As a cashier at a famous fast food chain, one of my light-hearted moments is serving small children who occasionally come inside from a playground across the street from us to place an order. It’s always cute seeing their math skills.

Girl #1: “Happy Meal, please.”

Me: “That will be €3.69, please.”

The girl’s face falls, and she turns around and walks towards the door with her head down.

Me: “Excuse me! Come back! Just give me what you have this time.”

I’ll toss in my own dollar or so at the end of my shift.

Girl #1: “But I only have €5!” *Sadly holding up the bill*

And then there was this little monster.

Girl #2: “Happy Meal, please!”

Me: “That will be €3.69, please.”

She gives me a €2 coin while smiling sweetly.

Me: “I still need €1.69…”

Girl #2: *Smiling sweetly* “My mommy gave it to me!”

Me: “Okay, but you still need more money for a Happy Meal. You need €1.69 more.”

She continues to smile sweetly.

Me: *Giving her an annoyed look* “Sweetheart, this is the third time you’re doing this. Do you realize that when you don’t have enough money, I have to go get my piggy bank and pay the rest for you?”

She nods her head while still smiling.

Me: “But that doesn’t bother you, does it?”

She shakes her head, giggling.

Me: “Little monster…”

I hand over her meal.

Girl #2: “Thank yooouuuu!”

Me: “Please tell your mommy that—”

She happily dashes for the door.

It’s definitely a relief from having to deal with pissy and entitled customers who scream at me for not putting enough napkins in their takeout bag.

I only cover for small innocent children who genuinely don’t understand that they don’t have enough money for their order.

I am a cashier at a seafood carryout.

Customer: “Make sure they lightly fry that fish now. I’m serious, because if they don’t, it can make me really sick!”

Then, he proceeded to show me his rather full ostomy bag.

My sister is working at a fast food restaurant and a customer is acting incredibly rude and nasty. Keep in mind that most of the employees are high school students. My sister then notices that the customer is wearing a shirt for a major local business in the area.

Sister: “Oh, do you work at [Business]?”

Customer: “Yes.”

Sister: “What’s your name? I know people who work there, and I want to see if they know you?”

He surprisingly tells her his name which is when the fun begins.

Sister: “I’ll make sure to tell [Vice President of the company] you said hi.”

Customer: “You know [Vice President]?”

Sister: “She and my mom are really good friends. Her children are like a little brother and sister to me. My mom pretty much raised them from birth. In fact, we’re friends with all of the family!”

The business is literally named after this family.

Sister: “I also graduated with the president’s son, and we used to hang out a lot in high school. I’ll make sure to tell them you stopped in and said hi!”

The customer was now incredibly nervous. He stopped acting like an a** and was quiet while waiting for his food. My sister said she felt the rush of power as he thought he could bully some random fast food worker only to find out she knew all his bosses and had personal sway with them.

I am heading home from work after a hot day, and I decide to grab a cold drink for myself and my four-year-old. I order the two drinks, which come to about seven dollars, and I drive forward to pay. I tap my phone, get the green tick, and move forward.

Worker: “Hi. What did you order?” 

Me: “Oh, just two drinks: a kid’s milkshake and a frappe.”

Worker: “You didn’t pay; you’ll have to go around and pay.”

Me: “No, I did pay.”

Worker: “No, it declined.”

I pull up the payment on my phone and can see that it went through, so I show her. She talks again on her headset to the person taking the payments.

Worker: “I can take your phone and go and pay.”

Me: “How about you go and grab the receipt?”

Worker: “But you didn’t pay.”

Me: “If it declined, there will be a declined receipt.”

Off she goes, and she comes back a minute later.

Worker: “See, this says it declined.”

Me: “That’s for $19. Mine was $7.”

Worker: “Oh. What did you order?”

Me: “Just two drinks: a kid’s milkshake and a frappe.”

Worker: “Oh, sorry about that. Here you go.”

When I was sixteen, I was working at a burger place at the local fair, and I was working a concert night. My booth was right between the beer garden and concert stands, so we had a lot of concertgoers stop and get food. Mind you, Saturday night is normally super busy, but add a huge concert to that… and it’s awful.

We had chicken and fish strip sandwiches that were pretty good. I had this couple that ordered one of each. The fish came out first.

Customer: “Why isn’t my chicken sandwich coming out?”

Me: “The chicken strips are denser, so they take a little longer to cook. It should only be about a minute left now.”

The man started screaming at me.

Customer: “You stupid, lazy b****! I want my sandwich!”

I started getting anxious and tearing up because I was a sixteen-year-old girl. My manager came over, told me to go take a break in the kitchen, and just let this guy have it.

I couldn’t believe this forty-five-year-old man screamed in my face because I told him chicken took longer to cook.