The Returns Queue At Bunnings

I took Buddy to Bunnings to take back a pot that I had bought. We stepped up to the queue for returns. There was a (small rat-faced) guy there with all sorts of things on the counter. He was one of those people who was being very busy in one spot. Then there was me and another guy, we both got to the counter at exactly the same time, and we were each telling the other one that they could go first. As I was momentarily distracted by the 3rdguy, Buddy walked to the counter, as dogs do, and he sat down, (unfortunately) leaning against the first guy’s leg.

“Ah!” said the guy. He shook his leg as if to shake Buddy off. He turned to look at me. If looks could kill, I’d be dead.

“Sorry,” I said. Okay, so that was, some may say, less than idea. I’d hate to see his reaction if something really went wrong, I thought, but whatever.

So, I stepped behind him. Then he wanted to manoeuvre a large box on the counter, but he had to step backwards to move the box and, again, Buddy and I were in the way.

“Ah! Er! UM!” He waved his hands at me, in my face.

It was an L shaped counter so Buddy and I stepped away from Little Mr Busy, to the point of the counter, diagonally into the shop floor, to give the guy space. I didn’t know that the trolley around the L-shaped corner was also his.

When he had finished (I would say OCD) arranging the items on the counter in front of him, he wanted to get the rest of his stuff from his trolley, but again, we were in the way.

“AH.” Look of death. “ERRRR!” He couldn’t easily get passed. “OHHHH!” Again, he waved his hands in my direction.

So, we got to the dreaded point where I felt I had to say something. “Hey mate,” funny how I butch it up with the word ‘mate’ on such occasions. “Are you always this grumpy, or have you just saved it all up for me today?”

He kind of groaned, but essentially, he ignored me.

Then he was finally done, and he wanted to move his trolley around so he could put all his stuff back in it.

Now, let me just say, there was the entire, empty, Bunnings foyer and then there was me and him and his trolley and the other guy who was a little further away again.

He turned and looked at me. Big eyes, as if he was willing me to move… or evaporate, or explode, or something.

Nah, I wasn’t having by this stage. Essentially, Buddy and I had been standing still the whole time and he’d had a problem with us no matter what we’d done.

“You know what, you can walk around me mate, and you can take up as much of this foyer as you please to do it.” I accompanied that with a Sale of the Century hand gesture.

Which he did, tutting as he went.

I stepped up to the counter and the first thing the nice (some may say rather cute) Bunnings man said was, “I’m sorry for all of that.”

“No problem.” I smiled.

I told the 3rdguy waiting that he could go before me, just to make it look like I was really the nice one.

Some people, I thought.