Originally Posted by NadiaUSA
Try to stay calm when you are offended. Ask yourself, " what is to my greatest benift here?".
First, recognize the allure of instant gratification by exchanging barbs.
Secondly, Try to think quickly about all your options. Some of your most profitable options will depend on or be enhanced by holding your tounge.
I would have liked you to calmly asked the employee to elaborate on why he called you a gentleman. He may have dug himself deeper. At the very least, he would have acknowleged he did it by saying, "Oh sorry I thought ..."
At that point you would have a better case to ask about store policy and training.
If your goal is not to be letigious but simply be effective in correcting someone you could just say " That was not very nice.". I know it sounds understated but you will be supprised how well that can work.
Being understated it powerful because you use the principal of fear of the unknown. If you tell people what you are going to do they can calculate thier odds or downside risk. They may infact realize that cost of the sin is too low to give you what you want. Do not let people see all your cards.
In this case you were wrong to insult fat people. Besides, you had him dead to rights on being a mean jerk and a poorly trained employee.
However, as a shopper, don't be to hard on yourself for being on the phone or saying the wrong thing. Costco shares a responsibility to handle such shoppers. They knew before they opened the doors that they would need to handle various buyers without bashing gays or transgenders.
Legaly, I wish you had fished for more ammo to use against them besides one flippant comment from a low level employee.