At Least He Didn’t Use Any Fowl Language

I work in a grocery store. A guy comes up to the service desk at 7:58.

Customer: “It’s almost eight o’clock, and you’re out of rotisserie chickens!”

Me: “Oh, that sucks. I can double-check with that department if you’d like.”

Customer: “No, I already checked.”

He’s still standing there, expectantly.

Me: “Well, I guess they only make a certain amount per day, and if they’re out, they’re out.”

And he STILL won’t say anything or walk away for a while. Finally, he says:

Customer: “You guys have a policy saying if you don’t have any before 8:00, it’s free!“

I was flummoxed because that was the first I had heard of this policy in sixteen years of working here. I assumed he had the wrong store, but I flagged down a manager just in case, as he was fumbling with his phone.

Naturally, he had confused our store for our COMPETITOR, and when he realized his mistake, he just stood there at the desk, randomly laughing nervously at his mistake.

I’m wondering if he came here on purpose at this exact time, hoping we wouldn’t have a chicken so he could get a freebie, and it’s now way too late to drive to the correct store.