Might Need A New Nickname

(I work at a big chain grocery store in the deli. We have several regular customers who are bad enough to earn nicknames. This guy is simply “the a**-hole.” He is always rude and will ask for excessive condiment packets which our manager finally limited because of him. I get to deal with him after the limit was set.)

Customer: “Can I get a corn dog and some mustard?”

Me: “Sure thing.” *packs up the corn dog and four mustard packets, making sure he can see*

Me: *prints the tag* “Here is your corn dog and I gave you four packets of mustard in the bag.”

Customer: *snatching the bag from me* “Can I get more mustard and some ketchup, too?”

Me: *grabs two packets of ketchup* “I can give you the ketchup, but I can’t give you any more mustard.”

Customer: “What the f***? Give me some more.”

Me: *used to the swearing and bad attitude from him* “Sorry, but we have a limit on how many packets per customer. I actually gave you more than I am supposed to.”

Customer: *goes off on a rant full of swearing*

Me: *upset and annoyed, I don’t even try to pretend to be nice* “Can I get you anything else today?”

Customer: “F*** you, you f****** b****!”

Me: “Have a nice day, sir.”

(As we only have one other customer and my coworker is with them, I quickly walk away before letting my language slip, but can’t manage to shake off the insults. I am not being paid enough to put up with his BS and still be nice to him. The next few times he comes in, I don’t even bother to put up a fake smile for him. He always grumbles about the condiment limit and I ignore him and move on to the next customer, all smiles again. Surprisingly, he not only notices, but it turns out he cared because after a couple weeks, this happens while I’m alone.)

Customer: *rushes up to my counter as I finish up with a customer* “Hey!”

(I think, “here we go again” and take a deep breath, but before I can say anything:)

Customer: “No, no, no. I don’t want to buy anything. I just wanted to say I’m really sorry.”

Me: *genuinely surprised* “Oh? Um… okay.”

Customer: “I’ve been having a really bad couple of weeks and I’ve been an a**-hole to you. I’m really sorry. You’re just doing you’re job I won’t do it again. Do you think we can be friends?”

Me: *completely taken aback* “Um… yeah. Sure. Thank you for apologizing. Do you need anything today?”

Customer: “No, I just wanted to make sure I’d catch you whIle you were working.”

(He left and my coworkers came back a few minutes later.  I told them “the a**-hole apologized” and they didn’t believe me until I told the story. He was never rude to me or anyone else after that. I have no idea what caused it, but it was a nice change!)