Unfiltered Story #245938

(I prefer to work the night shift, though due to the amount of theft in our city, our stores have some time ago changed to closing at midnight instead of being open 24/7. This occurs maybe an hour before closing. There’s only two of us left on registers, so I’ve developed a bit of a line. Two customers come up: one very hyperalert woman moving very quickly and a very out of it man moving very slowly. They have one item worth about $50. I barely get the item in a bag before the woman rushes off with it. Since the man stays to pay and I can’t leave my register, I just do my best to keep an eye on her, even though she’s wandered off towards the doors to my back. She seems happy to hang around our money center, though, and doesn’t look like she’s going to bolt with their purchase.)

Me: And that’ll be [total], sir.

Man: *inputs card, mumbles unintelligibly to himself*

Me: I’m sorry, sir, the card didn’t go through. Do you want to try that one again?

Man: *inputs card again, mumbles unintelligibly with some vague hand gesturing*

Me: I’m so sorry, sir, that still didn’t go through. Do you have another card to try, perhaps? Or another way to pay?

Man: *mumbles unintelligibly to me, trying his card again*

(This goes on for several more tries. The man is speaking completely unintelligible nonsense, so whenever he seems to be speaking to me, I just apologize for the trouble and keep trying to gently prompt him for another method of payment or if he can perhaps get his friend back to help pay. He’s not violent or threatening or rude and I don’t think is lack of comprehension is on purpose, so I’m happy to stay polite and be patient. The customers waiting behind him are also being awesome and patient and waiting without complaining. Finally, after maybe six or seven tries, the man understands that his payment is unable to go through with that card and he slowly wanders off, muttering unintelligible words to me as he leaves. I immediately hit the code to call a manager over to let them know they need to retrieve the product before it leaves the store, as I see the woman is still by the money center.)

Next customer in line: Hey, I’m a nurse at [local hospital], and I just wanted to say that you handled that man absolutely perfectly.

(She made me feel a lot better because I felt pretty bad being unable to do anything more to help him complete his purchase, as he seemed totally willing to pay. And my manager did successfully retrieve the item back, fortunately.)