I was picking up a prescription at CVS for my daughter yesterday, and ended up waiting an hour for it. (Not a knock against CVS, just a combination of frustrating issues.) There was a bit of a crowd in the area, ranging from 6-10 at any particular time.
During that hour, a 35-ish-year-old guy came into the pharmacy area, speaking very loudly. He said he was picking up a prescription for his wife or someone, but he didn't know what it was for. They didn't have anything, but started looking into it.
He became more irritated, randomly left the area in the middle of complaining, then returned a few minutes later, having found another senior pharmacy employee he knew by name. She explained that the lady who was helping him would continue trying to figure out what he needed to pick up. He kept randomly yelling to the pharmacist, saying he was the only employee there who does a consistently great job. (At least that was... a compliment?)
Over maybe 45 minutes, the guy kept asking where various department employees were, then leaving the area to locate them. Interestingly, he knew them all by name, but when they appeared, it was obvious they didn't know him.
He got into it at one point with the pharmacy tech, saying that he had a covid test at the store, but never received the results. They couldn't find anything that indicated he had had a test there of course.
Eventually, he went to the adjoining Minute Clinic area and banged on one of the two exam room doors, then the other. A nurse came out and he asked her where a particular employee was. She said he was around the corner in another office. He banged on that door and the employee came out. They spoke and the guy yelled, "Your store policy is bullshit!" and stormed off.
The Minute Clinic staff watched him walk towards the front doors. Then the guy turned around and came back. There was some discussion and he turned to leave once more. The employee said, "Have a nice day, sir." The guy replied in a snarly voice, "Make me."
After the guy disappeared up front, the nurse asked if the other Minute Clinic employee knew this guy. He said, "No, he's just a customer."
A few minutes later, I was leaving and an ambulance was picking him up. My assumption, anyway. Either that, or they randomly had a medical emergency by the checkout at the same time this guy was ranting all over the place.
All this time, I'm thinking I should get the heck out of here. Right? I mean, these days your mind goes to the thought that oddly angry folks might have some sort of weapon. I thought any minute I would be able to grab Lauren's script and leave. The longer it dragged, the more I thought I should go out and drive around to the drive-through to pick it up. I mostly didn't want to run into this guy one-on-one in the store as he milled around, or out in the parking lot.
This sort of thing happened around me once before. I didn't leave then either. I was at my oncologist's office, at a very large cancer center, in a huge waiting room with a bank of receptionists. A very agitated patient entered, yelling that he needed to see his doctor immediately. The receptionists tried to calm him down, but he was very belligerent. Other employees soon emerged after hearing the yelling, and eventually he said he had lost control of his bowels and bladder in the elevator, and he didn't know what was happening. They explained that this can be part of the disease process, talked him down, and removed him to an exam room. My heart went out to him, but it was definitely frightening for a bit there.
That whole time, I was eyeing the exit door to the parking garage beside me. In the end, we all just sat there and watched the drama go down. I guess we are processing the weirdness of the situation, and maybe feeling like a spectator, but in this climate, I think we should all slide out the nearest exit.
Exit! It's not worth even a minimal risk, or quite frankly, the trauma. That's my PSA for today!
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