My Shopping Confession

I went to the shops today to look for an electrical adapter thing. As you can probably tell, I'm not an expert on electrical adapters, so it was taking me a while to figure out which one I needed. While I was busy concentrating, the floor mopper came down my aisle.

I don't know if this is unique to South Africa or not, but there are workers who mop the floors in almost every store, in front of the ATM's, in the bathrooms, etc., and all during business hours while people are shopping. In their defense, South Africa has some of the cleanest public toilets in the world. In my defense, I just wanted to sort out which electrical thing I needed without slipping on a wet floor or making dirty footprints where she had just mopped.

So the floor mopper got to where I was standing and stopped. I pretended not to see her, hoping she would mop around me. She did, and then came back and stood right behind me, with her mop hovering around my feet. I was irritated; she was irritated. But here's where it gets tricky:

My Perspective:
I'm the customer. Your store wouldn't exist without customers buying your products. Don't make the customer move so you can mop the floor. Wait for the customer to leave. Give them a pleasant shopping experience.

Her Perspective:
I have a job. I want to do my job. I want to do my job well. She's in my way. Why can't she just give a little?

Would it have killed me to move, interrupt my shopping for a moment, and let her mop where I had been standing? No. Would it have killed her to wait until I found what I was looking for? No. That's when it suddenly dawned on me how my Western mindset is rooted in a sense of entitlement, which is a nice way of saying "selfishness." And I felt ashamed.