Cheap Sparkling Entitlement

Houston, Impossible Demands, Jerk, Liquor Store, Texas, USA | Right | February 4, 2021

I work for a family-owned chain of liquor stores in Texas. It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and we’ll be closed the next day due to Texas liquor laws. I’m the wine department lead; one of my coworkers comes up to me to ask me to help a customer that’s looking for wine.

Me: “Hello, sir, what can I help you find today?”

Customer: “Yeah, I need a case of this [Sweet, Cheap Sparkling Wine]. You’re supposed to have a case set aside at all times for [Customer], but you never have it!”

I’ve never seen this man in my life, and we’ve never had a standing order for this wine since I’ve been working at this location.

Me: “Let me check our inventory for you, sir.”

We only have three bottles at my location, but another of our locations less than ten minutes away shows that they have two full cases.

Me: “I’m so sorry, sir, but you’ve got the only three bottles we have in the store. [Other Location] has two cases, though, so they should be able to help you. Do you want me to call them and ask them to set nine more bottles aside? We can give you the case price at both locations.”

The customer has been rude up until this point, but he starts yelling in our packed store.

Customer: “I need those bottles, now! Here, not at [Other Location]! Call them and tell them to bring it to me!”

According to Texas liquor laws, we can’t transfer across the county line, and our other location isn’t in the same county as us — never mind the fact that our transfer trucks aren’t running during the third busiest day of the year for us.

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but [Other Location] is in [County], so we can’t do a transfer. Even if we could, though, we wouldn’t be able to get it until next week.”

Customer: “You’ve just ruined my Thanksgiving! I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY!”

He stormed off and complained about me to my store manager, who ended up checking him out. He got even angrier when my manager pointed out, cheerfully, that the other location was just a straight shot ahead, with only one turn.

This story is part of the Thanksgiving 2022 roundup!