Unprofessional Terms of Endearment

The only people who should be using terms of endearment directed at me are my family and my mate. I do give some leeway to fat southern women, they seem to not be able to help themselves, and I've gotten use to 'how you doing dear' from obese waitress in diners and retail shops.

But I do Not like being assaulted by it at Costco. I hate trips to Costco already, the lines are long, no one knows how to control those huge carts (wide turns, stopping in the middle of the isle, walking slower than a dying elephant, inability to look both ways before turning into the center isle) and it makes me feel distinctly agoraphobic (which is fitting because agora in Greek means market).

To make it all the more unpleasant, I was in the checkout line and had to deal with being called all manner of endearing terms by a very big black male clerk. Not a fat older woman. And he wasn't using it in a 'what would you like to order, dear' manner. He used a term in every sentence, and his tone was the same as you'd use to pick up on a drunk woman in a bar.

It gave me shivers to be called Love, Dear, Darling and Sweetheart numerous times in the 3 minutes it took to buy my crap. I was This Close to reporting him to management just to get the icky skin-crawly feeling to go away. It crossed my mind to loudly ask, 'Have we fucked? Cause if we haven't, you'd better knock off the bedroom talk." Or maybe I should have just called him Sugartits and been done with it.