The "What not to be " Guide for Shopping at Retail Stores

Tis the season for Christmas trees, grandma's homemade sugar cookies, red and green everything and.......

•  Children who have such terrible melt downs that you can hear the ringing of screaming in your ears at least 10 minutes after you leave the store.
• Customers who stand and watch you struggle to fit their awkward, bulky, long heavy toys into "not quite large enough"bags, only to have them rip, and they watch you start all over again.
• Women who would rather stand and argue with you that their "card is good", even though the truth of the matter is that they've already spent their limit on buying Christmas crap and are permanently in denial, which somehow ends up being being all your fault.
• Customers who think that we are mind readers. of course we should telepathically know you want separate transactions because one order is for your daughter and must be paid in cash and the other is yours and needs to be paid with a credit card. Verbal exchange is never needed for such a request.
• Customers who decide to completely unravel a table of nicely folded shirts, organized according to color and size, because their son is x-tra large and his size sits at the bottom... but it took taking apart every other size to figure out that every shirt has a sticker with the size smack dab on the front.
• Customers who decide that leaving a bag of half eaten popcorn by the nice flannel shirts is a good idea.
• When you say "good morning!" to a customer, and they look at you briefly and give you a half smile and no verbal response, even as they are leaving. 
• When a customer treats you like a scanning machine instead of a human being with intelligence and feelings.
• Being the "rage outlet" for stressed out, workaholic moms who are trying to balance a full time job, kids and putting on the "Christmas of every one's dreams".

These examples (and there are many more that haven't come to mind at the moment) are a good guide and reminder for you as the consumer, as you finish up the last of your holiday shopping. I know stress runs high and time is running out, but take your cart, stand over by the scented candles and take a DEEP breath and say to yourself "It's all about baby Jesus, it's all about baby Jesus" and hopefully the rest of your customer etiquette will naturally fall into place. :)