I am the master of the universe

I got into an argument (surprise) with another customer today. She came into the store to purchase some hair glue. Now a small bottle of hair glue costs less than 2 dollars, ($1.79 to be exact). Now, if you want an even better deal you can purchase a larger bottle of hair glue (almost 3 times the size) for about $3.99. Let's do the math here. If one bottle is about an ounce and costs roughly 2 dollars with tax but 3 ounces cost a little over 4 dollars with tax this works out to be a better buy. Right? Am I right here? I mean I know I am no Rain Man or anything but I can perform basic multiplication and division. Anyway, I digress.

The issue, this lovely woman had with me was that the last time she bought hair glue she only paid .99 cents for it. Granted, she did not purchase it from my store, which I kindly pointed out but she was right in saying that our price was higher. We had in fact just raised the prices on almost everything in the store ranging from .10 cents to about 2 dollars depending on the item. (The hair glue price was raised .10 cents by the way.) Now when I say "we" raised the prices what I mean is that the corporation that owns the store raised the prices on all the products in the store. Why did this happen? Well a few things come to mind; inflation, the economy, maybe because that's just how business fucking works, sometimes prices go up, sometimes they go down, knowing the reason for our price changes is not in my job description. I just put up the new price tags like I am told and go about my merry way. Other than occasionally (ok always) wondering why higher prices on our products doesn't mean more money for me there really isn't much thought that goes into my laborious task of changing the price tags on all 200,000 products in the store.

Apparently though, this is my problem, a least according to this customer. According to this customer, I all of my own accord woke up that morning and decided that nothing would make me happier than to raise the price on all the items in the store that (and yes this is a direct quote) "black people have to buy."

...

It took me a moment to realize what she was insinuating. Because I guess she really wasn't insinuating anything, she was directly and very clearly accusing me of being so racist that I decided on a random Tuesday to raise prices on "black people" products because I knew they "needed to buy their hair glue therefore they would be forced to purchase it at a higher price."

What do I even say to that?

"Yes ma'am, you are right. Although my plan has clearly backfired because now I am going to have to pay my slaves more so they can afford the glue they need for their weaves."

To be honest I wasn't offended that she was calling me racist. I am becoming immune to that as it happens oh at least five times a day. I wasn't offended that she wanted to yell at me and take out her frustration about her apparent money problems, hey everyone needs to vent sometimes right? What offended me the most is that she assumed that because I am white the increased prices on hair glue don't affect me at all. Who is she to say that just because I am a white girl I don't need to get my hair done too. I really hate being stereotyped like that.