No Soup Spoon For You!

It’s the lunch rush at the cafeteria within the local grocery store. Being a small, senior town with only one grocery store, it gets quite busy during mealtimes. What can I say? Old people love a $5 soup and sandwich deal!

I’m nineteen and working the cash register near the area where the condiments, napkins, cutlery, etc., are. I’ve just rung through [Customer #1] and passed him his soup and sandwich. I move on to [Customer #2], and then [Customer #1] stomps up, interrupting.

Customer #1: “THERE ARE NO SOUP SPOONS!”

Me: “Oh, I’m sure more spoons will be out momentarily; I know the dishwashers just put a load of cutlery in.”

Customer #1: “Not acceptable! My soup is getting cold!”

I look over his shoulder and see the soup at his table, still steaming.

Me: “I assure you that we keep our soup as hot as possible, so it’ll stay hot for a bit. However, if you can’t wait, I see plenty of smaller coffee spoons available.”

He is outraged; I may as well have insulted his mother.

Customer #1: “I. DO. NOT. WANT. TO. EAT. WITH. A. SMALL. SPOON. BRING ME A SOUP SPOON!”

Me: “As I said, they are being washed, and I’m sure by now they’ll be out any second.” *Turning back to [Customer #2]* “So sorry for the interruption. You had the BLT, correct?”

Customer #1: *Interrupting [Customer #2] again* “I’m not leaving until you personally hand me a soup spoon.”

Customer #2: *Fed up* “Well, where do you expect her to get it from, her a**?!”

Just that moment, the dishwasher brought out a tray of sparkling clean cutlery, including a heap of soup spoons. [Customer #1] looked between me, [Customer #2], and the spoons. I could tell he wanted to be angry, but perhaps by some miracle he realized he was being unreasonable, and he sulked away.

I gave [Customer #2] my staff discount on her meal.