Earning An Ice-Cold Reception

The store I work in only has one person per shift since it’s so small and usually slow. The fountain drink machine is over by the wall; we have to put the ice in ourselves. 

It’s dead with no customers inside or outside, so I grab the ladder and several bags of ice and start filling the machine. Of course, three bags in, half a dozen cars pull in at once. I stop what I’m doing and return to the register.

A guy comes in, takes one look at the ladder and the ice, and says:

Customer: “Want me to help with that?”

I don’t know him, and legally I can’t let a customer do my job; if he gets hurt, I could lose mine.

Me: “Thank you, but it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

Customer: “You sure?”

Me: “Yeah, please don’t worry about it.” 

That should have ended it.

But no.

He walks to the machine and starts plucking at the rim of the top of the fountain machine. I don’t even know what he was trying to do, grab a handful of ice straight from the machine?

Customer: “I’ve done this before. It won’t be an issue.”

As if that matters! I don’t care if you’ve done this a thousand times. I said no.

Me: *For the third time.* “No.”

He ignores me. I hurry from the register while he talks about how easy it is for him to do since he’s tall. By the time I reach him, he’s actually picking up and moving the stepladder that had both the bag of ice and a box cutter on it.

Me: “I said it’s fine. Don’t touch any of it.”

He finally backs off, hands up.

Customer: “Sheesh, fine. You don’t need to be so snappy; I was just trying to help.”

Me: “Apparently, I do because I said ‘no’ multiple times. If I let you help, I could lose my job.”

Customer: *Looks around at the store.* “I mean… would it be a huge loss?”

The jerk just smiled at his own joke, bought an energy drink, and left. What is WRONG with some people?!