Unfiltered Story #115154

(I’m working the self-checkouts at closing time. At the grocery store where I work, we start closing them one and a half to two hours before closing time, which is 11PM, though the self-checkouts are always all closed by 10:30PM, and do them one at a time while customers are still using the open ones. At 10:20ish, a customer with a medium-sized order comes through, and for a moment I worry that she’s going to take too long and throw me behind, but she scans at a steady pace and doesn’t need my help at all. I take the cash from the last machine I closed, put it in the office– about a forty second long trip– and return to a find a line of two customers now. The next customer in line yells to me as I approach.)

Customer #2: “Can you open another one of these!”

Me: “No sir, I can’t.” (I walk over to my last open machine and flick off its light, grab a closed sign and hand it to the last customer in my line, requesting they show it to anyone who tries to line up behind them, and then begin wiping down one of the closed machines with cleaner.)

Customer #2: (very condescendingly) “I don’t understand why you can’t just open another one.”

Me: (glances up) “Sir, all my machines except the open one have been emptied of money and had their payment reports have been printed and processed. At this point, there’s nothing I can do.”

Customer #2: (grumbled indignantly) “Well, she” (he points to the customer ahead of him in line) “didn’t have to come through here. She’s got a big order. She should’ve gone through the cashier!”

Me: (gapes)

Customer #1: (who has about five items left to scan in at this point) And I happen to prefer checking myself out. How about you go through the cashier if you can’t wait two minutes in line over here?

(He waited quietly after that.)