I'm white. I have blue eyes. And when I was young, my hair was red. I was working retail, and this old lady said "Merry Christmas."
Me: "Happy Holidays!"
Her: "It's Merry Christmas. I know your boss doesn't like it, but you should say it to me. So Merry Christmas."
Me: "Are you Christian?"
Her: "Yes."
Me: "Well, I'm not. So Happy Holidays."
She got so stunned, like I'd slapped her. I was quite ready to get called in for being some kind of way with a customer but I guess she was too afraid of dealing with a heathen. Still, if you've ever worked retail, you'd know why this felt like a victory.
There's like 10 Christmas songs. All of them have hundreds of different versions. Doesn't matter if your not hearing the exact same song. Your hearing the same songs on repeat. My last retail job the muzak box was accessible to everyone in the office so as soon as I would get there I would change the channel.
I worked in a video arcade in the 90s and we had a 1-hour VHS tape on repeat showing on TVs all over the arcade featuring recent music videos, cartoons, etc. That Christmas, 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' came out and it was on that tape. I heard that song every day of December, 8 times a day, 40 times a week, 160 times that month in total.
I hate that song so much more than everyone else does.
Yeah, I don't think "mentally ill people" only exist in specific places or that specific areas are "full" of them. I mean, I know for sure at least one deranged person lives in your area.
Also I highly doubt you truly worked in retail if you never experienced a customer like this. If you did, you must have been lucky and in an extremely high end store.
People are the same everywhere in the world, no better or worse than anywhere else. Which is kinda great IMO.