Unfiltered Story #251585

I’m a customer in this story, at a budget grocery store known for its carts that you deposit a quarter in. I typically only go to this store once a month or so, so my cart is overflowing with items. I see a couple of customers come up with just a handful of items, so I let them go in front of me because I know it will be a bit of a wait. I then start loading my groceries. About halfway through my cart, an older man gets into the line, acting odd and speaking very loudly, claiming that some kids had jumped him in the parking lot. An older woman asks if he called the police or not and he starts going on a tirade about how the police are a conspiracy and the fact that there’s only the one checkout counter open. He’s only third in line, after myself and the older woman. I look up at him, and he’s twitching oddly, so I’m assuming that he’s possibly under the influence of something, and debate on whether I should slow down to a crawl, but there are other people in line other than him, and it’s not fair to them.
He keeps going off, stating right-wing conspiracy theories, and I’ve about had it. So, I lose it at him in the most polite manner possible.
“Sir, if you’d been just a minute faster getting here, I would have let you go in front of me, like I had the other people who came up with only a couple of items. So, if you please, be quiet, I don’t need your negativity in my life right now.”
Apparently that was the wrong thing to say to him, so he starts yelling about the kids who supposedly attacked him and how it’s all a conspiracy to keep him in the store so they can regroup and get him on his way out the door. I shake my head and keep unloading my groceries as other customers tell him things along the lines of what I said “We don’t want to hear your complaints” and the like. I finally fully lose it.
“Sir, will you kindly shut the fuck up? None of us want to hear this. So, be quiet and leave us in peace or leave the store. I already told you I would have let you go ahead, but you didn’t get here until I was half unloaded. If you were a little faster, you’d be gone by now. It is not the cashier’s fault that I get a lot of groceries when I come here, or that magically everyone in the store decided they were finished when I was. So be quiet or leave. Those are your two choices.”
He’s quiet (well, quieter, talking to himself while I and the lady after me are checked out by the cashier) until his turn to check out comes up, and he gets into another tizzy, spouting stupid claims that have no basis in reality (like Trump would fix stuff like this, like the president knows how checkout lines work, since the man thinks you need to show an ID to buy groceries). After the man leaves, I go to apologize to the cashier for my outburst. He says it’s okay, that my first statement was right and enough for him.
I do have to say, though, that after years of working in retail, being able to yell at an idiot over something that the staff can’t control was lovely.