Unfiltered Story #103648

A little bit of background: I work at a coffee shop where the customer receipts and the food order ticket both print out right next to the register. The cashier is then supposed to take the order ticket and give it to the worker at the food station. Without this ticket, we don’t know what food to make.

One morning we are SLAMMED! I clock in and am immediately put on register. My store manager is working on food right behind me. She hands me two croissants to hand out.

Me: “Two croissants to go!”
(Customer approaches and I go to hand them over)
Customer: “I’d like those in a bag with the rest of my order.”
Me: “Ok, not a problem. What else did you order?”
(Customer mumbles something about a bagel and walks away. For the next 15 minutes my manager and I are trying to figure out what else he ordered. This is hard to do since I don’t have enough time between ringing out customers to look at the previous sales on the register. Finally the customer and his wife come back up.)
Customer: “Where’s my food?! We’ve been waiting a long time!”
Me: “Yes, sorry about that. We’re just having some trouble figuring out what else you ordered. What did you get?”
Customer: *mumbling while looking at his wife* “We got two bagels.”
Customer’s Wife: *also mumbling* “And an avocado toast.”
(At this point both my manager and I are exchanging looks as we don’t have any orders matching that description. Finally I decide to just ask for the name.)
Me: “What was the name?”
Customer: “It’s [customer’s name]!”
(He proceeds to pull the order ticket OUT OF HIS POCKET to show me. I’m dumbfounded at the point trying to figure out how best to explain the situation without letting the customer know that he was a complete idiot for taking that in the first place.)
Me: “Sir where did you get that?”
Customer: “From there!” *points at the printer next to the register, meaning our cashier did not mistakenly hand it to him. He had reached past our cashier while she was distracted and taken it.*
Me: “Well, the reason we haven’t made your food yet is because you’ve taken the order ticket. Without that we don’t know what to make.”
(Customer proceeds to stare at me as if he doesn’t quite understand. I try to explain it again before he cuts me off.)
Customer: “Ugh, alright! Here!
(I give the order ticket to my manager, who then makes it as quickly as she can before throwing everything in a bag and handing it off. Once they leave we just shake our heads in disbelief. This guy was a regular so there was no excuse for him not knowing how our system works! Needless to say we spent the rest of the day telling our coworkers and laughing at him.)