Publix
 

Steban how do you know that lady eating the cherries and throwing the pits was from The Villages? All Supermarkets are not in The Villages so that does not mean that woman was from The Villages and you ask what is wrong with The Villages???? Poor choice of words.

Now there's 30 minutes of my life I wouldn't get back

I've worked in hospitals for decades. Part of our ANNUAL training is dealing with patients and coworkers when they aren't having a good day. We're all trained to deal with psych patients, druggies, drunks, rude, etc. For the most part it's about being calm (words, gestures, distance), using words to deescalate, offering solutions, sometimes a coffee, anything to get the patient to communicate more calmly. Yes, when things go or look to go violent, security steps in, but rude people are just part of doing business. No, people shouldn't behave that way, but they or a family member are ill, probably been waiting a long time already, sometimes they haven't been given updates on what is happening or when something will happen. If you're in an ER, it's a high stress environment for everyone. Heathcare workers know this and should be able to handle it.

Heh. Sometimes sin is its own punishment.

We NEVER eat produce purchased from retailers until we wash it at home, and wash it thoroughly. My wife first soaks the produce (grapes and cherries are some of the worst offenders here) in a baking soda and water bath for a minimum of 20 minutes, then drains the water. The water, which is crystal-clear when the produce is put in, becomes varying shades of charcoal-grey when she pours it off. She repeats the process at least once (twice, for the more egregious offenders) before she rinses and spin-dries the fruit and stores it away. Same thing with leafy produce (romaine lettuce, fresh cilantro and parsley, spinach, etc.). The stuff picked and packaged overseas gets the most attention, but ALL of it discolors the water at least to some extent.

Who really knows just what is on that stuff that so discolors the water? But Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria are all spread from fresh (usually unwashed) produce. No, thank you. But if these pilferers insist on doing what they do, they may end up paying a much higher price than the one that they'd have paid at the checkout line.

Looking around at the peoples of our planet, it's not lack of humanity.
The U.S. had a "traditional", inherited set of manners, values and customs. These behaviors, and our culture, more than anything else is, what I believe
have made our country an immigration destination.
Today, citizens and immigrants alike are defying assimilating to those very things that made us the strongest, most generous, most tolerant, and most honorable Nation on our planet (my opinion). It also made us a reliable ally and a world leader - we no longer have that distinction either.
Our society is sick and ailing as reflected in our Citizen's attitudes and behaviors.

I think you will find that social media was the start of the end

Great answer

Why just the Villagers? Did you ask where they were from? This kind of behavior has happened all over for a long time.

Aldi shoppers do seem very friendly.

Maybe. But even though I'm convinced that these types of behaviors (verbal and physical abuse of caregiver support staff, pilfering fruit, etc.,) are very much the exception here in TV, they DO occur, and probably at rates above that of the population as a whole.

One reason that geezers are more prone to this type of thing is that "as we age, we become more like ourselves". This is not as opaque as it seems: age and declining mental abilities progressively rob us of safeguards we consciously or unconsciously employ to keep our behaviors within acceptable bounds. You see it a lot in nursing homes: encounters among residents turning violent, sexual acting-out on the part of folks who would never dream of doing it (though they conceivably THOUGHT of doing it) when a part of the normal everyday world before age started robbing them of the abilities to keep their more negative impulses under control. Here in TV it may manifest by yelling and cursing at front-desk staff over a scheduling mistake or a prescription not being transmitted, when in years past it may have just been met with a tight smile and a subsequent complaint made to the supervisors of the staff person after we've calmed down.

Second reason (and let's be honest) is that the work ethic here is just not up to the standard that it was where many of us came from. Much of that is due to the pursuit of the almighty dollar: we see it most often when calls to "Customer Service" route to BFE where English-as-a-second language folks handle our complaints with varying degrees of ineptitude, but it manifests here a many times in "techs" doing the jobs that are more appropriately done by licensed caregiver staff, and often with inevitably spotty results, or gatekeepers (AKA the person behind the sliding glass window) who are poorly-paid and even more poorly trained, with consequently more screw-ups.

So--more frustrating incidents happening to folks who are progressively less able to handle frustration, and the results are inevitable.

I bet you wouldn’t physically or verbally abuse the staff at a dental office, not twice anyhow!

Grocery stores are not exclusive for villager residents- folks from all over shop there too. It is not just behavior from villagers. Why is anyone tasting any cherries or grapes? I haven't seen that happen to fruits packed in plastic containers, like strawberries and blueberries. Luckily I haven't seen people sample a bite of a peach or apple. Oh, that's right - they aren't bite size... so visually inspect your produce, and if something is wrong with it, return it or take a photo and bring those and your receipt back to the store on your next visit. I've never had a store refuse to refund a product with an issue. I'd like to pop a bite size sample of chips and crackers to see if I like them, but it comes down to packaging and sealing. Until that happens, there will always be gross fruit samplers, entitled and stealing here and there, and it happens in every town and state, not just the Villages.

