Generally-speaking, the checkout woman’s response may potentially be suggesting a miserable, unhappy lifestyle, hence the reason for the conspicuous staring; in other words, her glaringly blasé disposition expresses her true discontentment with the job. As one can never be sure about another’s inner emotions, yet another reasoning, concerning why the employee was staring into space, entails the fact that society “looks down” on maids. Being the cashier of a grocery store, the woman probably inferred that Barbara is a “wage slave”, as made discernible by her frantic shopping spree with a voucher in-hand. Evidence from the text that illustrates the situation is shown when the author states, “Even convenience store clerks, who are $6-an- hour