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Writer's pictureAlretha Thomas

You Don't Have to be Right to be Right!



Anybody who knows me, knows I love Popeyes Chicken. My favorite part of the chicken is the wing! I love me some wings—classic, not spicey. Usually I get Popeyes on Friday, but sometimes I want to add it to my dinner during the week. So today I went through the drive-thru and ordered four classic wings. I made sure to enunciate each word and I also repeated the order. The reason I do this is because invariably when I check my order, I don’t have four wings. Instead of the wings, they've given me a leg, a thigh and a couple of wings. The last few times I was there this happened and they apologized and corrected the order. However, this time the cashier refused to believe me even after seeing for herself that I had not been given four wings. She snapped, “You do have four wings. Those are wings.” I guess I wasn’t supposed to believe my own eyes that were gazing at a drum stick, a thigh, and a couple of wings. Nonetheless, she took the order from me and strangely enough went back and picked out four classic wings, boxed them and gave them to me. I said to her, “I see now that you’re aware that the order was incorrect,” expecting for her to acquiesce. I was taken aback when she replied, “I’m not going to argue with you. You did have four wings.” At that point, I just shook my head and took my corrected order.


I have to admit, that for a fleeting moment, I was tempted to go inside the store and confront her, make her admit that she was out of line and blatantly lying. I was going to have her display the original incorrect order so that everyone could see that she was wrong, that she’d lied. Then I thought about all the different ways that scenario could play out. I don’t know the cashier. Maybe she was on the edge. Maybe she hated her job. Maybe she’d just been cursed out by another customer. Maybe she was being evicted from wherever she was living. Maybe someone close to her had died. Maybe she was just fed up. Maybe I would have been the person who would have sent her over the edge, and all the other customers and I could have ended up on the news as victims of a Popeyes chicken worker snapping. Then I thought about my life. I have been blessed beyond measure. I have a wonderful home, a loving and devoted husband, family and friends. I’m healthy. I’m living my dream. I’m a series regular on Tyler Perry’s Assisted Living that actually airs tonight. I have everything I need. After all of that reflection, I drove away with a smile on my face, realizing that if having an encounter with a nasty cashier was my worse problem, then I need to be doing backflips. Then it dawned on me that, “You don’t have to be right to be right.”



1 Comment


You make a very good point about not having to be right all the time. At my age, I am at that point where I will let certain behaviors by others roll off my shoulder. There was a time when I would say if you are having a bad day and you are working with customers, stay home. It is not fair to take your bad mood out on others. But as you mention, that clerk may have been going through pain that we know nothing about. Anyway, I love Popeyes wings and thighs. :)

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