I work at a popular dollar store chain in small-town Texas. We have an old computer system that occasionally needs to be reset due to its glitching. We’ve had a problem with some coupons that wouldn’t ring up properly, which has caused a small bit of a line to pile up at my register, the only open register at the moment. Most of the customers have been super understanding and kind — they usually are — but this one particular person isn’t the most friendly. That’s okay. I can deal with grumpy or impatient; I’m almost always in a good mood and happy to help out. It may sound surprising, but I really love my job and my customers.

This grumpy lady sets down five of those candy packages with five pieces of brand chocolate inside a rectangular cardboard strip on the counter. We have a sale of five for $5.00 for candy of the same brand. This is where things immediately get rocky.

I begin scanning, and as I am telling the customer before her to have a nice day, this lady cuts me off.

Customer: “I need you to total those candies to see if you will actually apply this coupon.”

Me: *Smiling* “Of course. We can absolutely check that for you.”

I total the candies, and the discount doesn’t apply.

Me: “Oh, I’m sorry, ma’am. It didn’t apply.”

The lady gets huffy and rolls her eyes.

Customer: “Yeah, y’all did this to me last time! You’re shorting me of my discount.”

I check the packages to see if they should work with the discount, and I notice immediately that they aren’t all made by the same brand/company.

Customer: *Loudly* “They’re made by Hershey chocolate! I already checked!”

I don’t wish to argue with her, and I think that maybe our system made an error again.

Me: “All righty, ma’am. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I’ll go check with my associate to see if we can figure out the issue.”

Customer: “Yeah, okay.”

I walk behind a shelf to find my coworker. Meanwhile, the grumpy lady crosses her arms and begins talking to the nice man behind her, who has a full cart and has been waiting patiently. I hear her loudly ranting to the man.

Customer: “This is why I don’t come here. They are slow, and they’re always on their phones!”

I don’t know what she means; we tend to keep off phones unless in the break room. I come back after telling my coworker, an absolute saint of a woman, that I need her assistance.

Me: “All righty! She’s on her way.”

I smile at the man and the grumpy lady.

Me: “We can go ahead and scan the rest of your items, ma’am, while we wait for her.”

I begin scanning the items. Before I get to one of the last bags of candy, the lady stops me.

Customer: “Don’t scan that one.”

Me: *Caught off-guard* “What?”

Customer: “Don’t scan that one. It’s a dollar difference, which is what you owe me for that candy. That way, you won’t be shorting me.”

Me: *Hesitating* “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but I can’t legally do that.”

She scoffs, and I try to explain.

Me: “We can scan all these items, and at the end, when my coworker gets here, we can figure out if it’s the system and see if we can’t fix the discount for you—”

Customer: *Cutting me off* “Okay, do what you need to do.”

I force a smile and finish the item.

Customer: *To the nice man behind her* “This is too much trouble.”

The nice man responds with something with humor to lighten the situation.

Customer: “This is why I’ve stopped coming here! She is taking forever because she is back there playing on her phone!”

She is referring to my coworker who has been on break, inside our break room, eating and scrolling on her phone.

I speak before I can think.

Me: “She’s actually on her break.”

To my surprise, this makes the grumpy lady stop talking, and then my coworker arrives to save the day. Thank God!

She puts her key in the system and asks what the problem is.

Me: “The candy—”

Customer: *Cutting me off again* “This is five for five. And it’s not giving me my discount. Y’all owe me a dollar discount!”

Coworker: “Let’s see… We can do this.”

My coworker does some magic with the system and sets it right to get this lady her precious discount.

Me: “All righty! There we go!”

I total her items again.

Customer: “Finally!” *Pays* “Thanks.”

She storms off quickly with her items.

Me: “You’re welcome.” *To the next customer* “Sorry for the wait, sir.”

Nice Man: “Aw, it’s okay.”

He chuckled and cracked a few jokes, relieving me of my stress.

IT TURNS OUT that the lady was wrong about the discount, and I had been right to check the candy because it was, in fact, not applicable to the discount. We went to check because it was strange even for the system to mess up like that. My coworker just added a discount to defuse the situation from getting any worse than it already was.

I work in a dollar store in the poorest county in Virginia. Most of my customers are pleasant and understanding that out of the five people who work at the store, only two have been employed at the store for longer than eight months. Even the store manager has been there only five months.

We have been working extremely hard to get the store corrected after severe neglect from the last three store managers. Between updating the store schematics and the holidays, lots of things get moved around in the store. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell where we’ve moved things to. Again, most customers understand this, but sometimes, we get customers who seem to be having bad days.

Customer: “Where do you keep your takeout trays?”

Manager: “Takeout trays? Do you mean the foam trays with lids?”

Customer: *With anger and snapping* “Takeout trays. That’s what they’re called.”

Manager: “We should have some, yes.”

Me: “I can go look for you. I’m headed in that direction anyway.”

The customer follows me and begins to tell me that we have always sold them, and she looked for them.

