Breaking: Yet Another Customer Shocked To Learn It’s Not All About Them

I was once the only person working during a really busy day during the prep season for a holiday, and I did my best to greet every customer, ring them up in a timely manner, and wish them a good day. But I had about six people who wanted me to walk them to the items they wanted, three people who wanted me to do their shopping for them, and about a dozen elderly customers who couldn’t walk very far or very fast, so in between them and the line of eight at the register, I missed a few customers.

I got a phone call soon after the busiest part of the crowd calmed down, and the lady on the other end wanted to complain about me, not knowing I was the one who was at the register.

Lady: “She greeted only the white customers and only wished the white customers a good day, and then she made me use the self-checkout!”

I worked in a predominantly white neighborhood; every day I got about 90% white customers and 10% other ethnicities. We also had two self-checkouts and only one employee, so a lot of customers chose the self-checkouts. I never forced anyone to use them, but I always opened them up as an option if the line got long.

Me: “My apologies, ma’am. There’s only one employee right now, and over thirty customers to help. I didn’t mean to let anyone slip through the cracks. And race was definitely not a factor in choosing who to greet, I swear. I simply did not have the opportunity to greet every single person.”

Lady: “Then it’s your fault for being the only employee! You need to treat every customer like they’re the most important person, and you really made me not want to come back!”

Me: “Again, I apologize, ma’am, but one of our employees died two weeks ago, so we’re short-staffed at the moment.”

Lady: *Quietly* “Don’t let it happen again, or I’ll call corporate!”