My Annoyance is Half-Full

There are two ways to view the following interaction:
1) I am feeling better enough to start being annoyed again at stupidity.  AND
2) Unfortunately, brain tumor plus radiation plus chemo didn't fundamentally change the way I interact with the world, making me a better person.  Maybe a little, but judge for yourself:

I generally avoid the sad little local H-E-B that is really close to my house.  To be clear, I love H-E-B, do most of my shopping there, and my most meaningful teenage job was at H-E-B #4 on Far West.  H-E-B is a great local company, and is very philanthropic (something that matters a lot to me). 

Certainly, it has joined the two annoying trends of simultaneously being both more full-service and no service.  The stores built a bunch of infrastructure to cater to people who don't want to shop, but don't mind driving to the store.  That seems half-lazy to me.  If you are going to put on clothes, get in the car, and drive to the store, pick your own damn bananas.  But live and let live, except that this specific trend required the re-purposing of most of the best parking spaces.  It's annoying, or would be if I actually heeded the signs.  I'll never park in handicapped spaces, and I am fine honoring "Parents with Children", "Expectant Mothers", "Having a Crappy Day" spaces, and the like.  But if you are going to set aside the best parking spaces for "half lazy shoppers", I don't feel any obligation to honor that.  Sorry if that means that I will occasionally get someone's groceries because I'm parked in spot A-205.  Well, not actually sorry.  My suggestion - go full-lazy and get the groceries delivered, or get out of your car and pick your own damn bananas.

I am a person who will always want to do my own shopping.  But, that doesn't mean I'm all in for the other trend of full-on DIY grocery shopping.  H-E-B has also upgraded the self-checking infrastructure.  So, either they shop for you, or you have to do everything yourself.  Weigh and price your own produce, re-stock the shelves, check yourself out, and at the store I frequent on Jollyville, there is now an expectation that you collect and bring in at least ten carts from the parking lot on each visit. 

But I still love H-E-B!  Except the pitiful one near my house.  It's the size of  large 7-11.  It's been many different stores over the years, all of them pitiful.  I think the last iteration was a Piggly Wiggly, or maybe a Skaggs.  It's the kinda store that they know not to ask "did you find everything you were looking for?"  Because no, people never find everything they are looking for there.  If that was the priority, they would be shopping elsewhere.  But sometimes you run out of olive oil, or need bananas.  And it is very convenient.

It's pitifulness may have caused the store to need to seek additional revenue sources.  That is the most generous explanation I have for the fact that for the past several months, every time I come into that store, I am accosted by a young man in a suit trying to sell me internet services.

"Excuse me!"
"Sorry, did I run my cart over your foot?"
"Excuse me sir, but are you in the market for internet services?
"No, I am in the market for groceries.  Like literally, in this market to  buy groceries."
"Can I ask you a question?"
"You mean a second question?"
"Who is your internet service provider?"
"Let me answer that with a question of my own.  Do you know if they have ginger?  The real store I shop at was out."
"Can I tell you about the specials we have going on at Spectrum?"
"That's three questions.  And seriously?  I need ginger, and you want to sell me re-branded Time Warner?  Which is still just terrible Time Warner, with a new name."

And this happens every time I shop there.  If you know me well enough, you know that I mean that literally this interaction, often word-for-word, happens.

I finally complained to management, and told whoever it was (some person in a red shirt I ran into - it's possible they didn't even work there), that this sales table further degrades my already bad shopping experience.  And that I may have to change my last-minute, or can't-find-that-one-thing shopping, to the Randall's.  Even if I have to pay six times as much.  Which I will have to at Randall's.

I related this interaction to Jill, who felt I was justified in providing feedback to the guy in the red shirt (even if he worked at Target), but that I should leave the poor salesdude alone. 

I see her point, and wish (on some level) that I came through this whole experience with more patience for annoying people trying to sell me things when I am just trying to live my life, and buy ginger.  But also happy (on some other level, perhaps a darker level), that chemo and radiation did not change the essence of Russell.  Which is the ability to be unreasonably annoyed at certain instances of mundane human interaction.

Feeling better these days!