Wrong reply......if you have a problem with the hospital or any other place, don't frequent the location or give it your business. Physical and verbal abuse is unacceptable in any situation, especially with citizens over 65.

Webpage just for your neighborhood?
 

I am a website designer and i'd love to see what you have. Maybe set one up for my own new neighborhood.

WHAT?! No physical and verbal abuse?! That takes all the fun out of things. 😂

such vermin

You evidently didn't read all of the comments. I did not do the abusing, I was on the receiving end of it, the abuser was the emergency room nurse at the check-in station. Your "QUOTE" is borderline verbal abuse.

I didn't abuse anyone, I was the one abused at the Villages Hospital. It helps if you read all of the replies.

Where can I find the Villages-specific WhatsApp ?

ny, nj, ill

As to "threats and swearing", it may be on the increase. Yesterday at my swimming pool, a loud argument broke out from 2 sixty-year old men and it came very close to getting physical - fortunately they cooled themselves down.
........I have noticed more vehicles of all kinds speeding and NOT bothering to stop at stop signs. I recently read that speeding and distracted and bad driving is going on nationwide - apparently more than usual. I don't know what years in the past they compared today's bad driving to - or how they measure that and come to their conclusion. I am guessing but I think that during and after the Covid years that aggressive driving increased. Now I can't prove it, but I write about it to ask if others share that conclusion or they have another conclusion as to IF driving attitudes have deteriorated or NOT ?

Test grape
 

In the store, a woman ate a few cherries. Spit the pits in her hand. Put the pits back in the bag of cherries and walked away. I brought this to the attention of the front desk so they could find this nasty bad of cherries and throw them away. Nothing was done.

What is wrong with the Villagers?[/QUOTE]

No one makes a big deal out of eating a “test grape”. But after a test bite from a rotisserie chicken it’s all “Sir, you need to leave the store now.” 🫢🤔

Just sayin’.

I don't patronize Aldi's on a regular basis but I have gone twice. I knew about the quarter for a cart so when I got out of my car, I had a quarter in my hand. Both times I gave the quarter to a person in the lot who just finished unloading their cart. Worked well those two times for me.

I graciously accept the opportunity to move ahead in line when I have one or two items to pay for.

As for tasting the grapes..........YOU GOTTA taste the grapes before purchasing the bag. There are some really sour grapes out there. And..........there are some really sweet grapes out there. Betcha bottom dollar I'm going for the sweet ones. I'm with you.........I don't pay for those grapes I sampled.

Wrong about what?

You CANNOT be serious!

I just rinse grapes with the sprayer on the kitchen faucet. So far, so good. Keeps our immune system in good working order I guess.

I don't consider sampling a couple of grapes "stealing", especially in full view of cameras that are all over the place. I will agree to disagree with you on that.

You are assuming the bad behavior is all Villagers. Publix and the hospital are frequented by many people who are not Villagers. Just saying.

I agree. I often would shop at a store that sold bulk candy. I would sample one, only one mind you, from each of the bulk dispensers, to see what was best. Then I would buy 8 oz of the "good n plenty". 😉

Grumpy
 

. I feel like older folks have worked their whole lives being kind & bending over backwards to make the businesses run & keep customers/patients happy & keep their jobs. They’re finally telling it like it is.

I am wondering if SOAKING grapes and lettuce for 20 plus minutes might not SOAK the vitamins and taste out of them. People peel potato skins and throw them away, but that is where most of the vitamins are located.

There are no doctors offices in The Villages Hospital. Next door in The Sharon Morse building I've seen those signs at a particular doctor's office (there are several different doc offices). The Villages Hospital is separate from The Sharon Morse Building and different ownership.

this is why.....
 

Well, to start, people watch people eat cherries, watch them put the pits in the bag and return it to the shelf... but instead of going and getting the bag and taking it to the service desk they just complain and expect someone else to search for a bag they saw put back on the shelf... or when they see someone eating grapes in a store and it bothers them... they don't ask the person if they are going to pay for the grapes and embarrass the crap out of them... they complain and expect someone else to do something. That is what has changed. People now complain when someone else doesn't address the problems they see.

If you want change, be the change. If it bothers you do or say something at the time. If you see it and choose to say nothing you are part of the problem.... a big part of the problem.

Wow, the mental gymnastics some go through in an attempt to justify theft is really something.

No excuse!
 

There is no excuse for verbal or physical abuse anywhere!

Unfortunately, most, if not all, ERs are overcrowded bc people have chosen not to either sign up or pay for insurance. Thus, there showing up at ERs for frivolous ailments. QUOTE=vintageogauge;2294692]I can understand physical and verbal abuse at The Villages Hospital, what a worthless emergency department. Thank God there are other choices now for emergency aid.[/QUOTE]

What I wonder is why the OP didn't take the bag up to Customer Service instead of leaving it there for some poor innocent shopper to buy.