Managers Like This Are Why This Keeps Happening!

Over ten years ago, I worked at a local grocery store in a very small town, the kind of place where you know all the regulars. Don’t ask me why, but seventeen‑year‑old me took that job very seriously.

One day, an older customer’s oranges rang up wrong. I caught the error immediately, I always memorized the sale prices of popular items, and I adjusted it before he even paid. That should have been the end of it… But it wasn’t.

Customer: “Hey, doesn’t your policy say if something rings up wrong, it’s free?”

Me: “That’s only if you actually pay the wrong price. I fixed it before you paid, so the policy doesn’t apply.”

Customer: “It rang up wrong! I want it for free!”

Me: “Sir, the policy doesn’t work like that.”

I was fully prepared to die on this hill. We went back and forth, and neither of us was budging. Finally, he relented, paid for the oranges, and marched straight over to the store manager.

My manager just wanted everyone in town to like him. So, of course, he refunded the guy.

I will never forget the way this man strutted out of the store like he’d just conquered Rome, wagging his finger at me and swinging his bag of oranges in victory.

To this day, I get flashbacks to that moment. I’m pretty sure that was my villain origin story. And honestly? I never forgave my manager for that one.