In Line And Out Of Line, Part 7

(At the store I cashier for, our lines come and go in these terrible spurts — we’ll have no one making purchases for half an hour, and then suddenly there are 20 people in line. Today that has just happened, and the customers all form one line because of the way some displays are set up near the registers. I have just called up the next person in line when a woman not in line, with an overflowing cart, comes out of nowhere and tries to cut off my customer. The customer looks at me completely bewildered and defeated.)

Me: *in my super-sweet voice to the offending customer* “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but the line is over there.”

Offending Customer: “I JUST NEED THESE ITEMS! THOSE PEOPLE AREN’T AS IMPORTANT AS ME! RING ME UP NOW! YOU’RE WASTING MY TIME!”

(The customer I was intending to help and the rest of the line instantly looks furious, and just stares at me to see what I do.)

Me: “Ma’am, like I said, I’m sorry, but that is the line. We’ll have you out in no time if you just join it, please.”

(The lady walks off ranting but joins the line.)

Nice Customer: “SHE DID IT! YOU’RE AWESOME! NO ONE EVER DOES THAT FOR THE GOOD CUSTOMERS! EVERYONE, ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR HER, RIGHT NOW!”

(The customers clapped while my coworkers died laughing. I still ended up serving the line-cutter, and she wouldn’t even look at me.)

Related:
In Line And Out Of Line, Part 6
In Line And Out Of Line, Part 5
In Line And Out Of Line, Part 4
In Line And Out Of Line, Part 3
In Line And Out Of Line, Part 2