No Box, No Basil

I work at a specialty Italian grocery store. I’m in an aisle, restocking a shelf with one of those deep cardboard boxes full of individually wrapped items. I’m halfway through when a woman walks up behind me. Before I can even turn back around, she grabs the other end of the box, lifts it up, and dumps the entire contents onto the floor. Hundreds of little items scatter everywhere.

Customer: “I need this box.”

I stare at her, stunned.

Me: “…So you’re just going to dump everything out?”

Customer: “I need the box. You weren’t moving fast enough.”

I take a slow breath and glance at the avalanche of merchandise across the aisle. Customers are stepping over them like they don’t see them.

Me: “Well, you could have asked me first.”

Customer: “Customers don’t need to ask. Actually, you should have offered.”

I sigh and start the job of picking up the individual items and figuring out where they were supposed to go. 

That day, the stars aligned. I’m now delayed in trying to put the stock back on the shelves. A few aisles over, the same customer (with the box now in their cart) storms up to me and says:

Customer: “Where is the pesto! There’s none on the shelves!”

Me: “Sorry, ma’am, I was about to restock those, but I had to deal with a box spillage a few aisles back, and I am now delayed. I will get to the pesto shortly.”

I stared daggers at the customer, who in turn glared at me but didn’t say anything for fear of being called out.

 After restocking that particular shelf, I went to the back to see the box that I knew contained the pesto… and skipped it completely.

I saw the customer an hour later, at the checkout, huffing and puffing.

Customer: “Well?! Did you find the pesto? I’m about to check out, and I can’t wait any longer!”

Me: “Sorry, ma’am, the aforementioned box spillage resulted in me falling behind, and now I need to take my contracted hour-long break. Maybe I will get to it after my break.”

Cue another glare-off. The customer realized my game, and that she was not going to be getting any pesto on this particular shopping trip. She proceeded to the registers and checked out in angered silence.

I made sure the box containing the pesto was the last box I put out… just in case.