Me: “We don’t sell them often, but if we have them, they would have come in the truck yesterday. I’m not sure exactly where they’ll be, but we’ll find them. No worries.”

Customer: “Well, you and she must be new because you don’t know what you’re doing. I want takeout trays. You should know your store. You two must be new. I’ll just go to the other store and get them.”

She then walked off, literally less than ten feet from the foam takeout trays she was after. I thought briefly about grabbing a package and catching up with her before she finished checking out, but she had been rude to both my pregnant manager and me without cause. 

I saw no reason to go out of my way to catch up with her after she had been confrontational from the start. For many of my customers, I will do everything I can to find what they need or offer alternatives for things we don’t have. I will even put in my phone number for the coupons we offer through our app so they can save a bit of money. But I won’t even try if you’re going to be rude, especially over a $2.10 item.

I worked at a dollar store for about three years. They didn’t have anything that cost more than $1. I was working the register one night on a closing shift. My store only ran three people during closing shifts: one cashier, one manager, and one person on recovery. The manager and the recovery person were on break, leaving me as the only person on the sales floor.

As I was ringing up one customer, a man in a wheelchair entered the building. From my register, I gave him the standard halfhearted, “Welcome to [Store],” I’m required to give to every customer who walks in. It was at this moment that the man in the wheelchair yelled out of what I now guess was excitement, as loud as he could.

Customer: “Do you guys sell condoms?!”

Taken aback by the sudden outburst, I simply replied:

Me: “No, I’m sorry.”

The man left seemingly to do his other shopping. The customer I was ringing up commented:

Customer #2: “People really should be willing to pay more than $1 for condoms!”

I shared a laugh with him and he left.

At this point, my coworkers were returning from their breaks and clocking in on the spare register behind me. I told them of the excitement and we agreed with the other customer; condoms are the one thing you shouldn’t cheap out on. The three of us talked for a few moments, but the mood took a sudden shift when the wheelchair man came to my register and started putting his items on the belt. You could hear a pin drop when we saw what his items were.

A pack of rubber dish gloves, a container of Vaseline, and some rubber bands.

No one said anything. The man paid for his items and left.

Behind me, my manager said:

Manager: “Is he doing what I think he’s doing?”

The three of us all but hit the ground laughing, and all I could say was:

Me: “At least he’s being safe?”

I’m shopping at a big box retail store where employees wear red shirts and jeans or khaki pants. I can’t find an item on my list, so I approach a man who appears to be in his early or mid-twenties and is wearing a red shirt and khaki pants.

Me: “Excuse me, sir, are you an employee?”

Man: *With a smirk* “Nope. I’m not.”

Me: “Oh, my bad. I saw the red shirt and khakis and figured I would ask. Have a nice day.”

Man: *Still smirking* “Yeah, that’s what you get for assuming things like an idiot. You know what they say about assuming.”

Me: *Not able to help myself* “Yep. You and me both. You’re the one dressed exactly like a [Store] employee. Don’t be surprised if I’m not the only one who asks you for help.”

Man: “If customers like you had half a brain, I could do my shopping in peace. Just because someone wears the same style of clothes…”

Before things go any further, an actual employee rounds the corner into the aisle we’re in.

Employee: “[MAN]! GET OUT NOW OR WE’LL CALL THE POLICE AGAIN!”

The man, still smirking, scampers off, and the employee turns to me.

Employee: “Sir, I am so sorry about. That guy likes to impersonate employees and then make fun of people who fall for it. We’ve banned him from the store, but unfortunately, we never have enough employees to keep an eye on the door, so he keeps sneaking in.”

Me: “Wow. Wonder what’s up with his head if that’s his idea of fun.”

Employee: “Tell me about it. Anyway, is there anything you need help with?”

The actual employee was very helpful, and I never did see the impersonator again.

I work at an everything-costs-a-dollar store, and we sell wrapping paper. The tubes look normal-sized, but since they are only a dollar, there are only four to five feet of paper on it. A woman storms into our store holding a tube with just scraps of wrapping paper clinging to it and comes straight to my register.

Customer: “You ripped me off! You tricked me into thinking this was a whole roll of wrapping paper! I want my f****** money back from you bunch of f****** liars!”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but we only offer exchanges, not refunds, and I cannot exchange an opened, used, seasonal product. I believe the paper’s dimensions were also listed on the original packaging, so you were not lied to.”

Customer: “This is bulls***! You lied and ripped me off and you won’t f****** fix it!”

WHACK!

Through this exchange, she had been getting louder and gesturing broadly with the empty wrapping paper tube. Stunned, it took me a moment to realize she had just hit me over the head with it. That’s right — she smacked me with a cardboard tube for following store policy.

I just stared at her in shock as I reached for the phone to page my manager. Meanwhile, I saw the realization of what just had happened cross her face. She turned bright red and dashed out of the store, never to be seen again. I informed my manager I was taking an extra break and walked off to consider all the decisions that led me to this station in life.