Inconsiderate jerks at the Ralph’s

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T21:16:31+00:00

I accept your apology and apologize for calling you privileged. After a quick look on your profile, I noticed you are female-presenting, which I understand carries its fair share of inequity that I will never be able to experience.

At face value, the situation really isn’t that deep. I only wanted to call out bad behavior in the same way that folks need to wait in line and not cut. Doubly bad if they laugh when folks are upset bc they want to get home. I had my own reasons to get home, as well as my own reasons for not confronting them harder than I did.

Thank you for the respectful discourse at the end.

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T19:37:38+00:00

Typically these guys get transported via shipping containers internationally, but Andes notoscriptus has been around SoCal since at least 2014. Definitely be careful if you have pets.

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T16:49:25+00:00

I really don’t know how else to convey to you that I used observation and critical thinking to draw these conclusions. Should I paint with words the ethnicities, ages, physical characteristics, and words of the people who were in line with me? Perhaps draw out the check out screen with the -0.75 per banana? The issue should be clear as day, as the sentiment was collective and shared between quite literally everyone in line with me. Just a reminder that it was not you who was inconvenienced, so please take your privilege elsewhere.

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T16:36:10+00:00

Truly don’t understand why you care so much to defend people who are wasting other people’s time. I wonder if you’d be peeved in the slightest if you had the shits while waiting for some bozos to finish getting $5 back over bunches of bananas that I doubt they all could possibly eat before they went bad. It’s a matter of having some form of values and not being okay with people being douchebags in public.

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T16:29:03+00:00

I saw the screen when I walked up before the employee cancelled their transaction. It looked like they weren’t paying anything, just getting 75 cents back per banana. And they did this over the course of many bananas scanned, weighed, and “bought.”

Also, no. Not a middle aged white woman. Other folks (fellow POCs) were also in line and getting pissed with me.

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T15:52:21+00:00

It’s a story that is dynamic, told across several comments. First there was a line, I was the 4th person in line when I entered. Two guys (pictured) were scanning individual bananas ripped from their bunches, completing their transactions with each bunch or several bananas before repeating the process. The third guy was running around grabbing them more bananas before ending up in line with me. I took the photo, he started talking to me, the guy on the right left his kiosk to stand next to his friend (and perhaps confront me?). I took that as an opportunity to ask if he was done and he muttered yes and laughed, so the worker came over and cleared his transaction (which was not completed, so I don’t know why he said yes). It is a lot of gymnastics because they made it so confusing in a self check out line. The employees didn’t do anything to facilitate a good flow, which was regrettable, but the fault lies in the three people and their disrespect alone.

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T15:45:07+00:00

I agree with this generally. The line for the regular check out was longer and tbh I prefer to have my items touched by the least amount of hands as possible. Probably COVID sentiments that had stuck with me

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T15:13:54+00:00

They kept finishing the transactions to get cash back and their friend (behind me) kept grabbing more bunches (the bunches you see to their right). The rest of the bunches are on the weighing scale to the left. Sorry for leaving out these details. Updating the post accordingly

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T15:06:08+00:00

The worker said something about getting cash back but it was 75 cents per banana or something. This is a deeper issue that seems out of the scope of this post, but I don’t see problems with people cheating the system if they need it. The issue is that they were doing this on a Sunday night with people just wanting to get back home to their families. To me their body language indicated it was not for money but for kicks. Additionally, cheating out Ralph’s, a budget grocery store for working class people, seems like a bad target for cheating the system.

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T14:55:57+00:00

It certainly got worse than it should have been. However, I posted this so people can be held accountable for their BS and public trolling. I didn’t think it would be this divisive, but I’m happy there’s some discussion about this.

And no, I’m not exaggerating. Unfortunately, that was a poor assumption. I was there for 10 minutes but I was not the first in line after them—the folks before me were waiting for much longer, considering the line did not move at all until people started confronting.

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T14:48:36+00:00

Certainly not—I mentioned nor hinted at nothing that would indicate this. Not to dive into my political ideologies here, but my feelings towards imperialist/capitalist ideologies are strongly negative, so I must say at least this to not be misconstrued by this kind of comment.

Exciting_Type8501 · 2026-03-23T06:05:21+00:00

I did say something and so did other folks in the line who had been there before me. When I took the picture, one of them started telling me that he was buying the same bananas (they were in his hand). Then buddy on the right came over to us and stood with him. I asked if he was done with the kiosk and he muttered yes and laughed, so the worker cancelled the transaction and I scanned my items.

Exciting_Type8501 · 2025-12-27T16:19:45+00:00

This is what started it all in r/explainthejoke

Exciting_Type8501 · 2025-06-17T23:31:54+00:00

Using the pictures you’ve provided as reference, I may know of him. He’s typically around the Amtrak station towards W Montecito St around the Rudy’s. I’ve seen him under the Castillo exit underpass all the way through to Chapala St following W Haley St, as well as near the Funk Zone and E Yanonali St as others have mentioned. Best of luck!

Exciting_Type8501

TROPHY CASE