this has been bothering me for years

so, back when I was in University, I was in a Convenience Store picking up some Milk and a lotto ticket, the boy infront of me in the line appeared to be suffering from Downs Syndrome (or a similar condition.. I didn't ask what he was suffering from.. that would have been rude)..

this boy asked Cashier if they sold Stamps, to which the Cashier said No and the boy left the store..
I asked the Cashier "when did you guys stop selling Stamps?" and the Cashier said "ohh we do, i just refuse to help People like him"

I was shocked at the time, I told the Cashier to give me some stamps, i threw a $5 on the counter and ran out after this kid..

I caught up to him and said "here, heres the stamps you had asked for".. the boy looked at me confused and said "but, he said they don't sell them"

I did not have any idea how to react.. so i lied and just told the kid that I had a few spare that he could have..


See, I now think about this every-time I see someone with a visible Disability at a store, or those being discriminated against in public.. and I wonder if what I did that day was the right thing..



What would you do in this situation? have you ever been in a similar situation?

I would've done the exact same thing.

But honestly in this case, it just sounds like the cashier was a scumbag.

Absolutely you did the right thing

I hope the cashier felt ashamed but they probably didn't

I hope you don't give that convenience store any more business after that.

"People like him"

For crying out loud, it's not like the kid was a hoodlum or something. Tell that cashier that 1940's Germany "is that way' and point towards his rear.

Probably nothing for the most part. I MIGHT help, but only if I'm feeling the overwhelming urge, otherwise I don't step in on things. I'll feel opinionated on the inside, but it's not hurting anyone, so there's little reason for me to involve myself in a thing not involving me.

Wow, that's incredibly [censored] of him. Hat of to you for what you did, instead of just not giving an F. I would've done the same if I'd remember it, but I probably wouldn't because I'd have a thing or two to say to that cashier, and I'd definitely ask for the manager. Wow, I'm still in shock for just reading something like this.

What the hell, that's messed up. Just mind boggling that such people still exist in this day and age.

I would have given the stamps as well to that person. Then I would have contacted the stores owner and possibly even contacted an organisation that deals with people with disabilities and let them know what happened.

I would have done the same thing but I'd also told the clerk he just lost a customer and take my business elsewhere.

In the UK you can't do that.

It's illegal.

To discriminate against someone because of a disability that is.

Where do you live where they don't have laws that protect people with disabilities?

It's also in Australia under the Disability Discrimination Act.

Sadly, laws wont stop scumbags being scumbags.

Actually Funny Bunny lists their location as "Canada".

Not very Canadian behaviour.

It was nice of you to get that disabled gentleman his stamps but you have a social responsibility to report this to the store manager and the police.

I would've asked the question while the customer was still there, so that if anyone else was around, they'd see what a complete ass he was.

And possibly have lost customers, as things like this often don't go unpunished. In today's "record" society, something like this could have exploded on Twitter faster than the guy could say "I'm sorry. Here are your stamps."

We really are not as different from our ancestors as we like to think. Nor were they as barbaric as we like to think. Kind of shocked that anyone is shocked by this. Pissed off or affronted sure, but actually shocked? Scumbags are not that rare.

We have the same laws in the USA and I am pretty sure Canada does as well. The cashier could have been canned if they had made it an issue. Which would have been the right thing to do, but also not the most economical. I wouldn't expect someone to go that far for a stranger.

In an ideal world, I would have given the clerk a good, loud scolding. In reality, as I hate talking to people I don't know (um, in person anyway), I'd probably just leave and never come back. Then post in a thread like this one about it.

Yea...some people are jerks. Not surprising.

Actually nicely done, sure you did the right thing, here you can count the decent people on one hand. Im not saying you should have done this but i would have reported the guy to management, not only due to the fact he discriminated against someone but he wasnt doing his job, in one store in the city i reported a manager for being offensive, he was sacked, the store lost trade, it wasnt the companies fault that one staff member was an arsehole, so if this guy wanted to act that way he should be treated the same.

I would've probably just reported the cashier, but your intervention was more useful (and kinder) to the kid who just wanted his stamps.

I would've done the same thing except told him the truth that the cashier lied to him. And no, I've never been in a situation... At least on the side which you are on. (As someone with Autism myself, I might've been on that boy's side a few times when I was younger).

Oh and this. After getting the stamps for the boy, I would've went all the back just to report the guy to the management... Unless he was the manager of the place. Sometimes this can happen... Happened to me once before at a mexican restaurant where this waiter was extremely rude to us, so we wanted to report him to the manager... Ended being he was the manager. We decided to never go to that place again and we didn't even decided to eat the food they did made for us (incorrectly from what we said), nor pay for it obviously.

So much discriminations. So many feelings hurt. Better start legislating!

It's pretty easy to bluster about how we would confront a store clerk from the comfort of a computer chair. But in reality I think most of us would have done exactly what funnybunny did. I'll go even further: I think most of us, if faced with this situation in real life, would have done nothing at all. We would have gone home feeling very bad about the situation. We would obsess for weeks or months over how we failed to act. And then we would need to write about it to exorcise our feelings of guilt.

What an [censored], I hate people who discriminate. Not selling him stamps just because he was disabled wow...

I'm glad to say I've never witnessed anything like that before, that I can think of.

Wow, I've never experienced that, I have experienced people giving bad service in stores, but not in a discriminating way.

In fact I've mainly seen people being nice to the disabled.

That's just sad, glad you gave him some stamps though, I would have told the kid the truth and maybe tried contacting the manager of the store or something. Jerks like that should get fired.

I wouldn't have bought the stamps (I'm not a charitable man at the best of times, and it would have galled me to give the shop extra custom) but would instead have ensured that the cashier had no job before I'd left that store. I would have more likely give outside and asked the disabled person to come back in, so that the father could discuss compensation with the manager. I don't let people get away with that crap. It was nice of you to buy the stamps, though.