Unfiltered Story #183956

Back when I was working in retail, there would occasionally be times when the store would have sales on the cheaper, seasonal floral but not the higher end stuff. now, while we always made sure that our signs were clearly marked, sometimes customers would not read them or not pay attention to the product they were picking up or other customers may have mixed the different floral brands together. This day, I am cashiering, there is one cutting counter person, and my favorite manager in the store.

*Side note: If someone is purchasing for non-profit, re-sale, or for some other reason be tax exempt, they need to show us proof so we can set up a store account.*

A woman who runs her own floral shop (we will call her Renee) comes in and fills up a cart with all things floral and crafty before approaching my register. As I was checking her out she claimed to be tax exempt but I could not find her in the system. I offered to enter her info if she could produce proof of her exempt status. At this point Renee starts berating me that everything is electronic now and the state no longer sends out tax exempt cards. My manager, who had been nearby setting up a display, explained that there are certificated of proof that anyone with tax exempt status can print out and if she does not have it, we can hold the stuff for a day but we cannot remove the tax.

Renee starts yelling about living an hour away and how she should not have to prove anything or make an extra trip. She then proceeded to cancel her transaction and storm out so I moved her stuff to the put-back bins and moved on to the next customer in line, which had gotten so long my manager hopped on another register. It was not long, though, before Renee stomped back into the store, cut the line, grab her abandoned cart and start THROWING things at me. How I stayed calm, I’ll never know. She demanded I finish ringing her up (manager said to just do it. I wanted to send her to the back of the line) but as I tried to, Renee started ripping things out of my hands. When it got to the point where I needed a manager’s authorization to fix a problem with the transaction, Renee got even more abusive, yelling, swearing and throwing a temper tantrum like a spoiled brat. She started throwing things into her purchases and removing others, making things more difficult for my manager who was trying to help her. When my manager, CALMLY but firmly, told Renee that she would have to calm down or she would not help Renee anymore, Renee started screaming and crying, actually crying because someone was trying to help her.

After Renee left and we were cleaning up for the day my manager turned to me and said, “I really wanted to throat punch that woman in the face.”

Me, “She made you so angry, you’re going to do something physically impossible? I wanna see that.”