All That Fuss Over Ground Beef? Not Even A Nice Filet?

I work at a fairly big chain grocery store. I manage the whole front end from carts, to cashiers, to customer service. We have an off-duty police officer at our store most of the time.

I am talking to the police officer when one of my cashiers, who runs the self-checkout, comes up to me with a receipt and a rather angry guy trailing along behind him. My cashier is trying to explain the situation to me, and the customer keeps butting in trying to tell his side. My cashier gets frustrated.

Cashier: “Sir, please let me explain the situation.”

The customer shuts up and walks away a little.

Cashier: “I realized as the customer was walking out the door that he didn’t scan his ground beef. I followed him to his car and asked him to come in and pay for the ground beef. I clearly saw two packages of it. He agreed to come in and pay, and then he put the rest of the groceries in his car. When he came back in, he only brought in one package, so I just rang it up twice and he paid. Then, he started saying I had overcharged him as he only had one package of ground beef.”

We’re not supposed to follow customers to make them pay for things, but okay.

I talk to the guy in a pleasant customer service voice. He keeps getting louder throughout the conversation.

Customer: “Your cashier is accusing me of stealing!”

Me: “Did you have one or two packages of ground beef?”

Customer: “One!”

Me: “My cashier said he saw two.”

Police Officer: “The easiest solution is for you to go out to the guy’s car, verify if he has a second ground beef, and then go from there.”

Customer: “You can’t check my car! Just refund me my money, and I won’t come back!”

Me: “Okay. I can only refund the package that you brought back, though.”

Customer: “Okay.”

While I am in the process of doing the return, the customer keeps talking super loudly.

Customer: “Your cashier embarrassed me! It was totally inappropriate.”

The customer says this multiple times. My cashier tries to argue. I tell him, in front of the customer:

Me: “Don’t worry about it. His being loud and yelling is embarrassing him more than anything either of us has done to him.”

The customer shut up. I finished his return and politely wished him a pleasant day.