Unfiltered Story #116229

At a Louisiana-themed chicken and seafood joint enjoying some shrimp that’d I’d been craving most of the day

I’m the customer in this story, but I have worked a few different food service places over the last few years, so I know firsthand how aweful some people can be just for the sake of it. This day, I’d been craving shrimp like nobody’s business, so I scrounge together my tip money and buy myself a thing of popcorn shrimp and two biscuits. It’s a sit-in restaurant, so I also take my time, eating my shrimp and reading a book. Not too long after I’ve been given my food, this older lady walks in. She goes up to the counter and begins to place her order. At first, I’m not listening, but as she gets progressively louder and more-foul mouthed, I begin to listen. I listen to this woman for ten or so minutes as she berates the cashier, goes on about how tired she is, how she gave them a ten and isn’t getting her change (pretty sure she was pulling that “I gave you a ten, but actually gave them a five” nonsense), how she’s over fifty, how they’re all a bunch of screw-ups, the whole rude bit. Anyway, after ten minutes, I decide I’ve had enough and how I feel for these cashiers. Now, usually, I avoid confrontation, but the way this lady was treating those cashiers, I really just could not let it stand. So, I step in.*

Me: Excuse me ma’am, you really shouldn’t treat the cashiers like that. They’re doing their best.

Other customer: I expect prompt service and I’m tired from working all day.

Me: Ma’am, I understand, but we’re all tired. That doesn’t excuse cursing them out like that.

Other customer: At my job, if you mess up, you get written up and you get fired. I work at a warehouse and I’m fifty and who the h*** are you coming in here telling me how to act?!? What are you 17? I probably make more money than you!

Me: I’m 21, ma’am. And how much we make isn’t relevant in this. And I’m sure that the cashiers just made a mistake and they’re trying to do their jobs.

*at this point, another guy has just walked in and he almost immediately backs me up (we’re near the door and he can hear us quite plainly)*

Newcomer: Hey, we’re all tired, and I work warehousing too, but she’s right you shouldn’t treat the cashiers like that.

*At this point, the woman is fuming and simply calls me a rude name and slinks off to the soda machines. After a minute or two, she’s out the door and gone completely (she never got her food or anything). After she leaves, the guy who backed me up and I chat up a little and after waiting in line for a few more minutes, I apologize to the cashiers and tell them how they don’t deserve to be treated like that, before leaving.*