Unfiltered Story #160168

I’m bagging groceries at my job at a local discount grocery store and this customer (who resembled a wannabe hippy in his mid-fifties, burly with long hair, beard, mustache, and a dirty tye-dye muscle shirt with chest hair protruding) came into my line during a rush. The man put all his stuff on the belt and pushed his cart past me and into the corridor, where one of my coworkers grabbed it and put it away (assuming it wasn’t needed). The guy had about $50 worth of groceries, not a lot but enough that it would be troublesome to carry without a cart.
After I finished bagging, he quickly discovered this.
-Me: “Sir, can I get you another cart?”
(Instead of answering me, the man turned around to the next register over and snatched the adjacent customer’s empty cart)
-Hippy Dude (to other customer): “Hey man, thanks. They’ll get you another one.”
(The other guy apparently didn’t care much, and another bagger watching this exchange went and got another cart. The man put the commandeered cart in front of me, and I compliantly put his groceries into it. He patronizingly clapped me on the back and started to leave.)
-Me (as politely as possible): “Hey Sir, next time -and I mean this with all due respect- could you please not take other people’s carts? It makes things awkward.”
-Hippy Dude: “Uh- [rants aimlessly for about five minutes about ‘efficiency’ and ‘cooperation’ and implying strongly how the customer is always right, which I didn’t hear all of because I was bagging for the next customer rather efficiently] WITH ALL DUE RESPECT!”
(…and he stormed off with his commandeered cart. About 45 minutes later, at a different register, I felt two strong hands land on my shoulders and at first I thought it was my manager who does that kind of thing sometimes, but…)
-Hippy Dude: “So I brought in four carts, you happy now?”
-Me (uneasy): “Yes, sir.”
-Hippy Dude (in a sarcastic, passive aggressive tone): “Good. ‘Cause I’m a guy who LIKES To Be Nice To People.”
(And he thankfully walked away. I later found out he spent the day sunbathing shirtless on the sidewalk out on the road, and that he came in again two more times and creeped on two of our female cashiers.)