No One… Absolutely No One… Customer: ಠ_ಠ

I work in a grocery store. Part of my job is watching the self-checkouts, which involves standing to the side and watching for potential shoplifters or customers who need help.

While I’m standing there, a customer makes a beeline toward me from a different part of the store. He’s holding a clear cup with a large logo on it for a popular coffee chain that has a location in the store. He walks up to me, brandishes his cup, and says, without greeting or preamble:

Customer: “This s*** tastes like a**.”

I take a split second to try to figure out how to respond because I am in no way affiliated with the coffee chain. [Coffee Chain] employees and [Store] employees rarely interact. Our uniforms are completely different. I’ve never even been in the kiosk. Nothing I can do to placate a dissatisfied customer could possibly apply here.

Me: “Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.”

He stared at me for a second and then turned and walked away without another word. I still don’t know what he was trying to accomplish.