now if he had gone "Nigress porky momma that needs to lay the fuck off the ding-dongs and fried chicken", then yeah, she'd have a point. But honestly, someone needs to grow a thicker skin*.
* Full disclaimer: While not black or a lady, I am big and fat. Being in the same boat, I'm not offended.
]]>He didn't write anything derogatoy, unless she isn't big and fat. He didnt write ugly, he didnt write mean, he didnt write anything that was racially negative. If you are big and fat, you are big and fat. If being called fat hurts your feelings, either learn to live with it or lose some weight. Its just like anything else. It was written on a receipt for ID purposes anyways, not entered into a computer or anything even remotely public or used by more than two people.
]]>I wish people would get the terminology correct, I have the ability to pick out the purchase use a credit card, sign my name to the receipt and (with help from my husband) take the purchase with me. Oh, that must be it! My husband has to carry the bags for me, hence thats what makes me the "retard". :-/ Go figure.
]]>The article has a picture of her, and, well, I don't think anyone will be confusing her with a black Calista Flockhart anytime soon.
Yes, it's tactless, and it's certainly her right not to go back there, but it's not exactly inaccurate.
]]>@Decubitus: @gStein: Which is why many out-of-state stations insist on sandbagging around NJ cars when they pull up to self-service.
]]>I would wager that this particular clerk probably doesn't know a better way to describe people. I doubt it was intended for the OP to see the remark. Be thankful that your education and station in life afford you better opportunities and move on.
]]>you're right...if you are going to use disparaging terms, at least pick the right one!
]]>Without point of view or context we can't really tell if it was appropriate or not.
Both "Big" and "Fat" are relative words, and based upon the viewpoint of each person's judgment.
Maybe the clerk is used to or really regularly works around anorexic midgets.
Maybe the clerk has a thing for large ladies and so didn't see it as derogatory.
Maybe the lady is just too overly sensitive and unwilling to face the blunt honest truth about how random strangers perceive her.
Maybe the lady doesn't understand what size clothes actually fit her and wore something 2+ sizes too small (making her appear chunky).
Maybe the lady really was in all honesty, BIG and FAT.
We DO NOT know.
In short, we really can't tell much from this story except that this lady got a sandy-vagina, lashed out and shit a brick (to the media no less) over a maybe blunt and honest, maybe narrow-minded and shallow comment about her appearance.
A comment that is NOT in any way uncommon in the media now a days.
A comment that honestly really only amounts to a grammer-school insult from a (likely minimum-wage) gas-station attendent.
And REALLY, we can be 99.99999% certain she wasn't paying for the SERVICE at the station. No gas station is the HILTON.
//Not blaming the OP, just saying seems like a river of tears over some pointed-out spilled milk. (Milk she may have infact spilled herself.)
]]>"Stick and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me"
What was written on the receipt was rude, but sheesh - get over yourself!
]]>Why couldn't they just write her name down, anyway?
]]>John, blue shirt, Hispanic Roy Schieder.
]]>@Colonel Jack O'Neill:
You can't apologize for the truth.
Speaking of, is there any reason the article doesn't mention the station by name?
]]>You know, I see people saying some version of that in almost every thread related to menial jobs, and it's pretty insulting to the huge number of people who take jobs like that at some point in their lives. Sometimes people working those jobs are young, still in school, or simply lacking in the opportunities Consumerist commenters take for granted -- that doesn't mean they'll never amount to anything in their lives.
I mean obviously whoever works at this [i]particular[/i] store is awful, but please stop looking down on people just because they work minimum wage.
]]>Just because someone doesn't have parents that can give them a $20/hr job straight out of high school or pay their way through an ivy league school doesn't mean they're not "headed for great things in life."
Now if they're 30 and working at a gas station, then maybe you could guess that they made some poor life choices. (Or maybe they just lost their CEO position at the bank and are "overqualified" for everything else.)
]]>@Skaperen: Subtle. I like it :P
]]>This lady deserves an apology, but likely won't get a heart-felt one by anybody. She should feel comforted by the fact that this person probably lives a difficult life and this is one of their only ways of getting back at the world.
]]>Fat chance in hell she would get an apology.
]]>There, now that we have the BTV/fat hating comment out of the way can we discuss this nicely?
]]>